To set aside all the skepticism of a universtiy strategic plan,
I would say that one thing that it absolutely needs is a
comprehensive plan for meeting the challenges of entering a
digital age.
In teaching,
- we need to figure out how to teach
well online,
- build physical spaces that
facilitate in-class learning with digital media,
- figure out how to teach in those
spaces too,
- help our students develop digital
literacies, and
- construct a network that will
support all that.
In research
- we similarly need to support
faculty in transitioning to digital publication,
- determine how to evaluate new
scholarly practices, and
- create digital infrastructure to
support these activites.
Perhaps more importantly we need to develop smart
administrative practices that can make good decisions out of
student data. This last one seems to me to be the real black
swan for higher education. We think we know what student
information systems should look like because we've been using
them for years, but I really don't think we are prepared for
the level of data that will become available.