Earlier this week, Columbia officially announced Professor Sree Sreenivasan of the Journalism School will be the University's first Chief Digital Officer. Professor Sreenivasan will primarily be responsible for expanding online distance learning and facilitating Columbia's use of technology as an educational tool. Though it's great to see Columbia moving forward with an expanded platform, this seems a bit late as schools such the University of Phoenix and Jones International University have built brands synonymous with online learning.
Clearly, Columbia is vested in developing a deep and resourceful compliment to its in-person education; however, I question how they will price and justify an ivy league online education.
To learn more about Prof. Sreenivasan and Columbia's plan of action, go to:
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/07/14/columbia-names-first-chief-digital-officer
2 comments:
I definitely applaud what Columbia is doing by having a Chief Digital Officer that can craft and coordinate a digital plan. Especially with very old institutions like Columbia, it is difficult for everyone to be on the same page with anything, but if anyone can do it, Sree can. In fact, he has a very active twitter page as well, https://twitter.com/sree.
I do think having a Chief Digital Officer for Columbia could have been done earlier, but I think Columbia should be compared to universities such as UPenn, Hopkins, and CalTech, who have been part of Coursera, offering lectures on various subjects online, rather than online for-profit universities like Jones International and University of Phoenix. The former is using digital to expand learning and increase opportunities to students who may otherwise not be able to attend lecture by providing free education. The latter is using digital to earn a profit for their institution. Though part of this analysis may come from my bias toward the for-profit higher education community as a whole.
Yes, I definitely agree that appointing Professor Sreenivasan as the first Chief Digital Officer is a signifcant milestone for Columbia to enter the digital age. But I would also recognize that Columbia, as many other educational institutions, have actively used many tactics and tools that we discussed in our digital marketing class. For example, most schools of Columbia University actively use social media, mostly Facebook, Twitter, and linked in to better communicate with both public and their current and prospective students.
So what should we expect for the next stage? I would say a more integrated platform. Prof. Sreenivasan describes himself as an “early tester and late adopter of technology”. Columbia should figure out what technologies meet the University's unique needs.
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