What happens in Vegas: higher ed AV pros learn winning strategies at EduComm '05

University Business, August, 2005 by Jean Marie Angelo, Tim Goral

There's an old saying that "luck comes and goes, but knowledge stays forever." So it was fitting that roulette wheels and slot machines provided a backdrop to the second annual Edu-Comm Conference in Las Vegas in June. More than 1,000 audiovisual and IT professionals from higher education and K-12 came to the Las Vegas Hilton to learn about the growing roles AM and IT play in classroom presentation, distance education and related trends, such as multimedia production, course management software and wireless networks. EduComm (colocated with InfoComm '05, the largest exhibition of presentation technology in the country) gave attendees the chance to participate in more than 30 higher education seminars and 25 K-12focused sessions.

Throughout the three-day event, convergence was clearly the buzzword. AM/IT directors in higher education remain focused on convergence, as their staffs and duties merge. The trend introduces new challenges in budgeting, training, and network configuration.

The Bottom Line and ROI

Anthony Bichel, former director of the learning technology group at Central Michigan University, spoke at EduComm about the one thing all top higher ed executives worry about: the bottom Line. "You need data to speak with the president and provost. You have to speak in terms of ROI and models and methods," he advises.

Now that more projectors, visualizers, white boards, and other AM technologies are all over campus, it is a given that those allocating the dollars want to know if the new technologies are making a difference. They want to measure effectiveness, insists Bichel. "We have an ongoing problem. We know what has to be done, yet we stilt have problems on delivering on the promise of IT and ROI," he told attendees. The AM/IT director has to prove value and find ways to make technology investments pay off across the board.

Those asked to instate AM/IT technology have to analyze the tong-term usage from the start.

"We have no shortage of good ideas [about how to use AM/IT]," he notes. Faculty members constantly offer creative suggestions. But before a network administrator runs off to get quotes on an AM installation, it is best to ask whether the multimedia use is for a one-time pet project, or something that will be used only every three years. "Not all cool ideas can become a reality."

ROI should be viewed both institutionally and academically. Institutional concerns are quantitative. How much was spent on Blackboard or WebCT course management systems? How many faculty members are really using these products?

The academic analysis is qualitative. "If I am going to use SMART Technologies, what am I going to get out of it? How is the Learning experience being enhanced?" Bichel posits. Time savings and productivity would also be part of this analysis. The findings may be surprising. Some faculty members attending EduComm noted that using laptops in the classroom increased their class preparation time four-fold, said Bichel. These realities have to be considered when looking at qualitative findings.

Finding the Money

"There hasn't been an institution I have worked with that doesn't say, 'We want to do all these things, but we don't have the money or materials," he observes. Ironically, the institution usually does have the financial resources, but needs to reallocate them. He notes that only 28 percent of a company's resources are typically needed to accomplish goats and objectives; the other 72 percent of resources--including finances--are either wasted, misused or under-utilized.

Working more efficiently will help free up funds.

"The easiest way to grow a thing is to attach it to something that already exists," he advised. A new AV initiative needs to be aligned to existing academic or IT strategic plans. "That will give it legitimacy." AV/IT directors need to show they are in step with institutions goals and missions.

Doing this, though, requires clarity of vision and the ability to correct outsiders' misunderstanding about the work that AV technicians do. Other campus leaders minimize the work that goes into AV and multimedia. AV/IT directors need to justify that their efforts are "work worth paying for," or WWPF, as Bichel calls it.

"In one higher ed AV department I worked in, one staffer was asked to do work for the library, the provost, and others. They pass people around because they don't know what to do with them." There is less of a chance of this happening if the AM/IT director has a grasp of project management and process management, says Bichel. "I know these are dirty words because they sound business-like." Yet, being clear about what should be done and who should do it are the best ways to ensure efficiency.

In the best scenario, faculty members should be able to meet with the AV/IT department and outline what they are trying to do to further the academic mission. The AM pros, in turn, should help them achieve those goals. In the end, proving the value of AV, and showing that things can be done efficiently, will win over the naysayers.