Whether the students of the future will be gathering in lecture theatres, online, or in hybrid sessions that include both kinds of attendance, one thing is certain: the technology that universities and colleges provide must be ready to support all these new forms of education.

Technology must now form the foundation to support consistently high-quality education experiences in the long-term. And, with that in mind, it’s crucial that any investments educational institutions make are the right ones.  

Preparing for whatever tomorrow brings

With the prospect of an increase in remote learning even beyond the pandemic, universities must be ready to cater for all kinds of new scenarios. Seminars and lectures may now include remote participants – from overseas students attending online every time to local students joining remotely on a regular or sporadic basis.

If remote learning was a rare occurrence, or only needed for a finite period, then less-than-stellar experiences might be acceptable. A few technical hitches, logistical difficulties and teething problems might be forgiven as being par for the course. But when remote participation is a firm fixture, embedded alongside ‘traditional’ means of attendance, less-than-stellar is less than acceptable.

‘Good enough’ isn’t good enough

This means that whenever remote learning needs to be supported, whether scheduled far in advance or last-minute, the technology must meet the challenge. And it’s better to be safely confident today rather than discover your institution isn’t prepared later down the line.

When choosing new technology investments, think ahead:

• Will this device help us cater for large numbers of remote students if needed?
• Can we rely on this device for good experiences if sessions ever go ‘full-remote’?
• Does this device help educators to engage on-campus students more than before?
• Is it based on a leading platform that will continue being updated and improved?

If the answer to all those questions is ‘yes’, you’re off to a flying start. Or rather your future is.

Putting your investments in a practical context

Just like any other organisation in today’s challenging economic climate, educational institutions face the pressing imperative to make their budgets work as hard as possible. In a perfect world, every university would love to kit out their seminar rooms and lecture theatres with top-of-the-line equipment, but for most that’s just not feasible.

As a result, you need to think strategically in terms of how you’ll deploy the technology investments you do make. When considering a device, run through these three questions:

1. What will be the most valuable and/or most common uses for the device?
2. In which spaces (e.g. seminar rooms or lecture theatres) will it be used?
3. How can you best coordinate your spaces, devices and usage?

Thinking about all your technology investments in this context – place and usage – means you’ll quickly arrive to some conclusions about the types and quantities of devices you need. And that will help you to prevent against over or under-investing.