It was a very busy four days in Anaheim last week, where I attended the annual EDUCAUSE conference. This conference is produced by EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose membership is around 1800 U.S. and international higher ed institutions and 300 companies serving the higher ed IT market. This year the annual fall conference had 6,300 attendees, over 267 exhibitors, and 330 program sessions. To get a taste of the experience at the conference check out these video interviews with conference participants on day 1, day 2, and day 3 by Cal Poly Pomona. Note the attendee reactions – beyond the palm trees, sunny blue skies, and beautiful convention facility!
I’ve attended most every year for the last decade to see what products and services are being offered in the higher education market. I also managed to meet with a good number of SIIA Education member companies (and potential members!) who attend and/or exhibit at the show. So what did I learn this year? Here are my top 5 takeaways:
1. It’s All About the Cloud
Maybe it’s because SIIA’s Education Division is working on a report on Cloud Computing in Higher Education, but it seemed that the majority of vendors in the exhibit area and many of the program sessions focused on this topic. However, Casey Green’s annual Campus Computing Survey and well-attended session showed only a gradual increase in the number of campuses reporting a strategic plan for Cloud.
2. It’s Even More About Mobile
If the sessions and exhibits weren’t focusing on the cloud, they were focused on the role of mobile devices. It reminded me that 10 years ago, when I trekked down to Orlando, the CIO’s of EDUCAUSE 2003 were focused on ‘wiring for wireless’. They weren’t really planning ahead that much because that year their students were using laptops in classrooms and wanted to be connected everywhere.
3. More on Big Data
The focus seemed to be on using prescriptive analytics to reduce course and college drop-out rates, offering better support services that help student performance, and building dashboards that campus stakeholders will use. There was more on learning analytics as well as increased interest in data security and privacy. The Internet2 group was there in full force, providing information about their NET+ projects and models.
4. Impressive Number of Exhibitors
The large companies have big exhibit areas, of course, but it took a while to check out the 267 exhibitors that filled two large exhibit halls. I spoke with many of SIIA’s Education member companies, including: 1105 Media, Adobe Systems, Atomic Learning, CDW Government, Cengage Learning, Enrollment Rx, Flat World Knowledge, Google, McGraw-Hill Education, Oracle, Pearson, SAS Institute, Schoology, SoftChalk, Steelcase Education Solutions, and Stoneware. Now I need to follow up with many more who should be members!
5. Start-Ups Are Still a Key Interest
There were 28 Start-Up Alley Companies in a special area of the exhibit hall. While they didn’t pitch to reviewers/judges as they did last year, it was worth it to sit down and find out what they were doing – and if, in fact, they had a decent business model. It seemed that this year’s group had more viable business models than the group I saw last year. I also checked out the Next Generation Learning Challenges grant recipients which were even at an earlier stage.
Beyond the top five, I noticed that the international presence is getting stronger – especially university CIO’s from the far east in particular (given the location on the west coast). MOOC’s were less hyped – with the focus now on blended learning as a course platform.
And…… I don’t think I heard the term Learning Management System once during the 4 days!
