The Death and Resurrection of Digital Transformation | Business of AV
Joe Way, PhD, CTS
Prior to the pandemic, “Digital Transformation” (“DT”) was the most popular buzzword flying around higher ed IT departments… alongside our pedagogical favorites “active learning” and “flipped classroom.” What DT meant, and how it would be applied varied from institution to institution. For some, DT was just codeword for reorganization. For others, it meant completely rethinking how services could better work together to create a frictionless, holistic user experience for their customers. And then, there was everything else in between…. budget permitting.
But then… COVID. Good intentions quickly became disaster recovery plans. Money earmarked for DT projects was diverted to pandemic continuity operations and hybrid learning integration. For those of us on the audiovisual side, that was great, because many AV departments that were not given technology upgrade money for years were all of a sudden flooded with CARES Act money, PPP funds, and classroom project dollars snagged from other sidelined projects. The term “Digital Transformation” was all but forgotten. Dead. Dropped. Not to be mentioned again. … Along with the proverbial faves “active learning” and “flipped classroom.”
So, with DT in the rearview mirror, we all proceeded to do one thing… transform our classrooms digitally. Wait? What? Yep, we did exactly what we were planning, but under the guise of “pandemic response,” with many institutions not even realize that’s what they were doing. Integrating unified communications (UC) technologies (aka Zoomification), leveraging our learning management systems (LMS), and bringing in assistive learning tools like transcription and virtual labs, into our physical spaces became the norm for colleges and universities across the globe. We upgraded our infrastructure, our teaching-and-learning sites, ITSM and call center practices, and “cut the fat” off unnecessary pet projects. So, yeah, we did Digital Transformation. Planned and coordinated in some instances, frantic and happenstance in others, but digital transformation nonetheless.
And what about our DT co-conspirators: “active learning” and flipped classroom?” Yeah, we did those too… Accidentally. Prior to the pandemic response, from an AV point-of-view, active learning and flipped classrooms meant overpaying for over-engineered, matrix’d spaces, with eight-displays-around the room, and movable tables. But then of course, our users rarely used them as designed. Why? Because, while the technology was put in place, it wasn’t the technology that fit pedagogy. Instructional methods needed to change, and the technology had to make the experience effective. That’s where AV failed. Just throwing money at a classroom for technology cannot–and won’t ever–force effective teaching-and-learning.
It took a global pandemic for us to do it right. Active learning and flipped classrooms are a natural consequence of digital transformation done right. Content delivery and understanding the true needs of our customers–both the spoken and unspoken ones–took the stage… Front and center. That’s what DT was all about. We finally utilized both physical and cloud technologies to fundamentally change the way our organizations operated and delivered value to our customers. We become agile, innovative, and customer-focused, which led to significant improvements in customer satisfaction and learning outcomes. That’s why student’s don’t want the “virtual features” we provided during the pandemic to go away (like recording lectures and searchable transcription), yet might still want to have a physical college campus experience.
So, now what? What do we do with our newly resurrected DT-enabled classrooms? First and foremost, we cannot allow ourselves to revert back to simply break-fixers who help faculty plug in HDMI cables. We must keep our focus on facilitating the production of interactive digital content, collaborative learning through integrating cloud-based tools into our spaces, never forget that the pandemic emphasized personalization in learning based on student’s interests and abilities, and ensuring we leverage analytics and user-feedback in order be agile in our future development.
We have finally placed a customer-first focus on our classroom design and delivery. And for those who want to lead the way over the next decade, our new phase of digital transformation has endless possibilities through integrating emerging technologies, AI, machine learning, personalized app development, adaptive and assistive technologies, digital twins, metaverses and AR/VR classrooms, and user-centered design. The next five to ten years can truly be transformational in currently unimaginable way for those institutions ready to take the plunge and set the new standard in digital transformation. Oh, and those schools who aren’t already looking into how to integrate these next-generation technologies already, just may be left behind… (But that’s next month’s column.)
