How Your CX Is Affected by Emerging Technologies | CX Recs
It seems like there is a new AV technology out every week and it can be overwhelming. Between that and a large number of acquisitions happening, it is hard to put the finger on the pulse of the industry. I think we have all seen an uptick in technology adoption across the board in higher education, and it feels like what we may have had trouble implementing in the past is becoming a tad bit easier (the necessity for it helps).
We often find ourselves recommending the technology we think is incredible, and we full-heartedly believe it will make our faculty’s lives easier. We don’t consider the fact that we are not the first step in the classroom setup process. These new technologies promise to make things easier and reduce the total number of steps needed to get up and running, so this is great in decreasing the overall amount of required steps but does not directly address all of the steps that lead up to the use of that technology.
Let’s break this down into the logical steps of being a faculty member and what goes into it (I am not a faculty member, so I will probably miss a few).
- Start with the lesson plan/developing the curriculum. This includes building powerpoints and collecting materials needed to teach your course successfully.
- Then comes the administrative work that comes along with being an instructor, like speaking with students and answering questions.
- Then we get into the actual classroom, and they have to set up their laptop, connect to wifi, open the presentation, and corral students.
- Then we can start the process that the tech manager designed, which may include another 20 individual steps, mainly if it includes running a hybrid or online course.
So hopefully, this emerging technology is getting us under that 20 step setup, but it is almost impossible to make it zero steps. So when we are looking at technology, what can we put into the space that requires the least amount of steps possible, as well as supports instructors in doing what they do best, which is teaching. The sole job of the instructor in the classroom is to provide information and continually engage students ensuring that they are learning as much as possible. The moment the instructor has to worry about technology, there is a problem. Unfortunately, we do not have a way to make the technology non-existent in their workflow, but it is essential to provide them with everything they need to make it as seamless as possible.
A significant first step is ensuring that what you install is stable and will not be a source of problems for the instructor. Being at the cutting edge of the technology cusp is always a goal to ensure our institutions stay ahead of the curve but being the first to do something inherently leads to problems. For these cases, I recommend sticking to reliable technology in your classroom and saving the cutting edge stuff for your sandbox room.
Having a sandbox room lets you thoroughly vet all of the technology and ensure it works for your use case before deploying it to every classroom.
This also gives faculty the chance to review and test the equipment and supply feedback before implementing something that dramatically affects them.
The next significant step is providing quality training to your faculty. Whether you take on this responsibility or work with the instructional technology team, make sure what you are putting out there makes sense to instructors and is highly effective and sticky. Make it impressionable and lasting. If you need help with this, lean on some of the academic resources on your campus. After all, the university’s goal is to provide lasting learning to students, so they know a thing or two about how to teach effectively.
I didn’t dive too deep into what emerging technologies are out there in this article but just know that there are plenty of options, and you should lean on your Higher Education community to learn what is working best in the space. If you are not currently a part of HETMA, I highly recommend it, and I urge you to get involved with their “HETMA Approved” program to learn about what technologies they are testing and providing feedback on.