Dive Brief:
- Hiring chief digital officers, a role that combines responsibilities of chief academic and information officers, is becoming increasingly popular with institutions as a means of creating a deeper connection between technology and instruction.
- University Business reports that such moves are being made as colleges and universities seek out new ways to expand their reach through online instruction and high-tech academic innovation.
- At Notre Dame, there is still a CIO tasked with managing the IT infrastructure and a provost whose core responsibility is academic quality, but a chief digital officer has collaborated with both since 2013 to develop new hybrid courses and shape the university’s digital direction.
Dive Insight:
In the early years of digital technology on campuses, a lone IT leader was enough to oversee the tech needs of the organization. Now institutions are acknowledging how much that one person’s responsibilities have ballooned by adding new administrator positions. The chief information security officer, for example, focuses on technology but specifically in terms of security and, of course, the chief digital officer has a technology background with expertise in instruction, too.
University Business reports that schools that have not gone so far as to hire a CDO have at least beefed up the tech responsibilities of their provosts, highlighting the important role digital technology plays in modern instruction.