Dive Brief:
- In Campus Technology's nationwide 2017 Teaching with Technology Survey of 232 faculty members on their use of technology for instruction, 84% reported being "absolutely confident" or "very confident" in their tech skills — a rise from 79% in 2016, according to Campus Technology.
- At the same time, only 34% of faculty said their students' tech skills are above average or excellent — down from 39% in 2016.
- In terms of technology integration and ease of use, 71% of faculty say their IT departments provide adequate support and training. Though on an individual basis, 37% of faculty say they prefer solving problems on their own through an online search, while only 21% go to IT and 0% get help from students.
Dive Insight:
Faculty lack of confidence in students' technology abilities should raise some concern for campus leaders. As more students come to school expecting to see a modern, technologically integrated classroom, yet lack the actual skills to effectively or safely use it — IT and data security risks increase. The most common threats to data security come from users, who don't have basic training on the importance of making strong passwords or not going to any potentially harmful websites.
To avoid risks, school IT departments should work on training not only faculty, but also students, instead of assuming that every high school graduate coming to campus is tech savvy — as many, particularly those who come from underserved backgrounds, may not have had extensive access to technology both at home and at school.
With a recent survey showing 77% of institutions are vulnerable to IT attacks, it's important for CIOs to work with their teams to secure the campus from outside threats, as well as internal accidental data security issues that can come from students and faculty. Some easy steps to take are training sessions, campus wide security protocols, and implementing two-factor authentication passwords on educational technology.