EDUCAUSE | Contributed by Organizations or Campuses; Articles, Papers, and Reports; and ROI

Exploring Tangible Benefits of e-Learning: Does Investment Yield Interest?

ckeller — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:40:38 -0500

The first decade of the 21st century is already on the wane and we stand at an interesting point as regards the use of technology to support and enhance learning and teaching. The fact that we still refer to much of this enhancement as e-learning (and still disagree about what the term actually means) signals that the relationship between technology and learning is not as yet an entirely comfortable one. e-Learning still carries with it a sense of something 'other' and few institutions can say that a sound understanding of available technologies, their capabilities and current examples of appropriate usage, forms a cornerstone of the curriculum design process.

Within the academic community there remains a sizable proportion of sceptics who question the value of some of the tools and approaches and perhaps an even greater proportion who are unaware of the full range of technological enhancements in current use. Amongst senior managers there is a concern that it is often difficult to quantify the returns achieved on the investment in such technologies.

On the other hand those in the vanguard of technical developments are already signalling the 'Death of the VLE' (Stiles 2007) and heralding a new set of approaches based on a different pedagogic outlook and on the underlying technologies and social and collaborative tools that are collectively labelled the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

Sustainable Computing: It's Not Easy Being Green

ckeller — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:41:01 -0600

"CIO William Hill had an admirable, if unanticipated, return on investment when he overhauled the IT infrastructure for Dayton, Ohio: He helped the environment. Hill's strategy included replacing the old setup -- a disorganized mix of 80 archaic networked terminals and numerous ad hoc PCs of varying ages and operating systems -- with thin clients for 60% of the staff and PCs for the rest, strategically positioned for optimum use. Hill opted for thin clients for technological and cost reasons, but says he saw a corresponding drop in how much energy his organization uses -- a drop that saves the city between $60,000 and $90,000 annually."

Top 12 Green-IT Users: No. 1 Highmark Inc.

ckeller — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:16:18 -0600

From cars to condos, "green" is all the rage these days — and IT is no exception. Eco-friendly computing promises the twin win of saving money and the environment. In this groundbreaking awards program, Computerworld honors 12 user companies and another dozen vendors that are leading the way.

The Value of ConnectND: Return on Investment and Benefits Analysis Update

drupal — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 15:38:21 -0500

Between November 2002 and January 2003, the State of North Dakota and the North Dakota Higher Education system conducted a detailed analysis of the estimated costs and benefits of the ConnectND project. That analysis gathered information and developed 10-year projections on total implementation and operating costs for the project. Information was also collected on the costs to operate existing systems (legacy systems) and that too was projected out 10 years. The project team interviewed members of the ConnectND team, departmental and higher education staff to determine the types of benefits that were expected from the project and how those benefits would return value to the state and the higher education system. At the conclusion of that analysis, a report was published titled "The Value of ConnectND. A key element of that report was a Return on Investment or ROI. This is an update of that earlier report.

IT Spending: Where's the Value?

drupal — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 15:22:56 -0500

Return on investment is now under the microscope, but there are new ways to show senior administrators that they're getting their money's worth.

Measuring Return on Technology Investments Is Hard Work

drupal — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 17:05:30 -0500

Institutions are beginning to engage in discussions of ROI. This article provides a general argument for ROI and considers specific opportunities like the scheduling of classroom spaces and the related ROI measurements.

Executive Guide: Measuring Performance and Demonstrating Results of Information Technology Investments

drupal — Mon, 27 Jan 2003 15:47:02 -0600

A Government Accounting Office Report on information technology investments performance results.

Intractable ERP: a comprehensive analysis of failed enterprise-resource-planning projects

drupal — Wed, 27 Nov 2002 12:12:34 -0600

This study takes a close look at four ERP-implementation failures, all of which occurred recently in American industry. It analyses possible causes that led to the disasters, and suggests software-engineering processes that help avoiding such outcomes.

Measuring organizational IS effectiveness: an overview and update of senior management perspectives

drupal — Wed, 27 Nov 2002 12:19:13 -0600

This paper reports the views of 80 senior IT managers about IT evaluation approaches, and the benefits that IT provides for their organizations. Their views were obtained through a survey mailed to medium to large organizations in both Europe and the US. The survey sought answers to three questions: How does the senior IT manager's organization assess the value of its (1) overall IT investment portfolio? (2) individual IT projects and applications? (3) IT function? Questions for the survey were based on a thorough review of prior research into IT evaluation. The paper provides a summary of that prior work and compares current findings to prior research. Consistent with prior research, the paper concludes that many firms do not conduct rigorous evaluations of all their IT investments, and offers a tentative explanation of why it might be rational to skip formal evaluations in some circumstances. It also posits five push factors to explain occasions when more lasting improvements in IT evaluation practice have occurred.

ERP and ASPs for Higher Education

drupal — Tue, 26 Nov 2002 16:12:02 -0600

An overview of the ERP and ASP higher education landscape today. This paper is from the Gartner Group Gartner Symposium ITExpo 2002, San Diego.