Documents Contributed by ECAR and Intellectual Property

This ECAR research bulletin examines the hype and the reality of e-books in higher education. Some experts predict that 2007-2009 will be transition years for the higher education e-book market, with large growth expected in both digital textbooks and digital library collections. Publishers and campuses alike are exploring the use of e-books and other forms of digital content. Are we approaching the tipping point in e-book usage on college campuses from occasional oddity to a mainstream technology?

Citation for this work: Nelson, Mark, R. "E-Books in Higher Education: Nearing the End of the Era of Hype?" (Research Bulletin, Issue 1). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

Presentation at the Sixth Annual ECAR/HP Summer Symposium for Higher Education IT Executives, June 11-13, 2007, Boulder, Colorado. This panel discussed the challenges of harnessing the power of digital content to support learning at scale in both institutional settings and in national efforts. They considered the potential roles of digital content as cognitive media and social media, and they used cases and models that highlight best practices and sticky issues.

Open source software and the community source movement are raising questions for administrators about whether and when to adopt or devote resources to software development projects, provoking questions of sustainability, future directions, and total cost of ownership. This research bulletin frames the issues an institution should consider with respect to adding community source products to the portfolio of software, infrastructure, and services that constitute the IT environment.

To take advantage of the opportunities digital technologies bring, and to prepare for the challenges they present, higher education leaders must understand the breadth of initiatives that now cover the digital landscape. This research bulletin introduces a set of emerging technologies in the digital content delivery space as they relate to higher education. It is a companion to the author's 2006 ECAR research bulletin, Digital Content Delivery Trends in Higher Education, which introduced the concept of digital content delivery and some related trends.

Digital content delivery falls within the larger context of digital content management, which addresses a wide range of technologies, processes, and approaches. This research bulletin introduces the concept of digital content delivery as it relates to higher education and presents some key trends and implications.

Presentation at the Fourth Annual ECAR/HP Summer Symposium for Higher Education IT Executives, July 13-15, 2005, New Castle Island, New Hampshire. The potential for IT to take research to new levels depends on our ability to acquire, manipulate, store, render, visualize, archive, and transport unimaginable amounts of data. Realizing this potential also depends on human factors, especially the capacity of researchers from different disciplines to assemble virtually and face-to-face to interpret findings from a variety of perspectives. Ferri manages the new Synthesis Center at the San Diego Supercomputer Center and shares insights about how environments there are being organized to foster dialogue across disciplines.

Presentation at the Fourth Annual ECAR/HP Summer Symposium for Higher Education IT Executives, July 13-15, 2005, New Castle Island, New Hampshire. At the intersection of computing and the arts (or what can be called IT and creative practice) lie challenges of interdisciplinarity and prospects for both new kinds of research and new kinds of artifacts. This talk surveys the opportunities and the issues in a dynamic and often surprising arena.

Presentation at the Fourth Annual ECAR/HP Summer Symposium for Higher Education IT Executives, July 13-15, 2005, New Castle Island, New Hampshire. Scientific and engineering research increasingly involves collaboration across multiple organizations. Technological advances have made such cross-boundary projects possible, yet they can carry high coordination costs. This talk discusses coordination mechanisms that can bring researchers together (physically and virtually) to reduce the potentially negative impact of collaborations involving multiple universities.

Presentation at the Fourth Annual ECAR/HP Summer Symposium for Higher Education IT Executives, July 13-15, 2005, New Castle Island, New Hampshire. This talk focuses on the future role of higher education research in narrowing the innovation gap. Examples and demonstrations of innovations under development through public and private collaborations are presented.

Presentation at the Fourth Annual ECAR/HP Summer Symposium for Higher Education IT Executives, July 13-15, 2005, New Castle Island, New Hampshire. This presentation and discussion explore the pivot points around which transition in the roles of, and opportunities for, IT in colleges and universities are taking place. It addresses such questions as: How are changes in the national research agenda affecting IT? How do innovations in research methods interact with those in IT? Can (or should) IT units keep a distance from interdisciplinary tensions and collaborations within their institutions? And how can faculty research needs be tapped?