Smart technology investments reap enormous benefits for colleges and universities. Using smart technologies, higher education institutions can discover operating efficiencies, save money, improve the student experience, help optimize teaching and learning, make it easier to park and improve campus safety, for instance. Smart technologies can reduce wait times, improve student services, automate workflows and conserve energy and other resources.
We use smart technologies in everyday life, when we shop, do our banking and in our homes. Most colleges and universities currently use at least some smart technologies. For instance, students can pay for meals or books with digital devices and can scan identification cards for entry into buildings, for instance. But some universities have truly embraced the smart campus concept, investing millions of dollars in extensive renovations and to add significant capabilities that make their campuses more user-friendly, keep their institution relevant with its digital native students and save money and resources.
Here’s how some higher education institutions are getting smart about their campus and using technologies in innovative ways:
The University of Kentucky Smart Campus Initiative launched in 2019, is a digital strategy that aims to increase persistence and graduation rates by leveraging technology in new and innovative ways to promote students’ mental, physical and financial wellness, help transition high school students to college and build communities and link students with one another. The university provided all incoming first-year students with iPads for the first two years of the three-year initiative and has also added extensive interactive digital signage and esports.
The California State Smart Campus Initiative aims to enhance campus services and facilitate teaching, learning and research at California State University Long Beach, while helping remove barriers to allow the campus and public to more easily access campus services. The university launched the initiative in 2016 with four pilot work streams, eSignature for document signing, digital signage, digital wayfinding and One Card, a multi-purpose identification care that allows access to campus services and payment transactions and meal plans. Over the past few years, the institution added more capabilities, including a student virtual lab, cloud-based email/calendar service and digitized time and attendance reporting.
Arizona State University was an early adopter of smart technologies and now has extensive digital and Internet of Things capabilities. ASU is now using university-built apps to facilitate the campus experience and leveraging data to tailor student experiences. The university has noteworthy implementations of IoT technology. For instance, ASU and Intel teamed up to measure the satisfaction of game attendees and ASU also helps game attendees find parking by displaying the open spaces on the university’s mobile app. More capabilities will be added in the future.
In 2017, a student organization at Ohio State University formed to enhance connectivity and mobility. The student organization, Smart Columbus, brings together the Ohio State Center for Automotive research, Transportation and Traffic Management with the goal of making campus transportation cleaner, safer and more efficient by incorporating smart technologies.
At Bowie State University, computer science students are developing smart technologies as part of a capstone project as part of a digital transformation initiative developed by the university’s Maryland Center, which works to eliminate disparities in health, education and socioeconomic status. As part of the initiative, students are divided into five teams and participate in 35 to 40 hours or intensive cloud computing and software training and then develop a way to automate the process of scheduling preventative and corrective maintenance for equipment and facilities on campus.
Fierce Education along with Fierce Technology are producing “The Connected Campus” on August 31, an online-only event for higher education executives, leaders, faculty and IT decision makers. Register here now.
For more articles on Smart Campuses and Smart Technologies go to:
Universities Poised to Realize the Benefits of Smart Technologies: Part 1