Digital Capability in Higher Education. Initial Insights.

Gaps, Performance & Priority.

Institutional processes that combine to deliver an integrated digital journey for students have been identified as the greatest gap by higher education institutions around the world. Universities rank their current digital capabilities in the Learner Experience segment as weakest, and are focusing their efforts in developing digital capability in the core areas of Learning Design and Learner Experience.

Outsourcing and Partnership Strategy.

Except for very large institutions, around one third of university respondents indicated that their institution takes a ‘strategic partnership approach’ to outsourcing digital capability, while others use such arrangements as a short term ‘gap fill’ until they can build their own set of capabilities.

Digital Capability Gaps.

Across all university sizes and types, ‘process’ is viewed as the area of greatest need vis a vis digital capability followed closely by ‘people’. Organizational issues, such as ‘silos across units and divisions’ and ‘archaic structure and faculty governance’ are cited some of these process challenges.

HEDC Framework

Informed by global academic research and with input from higher education leaders globally, the HEDC framework offers an overarching view for institutions to map and benchmark digital capabilities across the learner lifecycle, ultimately to support practical and sustainable approaches to digital services and online learning.

Explore the Framework‍