Higher ed 101 - teaching techies higher ed culture

Abstract

More often than not, the previous work experience of college and university information technology staff has been in industry. Another staff demographic is that many are relatively recent graduates. What they have in common is a hierarchical, standards-driven and technical worldview - the antithesis of the peculiarities of higher education's organizational structure. This void, despite excellent skills and knowledge of information technology, frequently results in miscommunication, misunderstanding, and costly mistakes when working with the majority of the university whose worldview is autonomous, variable and non-hierarchical (not to mention, non-technical). After a series of embarrassing mistakes, we launched a mandatory professional development course called Higher Ed 101 to give our IT staff the vocabulary and understanding of the complexities of higher education's organizational structure, particularly shared governance, academic freedom and tenure. The rationale was twofold: 1) to reduce disruption to the community because of insensitivity to the academic calendar and processes; and 2) to ease internal tension, raise levels of job satisfaction and develop flexible approaches to common campus technology issues. This paper details the course, Higher Ed 101, for use in staff training and development. It concludes with why making an investment in teaching the technology staff about the culture of higher education is as sound an investment in their (and the IT department's) future as is learning the latest technology.