Reshaping the Future of the Education Industry

Brian Gardner, The CIO, Northampton Community College

Brian Gardner, The CIO, Northampton Community College

Brian Gardner is the CIO of Northampton Community College(NCC). With decades-worth experience in working with several leading educational institutions, he has earned a reputation in the industry as an exceptional strategist, IT leader, and problem solver. Gardner began his professional career at a student-run college help desk. Specializing in the higher education Information Technology (IT) side of the business, he soon broad need his span of experience from helpdesk assistance to faculty support, and finally extended his footprint into classroom technology.

In 2013, Gardner joined the Columbia Business School as an Executive Director of Technology Services and Support, where he caught a distinct view on Educational Technology (EdTech), administrative technology, and the collective work processes in educational institutions. Learning from these experiences, Gardner now serves as a strategic leader in planning, developing, implementing, and maintaining technology and information systems that support Northampton Community College’s academic and administrative goals. He is also responsible for leading innovative cross-campus technology campaigns, developing and managing a five-year technology budget, and managing the IT staff.

In the light of your experience, what are some of the recent trends in the EdTech space?

Over the past decade, EdTech has had a significant shift from being a “value add” to an integral part of the academic experience. More importantly, it is now deemed an inevitable aspect of the education industry equipped to make an impact on their operations at scale. One excellent example of EdTech’s application is the use of VR technologies in automotive classes and chemistry labs. At Northampton Community College, we were able to conduct a class, where students from London, New York, and Hong Kong were co-taught seamlessly by leveraging these latest technologies.

One of the things Northampton Community College and other colleges are collectively working on is prior learning assessments. We collect students' existing experiences and feed them into our systems to help craft their learning journey and successfully navigate their career goals. In essence, advancements in the EdTech are helping us enhance students' learning experience and provide a hassle-free teaching environment to our faculties.

Could you elaborate on how EdTech is disrupting the academic experience?

Rapid advancements in EdTech are undeniably empowering educational organizations to break down their operational silos. This allows them to establish seamless integration between various departments, empowering institutions to provide a better learning experience. Though developments in EdTech were already picking up pace, the advent of COVID-19 and subsequent changes in the education industry have accelerated them.

With many of the students at NCC preferring to go about having a remote learning experience post-pandemic, we leveraged EdTech to provide them with an exceptional learning experience, irrespective of their locations. By doing this, we helped incorporate the academic learning experience into their lives while allowing them to have a mutually benefiting learning and working experience simultaneously.

Could you tell us about the challenges brought on by the pandemic?

COVID-19 had indeed brought loads of existing latent challenges to the surface— the most prominent among them being the "digital divide." While the pandemic-induced social distancing edicts have made remote learning a norm, several students were kept from the learning process due to the lack of internet services. This posed a significant challenge for educational institutions to make their entire student base part of the learning process.

"EdTech has had a significant shift from being a value add to anintegral part of the academic experience"

Providing a hybrid-learning experience to students was another hardship that plagued the education industry. It is no longer an obscure aspect for institutions but a much-needed element, given the varying preferences of students in attending classes. While some students are willing to be in classrooms to continue their educational journey, others opt for virtual courses through smart phones or Chrome books. As a result, colleges and universities need to adopt a hybrid or blended learning model to provide an unrivalled and uninterrupted learning experience to students while upholding the institution's culture and teaching standards.

What are some of the recent developments steered by NCC?

At NCC, we solely focus on redefining our student information systems. By doing this, we aim to make students' data readily available to their success advisors, allowing them to provide just-in-time help to the students. We are looking forward to modifying the student information system to help them access our in-person, online, blended, and hybrid learning under one roof. Our innovation labs are developing a robust mobile application that can enable students to combine their academic, career, and community journey.

How do you envision the future of the education space?

One of the much-awaited developments in the education industry is the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their operations. Integrating AI into their existing Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems can help educational institutions enhance their ability to translate their course content into different languages. This will help deliver content in the native languages of their students, which in turn helps foster a better learning experience. Another important development will be the optimization of Last-Mile infrastructure. Utilizing it, institutions can eliminate the digital divide and provide students with an uninterrupted learning experience using existing technologies like video conferencing.

Self-paced learning and quantum computing are the next big things that the education industry will witness in the near future. On top of that, institutions will have micro-credentialing and portable credentialing incorporated into their systems. We are also looking forward to embracing automation to enhance educational institutions' interactions with students.

What would be the best piece of advice that you have for your peers?

Self-realization is necessary for both industry veterans and budding entrepreneurs, and they must be aware of their roles and the value they provide in the educational space. As the industry is rapidly growing, we have organizations entering the drive without a clear understanding of their core business propositions and industry needs. To succeed as an IT professional in the education industry, one needs to understand the student’s and faculty’s journey in the educational space and bring in innovations and reforms. Along with technical skills, they need to possess soft skills and empathy for students and faculty to add value and succeed with their services.