Mobile Device Management Costs on the Rise

A new study found that while business usage of mobile devices continues to rise, so do the annual IT labor costs of keeping them running. The study by Osterman Research was not aimed at higher education, but focused on mobile device management (MDM) at 117 companies with 7,000 employees using 5,000 or more smartphones. It found that IT labor costs per user rose from $229 in 2011 to $294 this year, and are projected to hit $339 next year.

Forty percent of respondents are using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) as its MDM platform, but could be looking for alternatives after Research in Motion, the firm that created the BlackBerry device and BES, was ordered to pay millions for violating an MDM patent. Switching to a new MDM means new costs for platform, hardware, and training of IT personnel, along with the possibility of new people to manage and monitor it, according to Scott Gode, vice president of product management and marketing at Azaleos, the communications provider that sponsored the study.

MDM costs are also expected to rise because of the increased functionality of new mobile systems and the IT policies that need to be developed to manage the device. Other challenges that add cost to MDM, according to the survey, are setup and deployment of the devices, training users, troubleshooting, and security.

Finally, the survey found that firms prefer cloud-based MDM solutions because they are easy to administer and maintain (69%) and costs are more predictable or even reduced (39%).

“The new MDM vendors have created their products in such a way that there is no feature dropoff if you choose cloud versus on-premise,” Gode said.

Publishers' Maneuvers Signal Need for Change

It’s no secret many colleges and universities are struggling to meet their budgets due to funding cuts and stagnant endowments. Many students, too, are having trouble covering tuition. But academic publishers are feeling the pinch as well, even as schools gear up for the fall term—the course-materials equivalent of the holiday shopping season.

Recent financial moves by two of the biggest college textbook publishers reveal signs of stress, which could redefine relationships with campus bookstores.

Last September, McGraw-Hill said it would spin off its educational publishing from its more profitable financial data publishing, creating two companies. However, the Wall Street Journal reported July 13 that a private equity firm is sniffing around the educational unit and may put in a bid to buy it.

In a separate report by Bloomberg News, Cengage Learning, grappling with debt from its own acquisition five years ago, may be considering an initial public offering to bring in cash.

“The academic publishers are under threat, and campus stores should not assume that they are immune or unaffected by that or similar factors. We should not look at challenging times among the publishers as a good thing,” says Mark Nelson, NACS chief information officer and vice president of NACS Media Solutions.

For independent and institutional campus stores, the situation doesn’t bode well. These stores are already a difficult (read: costly) channel for textbook publishers because each store must be dealt with on an individual basis. Systems vary from store to store, and some stores, astonishingly in this era, still don’t have full inventory management or e-commerce capabilities. Some tussle mightily with publishers who are trying to move into digital course materials.

“The more stores fight against publishers, the more publishers will be pushed to look at alternative channels they can potentially trust, such as direct-to-student,” Nelson says. “If they are working around campus stores as a channel, did anyone ever give thought to the possibility that it is because stores aren’t adding value to them as a channel as they once did?”

Yet the key to survival for both academic publishers and campus stores may lie in stronger partnerships. “The publishers need campus stores, and we need them if we are going to make it through the digital transition ahead,” Nelson says.

“Within NACS, we are developing or considering several mechanisms to improve publisher relations and industry relevance,” Nelson says. “We’re looking at communications that help publishers understand what we’re doing, both as an association and an industry. We’re looking to create a publisher advisory board to provide us with input into how to develop better programs and services, and create a stronger communication channel between stores and publishers.

“Logistically, this may be executed later this year through The Hub, the new online collaboration and knowledge management environment NACS is preparing to unveil at CAMEX 2013,” he adds. “NACS alone cannot solve these problems, however, if stores and publishers are unwilling to change their perspectives. If we fail to do so, we may all fail to transition.”

Is Amazon Working on Same-Day Delivery?

Bricks-and-mortar retailers have battled long and hard over the sales-tax advantage that online vendors have, particularly Amazon. Customers are supposed to pay sales tax on all purchased items, but few actually do, providing a significant price advantage for online services.

Merchants say if Amazon had to pay local sales taxes like they do, consumers would see online prices more on par with their own physical-store prices. Amazon appears to now agree as it is dropping its tooth-and-nail fight against every sales tax initiative in favor of negotiating agreements to build warehouses in large metropolitan areas.

It’s a change in strategy that could help Amazon accomplish what some believe is its new goal: providing same-day delivery for many of the products it sells. That may be a necessary change considering a Citigroup survey found 52% of Amazon shoppers would be less likely to buy goods on the site if they had to pay sales tax.

Whatever the reason, Amazon is putting a lot of money behind the project. The company will reportedly spend more that $1.2 billion on distribution facilities in California, Indiana, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, with $500 million for as many as 10 locations in California alone. That should be enough centers to provide next-day service for nearly all of the continental United States.

Along with new facilities, Amazon has been working on ways to improve shipping times at the facilities it already has. It acquired Kiva Systems, which developed a robotic warehouse system, and set up automated lockers in drugstores and convenience stores in Seattle, New York, and the United Kingdom. It also works with local couriers capable of same-day delivery when the product is available that quickly.

“Amazon is investing billions to make next-day delivery standard, and same-day delivery an option for a lot of customers,” technology writer Farhad Manjoo said in this Slate article. “If it can pull that off, the company will permanently alter who we shop. To put it more bluntly: Physical retailers will be hosed.”

Mixed Signals from Faculty on Online Ed

New research shows a majority of faculty members continue to fear the growth of online education, but that could change as more instructors begin to use technology. Conflicted: Faculty and Online Education, 2012, reports that while nearly 70% of instructors who only taught in classrooms were afraid of the online push, 59% of instructors who taught an online course were more excited about the trend.

The study conducted by Inside Higher Ed and the Babson Survey Research Group, surveyed 4,546 faculty members and 591 academic technology administrators. Respondents were questioned about their perceptions of online quality, institutional support and training, and compensation.

The report found diverging viewpoints on online education between faculty and administrators. Nearly 60% of all faculty respondents either agreed with or were neutral to questions about whether their institutions were “pushing too much online.” At the same time, 79% of administrators disagreed with the notion.

Faculty gave failing grades to online learning outcomes, with 66% saying they were lower than tradition classroom work. While 39% of teachers who had taught online agreed with the substandard learning outcomes, nearly half said online and traditional courses produced similar results and 66% of online instructors felt online teaching was capable of matching classroom instruction.

“Learning how to teach online probably would be one of the best steps a professor could take to assure viability in the 21st century,” wrote John Thelin in a follow-up essay on the report that appeared in Inside Higher Ed. “The most dysfunctional response by a professor today would be to dismiss or ignore both the technology and the social consequence online learning has.”

Thelin, a professor at the University of Kentucky who describes himself as “not so much low-tech as slow-tech,” wrote about his efforts to take one of his graduate classes online. While the course preparation phase was thoughtful and innovative, getting official approval included delay and “unreasonable obstacles.” At the same time, he concluded that online courses do not necessarily mean new revenue for the school or savings for students.

“All the variables of effectiveness, efficiency, cost, and price are subject to the same complexities, adjustments, and vacillations of any higher education program offering,” Thelin wrote.

The Downside to E-Textbooks

There’s been plenty of research showing students are just not into electronic textbooks hype. In fact, the OnCampus Research report Student Watch 2012: Student Attitudes and Perceptions found that just 17% of student respondents even owned an e-reader and 62% of these bought the gadget just for leisure reading.

So why aren’t college students clamoring for e-textbooks? After all, they should be cheaper to purchase, plus there’s all those nifty tools, such as highlighting and interactive footnotes, geared to attract a tech-savvy generation.<.span>

The top reason for student reluctance is they’re not often finding the required book in their preferred digital format, according to the Online University staff’s look at reasons why college students aren’t buying e-textbooks. Even if students find the correct digital text, they soon discover it probably only saved them about a dollar after factoring in the cost of the e-reader, “publisher pricing decisions,” and the fact they can’t sell the title back.

Digital formats also complicate the process for students because they vary from one device to another. Add in the fact that some e-text will eat up large portions of storage space in each device, as well as that some e-text can look pretty primitive next to online learning sources, and it’s not hard to see why students might expect more from their e-textbooks than what they currently get.

Reducing the Clicks from User to Content

As the back-to-class season draws closer, a number of course materials systems are hooking up.

At its own BbWorld annual conference in New Orleans, Blackboard announced plans to develop one-click access to Ingram’s Vital Source e-textbook platform directly within the Blackboard Learn learning management system. The integration, intended for both computers and mobile devices, will allow faculty and students already logged into Learn to click into digital course content without messing around with software or additional logins. Vital Source has 80,000 titles.

Blackboard is also getting a little cozier with CourseSmart. Since last November, the two have been working with 20 campuses to pilot integration of CourseSmart’s Building Block digital catalog with Blackboard Learn. Like the Vital Source arrangement, the integration enables users to access the course materials with a single sign-on. The pilot was apparently successful as Blackboard will now make Building Block available at no charge to all schools using Learn 9.1.

For its part, CourseSmart has also been dancing with Desire2Learn. In an enhanced integration announced recently, CourseSmart’s 30,000-title e-textbook catalog will be available through Desire2Learn’s learning management system. Once again, students and instructors will be able to get there via just one click.

Technology Giving Classrooms a New Look

A new study shows that technology is leading to new ways for teachers to teach and students to learn. In fact, 75% of college students and 72% of faculty are using notebooks or netbooks as learning tools in the classroom, and 69% of students and 73% of faculty are making use of digital content, according to an article in Campus Technology.

The report Learn Now, Lecture Later, funded by CDW-G, a company providing technology to government, education, and healthcare industries, suggests students prefer a mix of teaching methods, such as hands-on projects (17% of participating students), independent study (14%), and group projects (12%), and that 69% of students would like to see more technology used. The study also showed that 64% of high school teachers are using class time for group projects and 45% of their students have used smartphones in class as learning tools.

“Students told us they want more interaction with teachers during class, as well as the opportunity to incorporate more technology into their classes,” said Andy Lausch, vice president of higher education at CDW-G. “In fact, students who are very satisfied with how their teachers use class time also use more technology in class with all types of learning models.”

The greatest obstacle facing to using more technology in the classroom for secondary and postsecondary education is securing funds to provide it. Lack of time and lack of technical support were also cited by IT staffers participating in the survey.

The complete report is available for free at the CDW-G web site.