However, throwing technology at a problem is rarely so simple. Opposition is expected when traditional methods are challenged, and if history is any indication then consumers will be the final arbiters. Just as educators cannot deny changing expectations around learning, administrators cannot force that change before constituents are ready.

In the US, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty recently appeared on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and spoke of wanting “limited and effective” government. He cited higher education as an area that stands to improve.

Mr. Pawlenty argued that in 20 years learning will no longer take place at scheduled times in lecture halls. The future of learning will take place on devices like the iPad, and executed at the student’s discretion. He admonished the one-size-fits-all approach to education in favor of one that puts consumers in charge of what and how they learn.

The idea is appealing. Consumers want to feel empowered, and fostering strong, independent thinkers is a critical objective in higher education. However, the reality it that regardless of how the material is delivered learning is a choice, especially at post-secondary levels. Technology is defenseless against unmotivated students.

Mr. Pawlenty’s argument neglects the role that teachers play in higher education: as experts in their field, they help students navigate the subject and establish a foundation for further exploration. It is naďve to assume that technology will remedy the flaws of a “boring” professor.

As consumers of information, students seek guidance from trusted sources -- a role that higher education is expected to adequately fulfill. Online learning is convenient and opens up opportunities to a larger, more diverse student body. This bodes well for institutions looking to increase their reach and revenue, but does not resolve questions around faculty and student accountability.

In business, having good people and processes should come before implementing technology. The same mentality applies to higher education. Teaching quality is rooted in having knowledgeable people deliver content in a coherent, digestible manner.

However, how this is executed is widely varied. That is not to say that standards cannot be established, but that evaluations should consider higher education’s nuances. Technology such as reporting and analytics tools can prove beneficial in evaluating trends and making sense of past activities and their impact on future outcomes. By understanding what works, professors and institutions can adjust accordingly - rather than, for example, moving a course online simply because it has moderate or low enrollment.

Email, social media, and even the telephone all faced resistance when they were introduced to the market; but convenience and necessity soon trumped concerns around security and the detriment of human interactivity. Online learning faces similar arguments. We expect that opposition will subside in the near future as learning evolves with student demand, not through mandates from budget-minded administrators.

Change is inevitable, and not even slow-moving higher education has been impervious to market forces. For example, with more students entering college with their own laptops, institutions are reducing the number of computer labs and investing instead in broader Wi-Fi coverage on campus.

The silver lining of the economic downturn is that it made higher education institutions more efficient, or at least aware of the need to be efficient. Consequently, they are now eager to invest in technology. Moreover, the success of for-profit and online-only institutions has whetted the appetites of traditional institutions.

Nevertheless, we warn institutions against making dramatic leaps into the digital learning space without understanding how students will respond or how technology complements, instead of merely replaces, teaching.

In the meantime, higher education’s efforts toward efficiency can also be directed toward streamlining the back office, which has more metric-based goals.

The City University of New York, which currently has 250,000 students enrolled, announced its plans to integrate all 22 campuses onto a single administrative system, in a long-term project that aims to improve processes and eliminate vendors and workflow redundancies. By reducing waste there, institutions are uncovering funds and realigning resources to support more student-facing courses and programs.

Ovum is the ICT advisory brand of the Datamonitor Group, with a 25 year history of advising both enterprises and their suppliers on the business value of ICT.For inquiries on Ovum, please contact Tanisha Kuckreja at tanisha.kuckreja@ovum.com.