As the challenges faced by higher education continue to evolve at an ever rapid pace, institutions must add and update curriculum to remain competitive. Yet the current curriculum approval process inhibits how fast curriculums can adapt, and consequently, prevents institutions from rapidly adapting. In this Insight, Education Services Manager, Jake Hannigan, and Education Associates Jacob Dolence and Karen Yoshino discuss what is wrong with the current curriculum approval process and what can be done to improve it.

The disruption of 2020 has been extreme enough to expose giant fissures in some of our major institutions, including higher education. Traditional colleges and universities - in which most courses were taught face-to-face - were forced to go online, and this abrupt change resulted in frustration or confusion for students, and anger for parents who had dished out thousands of dollars in tuition. If we think about how colleges and universities work, we can begin to see the fissures and the fixes.

Colleges and universities have spent millions of dollars investing in their campuses. With students and faculty no longer able to come together, millions of dollars of investments lay unused. Now institutions are scrambling to move their services online in preparation for the fall 2020 semester. Such changes require significant investment in infrastructure, faculty training, and course development.

While technology has become omnipresent across education institutions, it has always been viewed simply as a tool. Traditional educators have been slow to incorporate technology into their classes, choosing instead to keep to traditional methods. But recently, a pandemic has caused hundreds of millions to stay home. COVID-19 has forced educators to move their entire curriculum online, sometimes overnight.