IU AVP for Communication and Support Sue Workman, writing for Campus Technology magazine, discusses IU’s enterprise agreement with Adobe that allows current IU students, faculty, and staff to use the full suite of Adobe software at no cost to them.

She discusses the competitive advantages that such software deals — and a high level of IT in general — provide to IU.

What attracts the best faculty and students? Among students, a high and increasing percentage sees information technology as an important factor in choosing a college and in achieving academic success. In a 2009 CDW-G 21st Century Campus Survey, 63 percent of college students ranked IT as important in their choice of schools, while among concurrent high school students that number soared to 93 percent.

And in today’s workforce, digital fluency is expected–not only for communication and collaboration, but also in the technology relevant to various fields and professions. But colleges need to do a better job of preparing their students for the workplace: According to the CDW-G survey, 67 percent of faculty and 76 percent of students say their schools are doing an adequate job, a decline from 2008 figures of 74 percent and 82 percent, respectively. Among those already in the workforce, less than 32 percent of graduates and 22 percent of faculty feel that school prepared them to use IT in the workforce.

Read the Campus Technology article.

Tags: software