A new seat in the C-Suite: Chief Digital Officers find a place on college campuses — from edtechmagazine.com by Amy Burroughs
CDOs do more than help colleges adapt to online learning.
Mathison is studying the emerging role of CDOs and says their functions vary, depending on how much an organization has shifted in its digital evolution. In broad terms, CDOs increase revenue through digital products, decrease costs through digital fulfillment, improve customer service and improve the return on mobile and online investments. They also help organizations respond to disruptors, or innovations with game-changing potential. To many in academia, that means massive open online courses (MOOCs).
“There weren’t many [CDOs] around five years ago, and in academia it’s really been in the last year or two, with the MOOCs that have really spooked everyone,” Mathison said.
While many universities have a director of online education or a VP of e-learning, very few schools have hired a CDO. In addition to Sreenivasan, there is Perry Hewitt at Harvard University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology had a CDO, Brent Turner, who says that as of January he has pulled back to focus his work on the MIT Technology Review.