Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) wanted an efficient way to evaluate educational technology and vendors for their online programs. Through the use of an Ed Tech management system, SNHU combined an interactive evaluation tool with a custom vendor scorecard and shares the benefits and lessons learned of their investigative work.
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) offers over 150 online programs, concentrations, and certificates, and partners with a number of vendors to help optimize the learning experience for their students. The academic resources team at SNHU wanted a resource that could help them assess and grade their educational technologies and vendor relationships in an efficient and comprehensive manner.
To start the discovery process, they thought about questions they needed to address. What were the various factors for a successful adoption and implementation? Were their partnerships and vendor relationships strategic in nature? What information could help them communicate overall value to leadership? Their search led them to the open Courseware in Context (CWiC) Framework, a comprehensive set of guidelines for evaluating digital courseware, and to the LearnPlatform, an Ed Tech management system that offers CWiC in an interactive format.
The final step in their discovery phase was looking outside their industry. What could the team borrow from other professional businesses needing to evaluate products, services, relationships, and overall value? After reviewing a number of resources, the team decided to customize a scorecard from the supply chain industry and integrate the wide-range of questions and considerations surfaced in their search. Elements evaluated and scored in this holistic assessment include:
- Courseware functionality & design
- Procurement
- Delivery platforms
- Data reporting capabilities
- Pricing
- Service level agreements
- Vendor responsiveness to requests and issues
Through the use of these three tools, the team at SNHU successfully created a comprehensive means to streamline their adoption, implementation, and evaluation processes. They were also able to establish a baseline of understanding to benchmark vendor relationships and educational technology performance in the future. While all organizations approach evaluations differently, this session aims to share major insights, pitfalls, and lessons learned.