.NET in Higher Education.docVIP

.NET in Higher Education Enabling the Connected Learning Community  Contents Opportunities and Challenges for Integrated Solutions in Higher Education 1 Microsoft? .NET: Enabling Integration for the Connected Learning Community 3 .NET Empowers Administrators in Higher Education 6 .NET Empowers IT Professionals in Higher Education 9 .NET Empowers Faculty and Students 11 .NET Technologies Are Real – and Here Today 14 Conclusion 16 Appendix: Additional Resources 17 Opportunities and Challenges for Integrated Solutions in Higher Education A college or university can run a more efficient student recruiting program – delighting prospective students and boosting its yield – when notifications, e-mails and letters from departments, advisors, coaches and Student Life staff are customized to accurately reflect a prospect’s intended major, interest in non-academic programs, high school sports activities and preferred housing – or any other information. Higher Education Information Technology professionals, challenged to do ever more with fewer resources, can integrate existing legacy systems to provide more comprehensive and up-to-date information for better decision-making by university officials, and to support richer collaboration and communication among the institution’s employees, faculty and students – all while leveraging and gaining greater return from their existing system and software assets, rather than having to replace or migrate existing systems. Faculty, staff and students – accustomed in their day-to-day lives to wireless information and other services offered to consumers that deliver news, stocks and sports information – can experience corresponding convenience from services that allow them to download their college- or university-related personal information, including schedule changes, grades, campus news, directory listings and maps, onto a standard Web-enabled device such as a smart phone or PDA, from anywhere on campus or around the world. These devel