Rethinking Academic Technology Leadership in an Era of Change

Nowadays, instructional technology has never had more widespread acceptance or stronger national interest. However, while institutions are investing large sums of money on instructional technologies and staff, most of them do not have a senior-level position dedicated exclusively to provide leadership, direction, and accountability for the technologies and services supporting teaching and learning. In the fall of 2005, the authors conducted a national survey to explore the organization of academic technology services on a campus-wide basis. Through careful examination of campus websites and follow-up email exchanges of participating institutions, the authors attempted to identify a single individual with overall responsibility for instructional technology at each institution. The study's findings reveal that despite of the rapid growth in technology use by faculty and students, centralizing leadership for these service areas under a single senior manager has not been a priority. Based on these findings, the authors propose that each campus should have a "senior academic technology officer" (SATO) to provide overall leadership and direction of academic technology applications, initiatives, and support services. The authors also provides examples of the roles and responsibilities of a SATO. (Contains 20 endnotes.)