Higher Education Technology Consortium Releases Groundbreaking Integration Scorecard

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- DXtera Institute -- an international non-profit consortium with membership spanning colleges and universities, education technology companies, and other higher education professionals -- today announced the release of a new resource designed to improve integration across the higher education technology landscape. The free and openly licensed Next Generation Integration Scorecard (NGIS) will give colleges and universities new ways to assess the marketplace of available education technology solutions that serve their needs, benchmarking them based on the ease of integration.

"As colleges and universities undertake the daunting task of selecting and implementing next-generation technologies, we know that a general lack of functional, real-time interoperation is one of the most consistent pain points they experience," said Jeff Merriman, DXtera's co-founder and chief technology officer. "This work is about giving institutions a common language for specifying and evaluating the integration capacity of software solutions, which will ultimately lead to a more effective application of technology for student and institutional success."

The Next-Generation Integration Scorecard draws on insights from across DXtera's projects and its membership of more than 47 institutions and organizations to compare higher education technology solutions based on ease of integration. The NGIS is designed to provide colleges and universities with practical insights into whether potential technology solutions support the level of functional integration required to work together in a next-generation enterprise ecosystem.

Covering an initial set of nineteen "functional areas," spanning functionality found in many common educational systems, like student information systems and learning management systems, the Scorecard is one of the first resources to provide language for higher education technology buyers looking to integrate solutions to serve the various needs of faculty, students and institutional administration. The NGIS began as a collaborative effort between DXtera Institute and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), a globally-ranked and fully-online university based in Barcelona, Spain, and will continue to evolve through ongoing contributions from across the Institute's membership base.

"As a fully-online, global university, the integration of new technology and systems is essential for UOC to accomplish our educational mission. From learning management and student success to content management, none of our systems are silos, and must all integrate meaningfully to support our staff and students," says Francesc Santanach Delisau, Lab Team Leader and Engineer, eLearn Center, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. "As we explore emerging technologies, the Integration Scorecard will help us to evaluate products against a rubric that gives insight into how well they fit into our existing infrastructure, technology partners and the capabilities of our internal team."

Founded in 2016, DXtera Institute is an affiliate of Strada Education Network, a national nonprofit dedicated to catalyzing more direct pathways between education and employment. DXtera's team of experts work with member institutions to increase compatibility and efficiency across their campus information systems. Its members and experts make it possible for data and digital information to be shared, in real-time, across ever-changing technology infrastructures, resulting in empowered leaders, faculty, staff, and students, who are equipped to make informed choices.

To learn more about DXtera Institute and its members, visit www.dxtera.org.

About DXtera Institute
The DXtera Institute℠ is a nonprofit, member-based consortium of higher education professionals collaborating to remove technology barriers so that institution leaders, faculty, staff, and students have efficient access to information needed to transform student outcomes. With partners across the U.S. and Europe, the consortium includes some of the brightest minds in education and technology, all working together to solve critical higher education issues on a global scale. DXtera is an affiliate of Strada Education Network®. Visit dxtera.org for more information.

About Strada Education Network
Strada Education Network® is a national nonprofit dedicated to improving lives by catalyzing more direct and promising pathways between education and employment. The Network engages partners across education, nonprofits, business and government to focus relentlessly on students' success throughout all phases of their working lives. Together, they address critical college to career challenges through strategic philanthropy, research, and insights, and mission-aligned affiliates — all focused on advancing the universal right to realized potential called Completion With a Purpose®. Learn more at StradaEducation.org.

SOURCE DXtera Institute