News and Information Services' Summary of the
Report by the eC2 Subcommission on e-Outreach
The University and the Knowledge Economy
Economic success in the 21st Century is becoming increasingly dependent upon obtaining information and using it well. In this new “knowledge economy,” advanced communication is erasing boundaries of distance and time, promoting unprecedented globalization. At the same time, new divisions are appearing along lines of digital access, threatening to consign the information “have-nots” to isolation and impoverishment.
In this time of flux, higher education faces new responsibilities and challenges, along with fresh opportunities. The traditional assets of universities, information and knowledge, are at a premium. Learning is becoming a continuous, lifelong endeavor, rather than something that happens at a particular point in one’s life.
As a public institution dedicated to knowledge dissemination, the University of Michigan has a responsibility to reach out, using new information and communication technologies, beyond its traditional physical boundaries. The question is no longer whether to further the University’s mission through e-outreach, but rather, how best to organize the institution to take advantage of the new opportunities the knowledge economy presents. Though the university as a physical place, occupied by a well-defined community of students, faculty, and staff, will remain, it increasingly will be supplemented by ever-changing communities of scholars, distributed in time and space.
We need to experiment with a variety of approaches to reaching out, including commercial approaches when they can best advance the mission of the institution, keeping in mind the academic tradition of free interchange of ideas and the Michigan tradition of commitment to diversity and access. We recognize that e-outreach offers opportunities not only to extend the University’s benefits to underserved communities, but also to increase the valuable diversity of views within the University.
Promoting, Coordinating, and Supporting e-Outreach
Not all parts of the University will seek to engage in e-outreach in the same way or to the same degree. Indeed, there is significant variation across the University in the degree to which programs or schools encounter new pressures from the “knowledge economy.” A number of units already have successfully launched technology-based outreach initiatives. Others have adopted a “wait and see” approach. Still other units, and individuals, are eager to participate but unsure how to proceed or confused by the lack of institutional philosophy and policy. Because of the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the knowledge economy and the diverse nature of the University, a rigid, centrally directed plan is unwise. What is needed is an expression of institutional will and a commitment to coordinate, encourage, foster, and develop opportunities and initiatives and opportunities. Although most e-outreach will be specific to departments and colleges, the central administration has a critical role to play in facilitating, leveraging, and occasionally launching such activities. Investing in infrastructure and support for e-outreach will have broad benefits that will extend even to units that have no current interest in e-outreach activities, because the same infrastructure that supports e-outreach can support and enhance campus-based efforts.
The commission recommends that the University:
- Reexamine its relationship to critical learning communities, particularly alumni and prospective students, but also broader communities around the globe.
- Clarify policies bearing on engagement in e-outreach, such as those related to:
- intellectual property
- conflict of commitment and interest
- advertising and endorsement
- use of University name/marks
- terms of agreement and legal resources; legal restrictions that apply to digital material and broadcasts
- external partnerships and agreements.
- Recognize and provide incentives for faculty time and energy spent in activities related to the knowledge economy.
- Reexamine its relationship to critical learning communities, particularly alumni and prospective students, but also broader communities around the globe.
- Assess campus-wide television, radio, and Internet broadcast capabilities in light of impending digitization; develop means for more effective and coordinated use.
- Engage in an aggressive program of experimentation with distance learning, and develop mechanisms for institution-wide sharing of experiences and results.