Top 10 Campus Technology Stories of 2018

A look back at the topics that resonated most over the last year

• By Rhea Kelly
• 01/28/19

What are higher education IT folks interested in? Judging by the reading habits of the Campus Technology audience, ed tech trends were far and away the most popular topic for 2018. Security and privacy issues also made a strong showing, followed by enrollment challenges, online learning, social media, classroom design and student advising.

Here, in order of popularity, are the stories and topics our readers turned to most in the last year.

1) 7 Ed Tech Trends to Watch in 2018
In this annual feature, higher ed IT leaders discussed the education technologies and trends that will have the most impact in the coming year. For this year's take, see "8 Ed Tech Trends to Watch in 2019."

2) 2018 Readers' Choice Awards
Campus Technology readers voted on the best technologies in use at their institutions.

3) What GDPR Means for U.S. Higher Education
How colleges and universities in the United States are working to achieve compliance with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.

4) When Learning Analytics Violate Student Privacy
The rise of analytics in higher education raises questions about the responsible use of student data. Here are some of the issues and how institutions are dealing with them.

5) What to Know About ED's New Stance on Data Breach Reporting
It's no longer optional for colleges and universities to report data breaches to the U.S. Department of Education — yet the agency has not clearly defined its expectations. Here's what institutions should be aware of.

6) Turning Around an Enrollment Decline
When Mesa Community College needed to crank up enrollment retention, it turned to an outside company for help. The result was a striking 9x return on investment.

7) Survey: Most Students Say Online Learning Is as Good or Better Than Face-to-Face
In a survey of 1,500 online students, most considered the value of their degree equal to or greater than the cost they paid to take it. The survey was conducted by Learning House and Aslanian Market Research.

8) The Intrusion of Social Media in Learning
Social media has evolved into a tool for creating and promoting the "self," creating a tension between encouraging individual expression and overemphasizing the self in a collaborative setting. Here are the implications for education.

9) When Faculty Design Classrooms of the Future
At Indiana University, faculty input is a key part of the classroom design process. Here's how a recent symposium fostered cross-campus collaboration and future-thinking conversation about new learning spaces.

10) Today's College Students Shy Away from Face-to-Face Advising
While 44 percent of college students would like their coaching to be one-on-one in person, according to a recent survey, more collectively would prefer other modes, including e-mailing, online via videoconference or texting, via personalized college app and by social media. The survey was done jointly by Civitas Learning and the Center for Generational Kinetics.