I am now Dr. Huer
I am now Dr. Jonathan Blake Huer! I appreciate all the support over the past 5 years. I couldn't have done this without the community of scholars, family, and friends who helped me along the way. Here are the acknowledgements and the abstract for my dissertation. If you want the entire 243 pages, just let me know!
I want to thank my panelists for contributing their vast expertise to this study. I am honored by their generous donation of time and honest feedback. This study would not have happened without their considerable efforts.
I also want to thank my advisor, Dr. Shelton, for her endless support through the many twists and turns of my doctoral journey. I truly appreciate her wisdom and guidance. Valuable lessons not only for this dissertation, but the rest of my career. In addition, my committee members, Dr. Mason and Dr. Saltsman were indispensable providing encouragement, ideas, and suggestions at key points along the way. There are not words strong enough to express my deep appreciation for this amazing trio.
Lastly, I want to thank my family, friends, colleagues, and classmates who have supported me throughout this journey. In particular, my mom who encouraged me to keep pushing through to the end, and my friend Garrett who read draft after draft without once complaining. I also want to thank Jeni Dill who edited chapter 2 and gave me valuable APA style guidance.
This Delphi study asked a 25-member expert panel of higher education technology leaders to examine requirements for their role and make predictions a future higher education technology leader (eg. Chief Information Officer or CIO) will need to succeed. The panel, representing a range of institution sizes and types, assisted in exploring the following research questions supporting this study:
- What are the key functional roles of the higher education technology leader in 5-10 years?
- What are the essential skills a higher education technology leader will need in 5-10 years?
- What is the ideal formal education a higher education technology leader will need in 5-10 years?
- What is the ideal career path a higher education technology leader will need in 5-10 years?
The panel found broad agreement on the roles and skills a future higher education technology leader will require with 90% and 85% of items respectively reaching agreement on likeliness. In contrast, there was little agreement on what the formal education requirements for this individual should be nor was there agreement on the career experiences one requires to be successful in the role with only 13% and 32% of items reaching agreement on likeliness. The panel also agreed the CIO title was likely to be the primary title in the future despite the introduction of new “chief” titles relating to technology. This information can be used by aspiring CIOs to plan their career or to design professional development programs and other educational opportunities.
Keywords: higher education, Chief Information Officer, CIO, information technology, and Delphi.
