Higher Education Planning in an Exponential Age

This book fulfills a need for planning in higher education due to the impending impact of ten twenty-first century technologies: 3D printing, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, bitcoin/blockchain, genome development: agricultural, genome: medical, internet of things, nanotechnology, personal robot, and quantum computing. Each of these technologies develop in a two-stage manner: Stage 1, Linear, and Stage 2, Exponential.Uber and Airbnb are excellent examples that developed for a short time in Stage 1, a step-by-step manner, before then reaching Stage 2, where they accelerated with exponential velocity. Both were able to accomplish rapid development through the use of digital support. The ten technologies listed above are all currently developing in Stage 1; however, each will reach Stage 2, and when they do, they will have powerful impacts on community colleges and universities. Their extremely rapid development in the second stage could take higher education by storm if the leaders, faculty, and staff are not prepared for them.This book presents ARPAC, a planning method to successfully deal with the impact of these technologies. This planning method is critical for the future viability and success of community colleges and universities.

Leaders in higher education are constantly faced with having to adapt quickly to the demands of business and industry. As a proven scholar and leader in higher education, Darrel Staat has provided college leaders with a clear action plan to prepare for the exponential growth of technology in this ever changing digital world. This book is relevant, necessary, and timely!, Technology has never been more embedded in the working lives of educators. Impacting the needed skillsets for learning outcomes, community needs, and strategic planning is crucial. This must-read book allows for a lens into the planning, social dynamics, and challenges higher education is facing to keep pace with curriculum, delivery, and outcomes., Darrel Staat conveys, with welcome enthusiasm, a much-needed strategy to address the exponential changes that leaders in higher education are facing. As new technologies develop at an unthinkable speed, this book illustrates the possibilities that lie ahead for our institutions, if we will only look past the way things have always been., Staat’s premise that higher education is on the precipice of an uncharted journey of change as it will be impacted by the exponential advances in 10 key technologies is unassailable. This book offers forward-thinking leaders a guide for moving their institutions firmly into a level of data-driven change management designed to permeate the institution and position it for thriving amidst the coming changes., This book is a must read for any higher education stakeholder. A proven visionary and transformational leader in higher education, Dr. Darrel Staat provides keen and timely insight into the speed at which innovative change will occur through the year 2045 and beyond. Now more than ever college leaders must be proactive in re-engineering strategic planning processes to meet the needs of these exponentially evolving technologies or risk getting left behind.

Darrel W. Staat is past president of two community colleges in Maine (founding president of one) and one community college in Virginia. He also served as president of the South Carolina Technical College System. He is now professor and coordinator of the EdD Higher Education Executive Leadership Program at Wingate University in North Carolina.