Digital Transformation in Higher Education

The importance of digital transformation in the education sector has increased exponentially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need to ensure continuity of education for everyone. Below, we address the most common, complex challenges to successfully achieving this transformation and provide best-in-class solutions that connect campus populations directly and securely to all the resources they need.

Identity Access and Governance

Colleges and universities have diverse and constantly evolving user populations, including students, faculty, applicants, alumni, staff, volunteers, and more. Every semester, thousands of users require new access rights, while others need a change in access or fall into multiple user categories. Despite this complexity, all users need simple, secure, and timely access to appropriate resources, and higher education institutions need an efficient, secure, and compliant way to provide and govern that access, especially as users' roles change.

Solution: Integrated Access Management and Identity Governance

• Easily secure and govern user access across the entire campus technology ecosystem, including on-premises and cloud systems and applications.
• Simplify user management, centralizing user data from diverse campus sources and sorting out users with multiple personas.
• Show continuous compliance with government and corporate regulations with access certification checks and audit reporting and analytics.
• Keep user access secure while reducing friction and optimizing workflows.

Direct and Secure Access to Resources

A modern education network relies on a multitude of online educational resources, campus-related software solutions, and other applications, some of which are accessed through federations and some of which are cloud-based. Students, faculty, and staff require anywhere/anytime access to these resources without compromising security. IT teams are often left scrambling to support this increasingly complex environment.

Solution: Cloud-Based Single Sign-On

• Give students, faculty, and staff easy and secure access to a wide variety of educational and campus-related resources, tools, and applications.
• Enable IT departments to centrally manage identity and access controls so they can streamline app onboarding and stay abreast of changing campus populations.
• Relieve traditional dependence on on-premises resources and shift to cloud efficiencies.
• Support current and future IT investments with Okta's industry domain knowledge.

Okta is the leading independent provider of identity for the enterprise. The Okta Identity Cloud enables organizations to securely connect the right people to the right technologies at the right time. With over 7,000 pre-built integrations to applications and infrastructure providers, Okta customers can easily and securely use the best technologies for their businesses. Over 6,100 organizations, including the University of Notre Dame, San Jose State University, St. Edward's University, Ursinus College, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, and Maryville University, trust Okta to help protect the identities of their workforces and customers.

For more information, go to okta.com/solutions/public-sector/education/.

Rob Harper is the National Director, Okta Higher Education, at Okta.