The impact of information technology on university performance and student success

Abstract

Improving the quality of education is a priority for most developing countries. Policy makers generally agree that such improvements can bring about productive structural change and stimulate long-term economic growth. Governments face the challenge of identifying effective and technological ways to use their limited resources and improve the quality of education. Indeed, these resources are manifested in information technology, which has grown at an accelerated rate in recent decades, significantly impacting on the way universities operate and forcing them to rethink the way they conceptualize their teaching strategies. Information technology can provide universities with powerful strategic and tactical tools which, if properly applied and used, could bring great advantages in promoting and strengthening their competitiveness. Information technology is a means to facilitate communication and exchange of information as well as to facilitate knowledge sharing between different actors in the university. This is why universities invest in and govern their information technology assets and practices. At this level, information technology can be used to improve collaboration and networking among faculty, students and administrative officials, as it removes barriers to real-time communication and effective information sharing. As the existing literature illustrates, information technology appears to have positive correlations with improved academic performance and student success. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of information technology on academic performance and student success and to describe the factors that affect this impact.