This Week in Higher Ed Innovation: 5 Must-Read Articles

Here are 5 of the most interesting and useful posts about Salesforce for Higher Ed and #edtech that the Salesforce.org team has been reading over the past week. Enjoy!

1. America as 100 College Students
via @GatesFoundation
A cool infographic from the Gates Foundation that breaks down today’s higher ed student population ― which is more diverse than ever ― by age, race, learning environment, number of kids, housing and enrollment situation, and more.

2. Understanding HEDA and What It Means for Higher Education
via @jdavidson of @7SummitsInc
This post gives a great overview of our Higher Education Data Architecture (known by its stage name, “HEDA”). James Davidson of 7Summits also gives some insight into the ways Salesforce.org Higher Ed Partners are planning to customize and extend HEDA.

3. Navigating Information Security Compliance
via @EduventuresInc
Compliance with information security laws is a huge concern in every industry, and with data breaches becoming more and more common, it’s one place where higher ed can’t afford to lag behind. Here are some tips from Eduventures to help you understand the regulations affecting higher ed and learn best practices for getting serious about data security.

4. How Risky Is The Cloud?
via @educause
#InfoSec must be trending this week. In this follow-up piece to an EDUCAUSE conference for IT security professionals, you’ll find links to PDFs of the de6 cks from sessions like “Look Up: It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s Your Sensitive Data in the Cloud!”

5. Customizing Salesforce in Higher Ed: A #HigherEdLoveStory
via @jacebryan_
Ah, the eternal “Build or Buy” conundrum: two philosophies about customizing the Platform that all Salesforce-using institutions grapple with. Jace Bryan of Texas A&M University-Commerce shares great tips in this first installment of our “Build or Buy” series.

See you next week! Remember to follow us on Twitter at @SalesforceOrg for more higher education innovation news.