Journalism School Professor Appointed to Help Guide Columbia’s Digital Learning

Sree Sreenivasan assumes his new job as Columbia's first chief digital officer at a moment when online and distance learning are hot button issues in higher education. Last year, for example, 160,000 people registered for an online artificial intelligence course at Stanford, though a little more than 20 percent were reported to have completed it. Over the summer, the University of Virginia board briefly ousted, then reinstated, a popular president due in part to concerns that the school was lagging behind in online education. Sree Sreenivasan has been named Columbia's first chief digital officer, tasked with steering the University's digital learning. Sreenivasan, a noted expert in new media and digital technology, doesn't appear the least bit worried about steering the University's online and distance learning. "There is so much noise about online learning in higher education, but there is really no need for panic," said Sreenivasan. "It's like 1996 right now—before Google or Wikipedia.