THE FIRST-EVER DIGITAL UNIVERSITY IN AZERBAIJAN

In April 2019, Galib Mammad of ADA University Foundation presented a case of change management at Ellucian Live in New Orleans. More than 8,000 university administrators from all over the world were in that conference. We had come to this major international gathering of higher education to present ADA University as a success story. Not only in Azerbaijan, but also globally. 

We identified Ellucian’s Banner XE for student life cycle and enterprise resource planning, Blackboard for learning management and OCLC WMS for library management. The comprehensive review and change of both academic and business processes was fundamental to this transformational endeavor.

In a matter of two years, we changed all systems, successfully implemented and fully integrated Banner, Blackboard and OCLC WMS. All on Cloud. Most importantly, we developed some 30 staff and managers into highly competent higher education administrators. When the global pandemic hit Azerbaijan, it took ADA University a week to shift teaching, learning and operations online without any interruption. 

The Washington Center has initiated and managed this transformational change at ADA University. We involved faculty and administrators from major schools, such as William and Mary, Old Dominion University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, American University etc in planning and implementation. Highly competent higher education experts, who had worked in positions of provost, registrar, budget, finance, human resources, accreditation, learning management helped their counterparts at ADA University in their efforts of institution building. 

ADA University has received Ellucian Innovation Award and Blackboard Catalyst Award for its success in digital transformation, people development and change management. Over years, we have built not only the world-class university in Azerbaijan, but also the first-ever digital university in that country.