Stephen Lofthouse, visiting from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, has a passel of bona fides: Senior Lecturer in Business Computing & SAP, SAP Program Manager, and Course Leader MSc Big Data Analytics. So he is well-placed to offer views on trends in e-learning within the university space, the long-standing relationship between his university and SAP, and a new training offering announced jointly by SAP Education and SAP University Alliances at SAPPHIRE NOW Orlando.
The offering – which aims to provide online training in SAP solutions for university students - reflects SAP’s strategy to close the SAP skills gap in the ICT market and foster co-development with university students. It is specifically tailored to the needs of university students, and will cover core SAP certification tracks in SAP’s major market categories of Business Applications, Database & Technology, Analytics, and Mobility.
When asked what he was most looking forward to at SAPPHIRE NOW Orlando, he didn’t miss a beat: “I’m going to embrace HANA. We’re doing a lot around Big Data and Big Data Analytics”, he said, adding that he plans to embed HANA in his teaching. Not only is he embracing HANA, Professor Lofthouse fully embraces social media and understands its ubiquity among today’s university students. By the time the current generation of university students yields newly minted professors, there will doubtless be a new and potentially costly spin on the concept of giving the teacher an Apple :wink:
