Ranking Instructions

From Horizon Project

The task of the first ranking is to distill the collection of entries for the research questions into a more manageable and succinct listing. Those that rank highest in this phase will be written up as the Short List.

The process begins by collecting similar items together under a single item, sometimes because they seemed united by an overarching theme, sometimes because they seemed different facets of the same thing. Many items fall together very easily and doing that allows us to cut the number of items Advisory Board members are asked to rank sometimes by as much as half. No items are omitted however -- the data for the first ranking include all of the items submitted as responses.

Using that collapsed list, the ranking uses a quick and simple process based on a form of the Delphi Method. Each set of responses is compiled into a Word document that represents the compilation of all the work done each year to this point, organized around the five research questions, and arranged to make it easy to vote for those which are thought to be most important.

What follows are the directions given to the Advisory Board members:

1) You have 10 votes to allocate among the items listed under each of the five questions (50 votes total). You may distribute these votes in any way you wish -- all 10 can go for a single item, 2 for one or more items, or spread out all 10. This will allow you to indicate the relative importance of the items you select to our foci of teaching, learning and creative expression.

2) For the first three questions, which focus on emerging technologies, we also ask that for each technology you cast a vote for, you also indicate a likely adoption horizon for colleges and universities -- 12 months or less, 2-3 years, or 4-5 years.

The final two questions, which focus on trends and challenges require only the distribution of your 10 votes. As is our usual practice, we have brought forward the challenges and trends identified last year so they might be reevaluated as part of the ranking process.

You can enter your votes in the attached Word docs and email them back -- or -- you can simply print out the five forms, make your selections in pen or pencil, and fax them back.

If you feel that any item in a combined item should be broken out so that you can vote for it individually, please feel free to do so. We have left blank lines at the end of each form for that purpose.