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The Interactive Campus: Administrative and Course Management System Vendors Take Up the Challenge
6/3/2002
When the student is ready to register, the system must also facilitate that process. This scenario also requires having an Internet gateway, and mobile computing environment.This integrated, interactive environment can be extended to other constituent groups, such as faculty, staff, and administration. Jenzabar offers Constituent Relationship Management engines that take advantage of its I3 strategy to enable complex interactions—the example above is just the beginning.
SCT senior vice president Anne Keough Keehn explains that
the 34-year-old company, once considered primarily an administrative systems
vendor, is now looking to provide an entire e-education infrastructure to unify
teaching, learning, and administration. "Much of the transformation of higher
education has taken place on the learning side," says Keehn. "The way
administrative systems have to evolve is to determine what will help administer
teaching and learning. We believe that an e-education infrastructure is needed
to leverage both the course management system and administrative system to
provide more user-centric experiences to the different constituencies, including
faculty, students, alumni…the entire community."
The types of
interactive applications now being developed by SCT center around self-service
and anywhere access. In the broader view, this may be considered Web enterprise
management. As an example of a specific application, Keehn cites the newly
launched E-Recruiter Pocket PC- an interactive tool for college admissions
recruiters, accessed via a handheld device- and she states that similar
applications will be developed for students and other user groups.
One
key technology area is content management. Rich multimedia content, robust
streaming video, and other interactive media assets can be leveraged in a
content management system. Sharing and learning asset management will be counted
among the elements of a total e-education infrastructure.
The problem of
integration is also key. The ability to serve up not only course information,
but also administrative information in an integrated system will be a user
expectation and an area for continuing development. Interoperability of the
tools and interactive technologies across campus is part of this integration and
will include common calendar, e-mail, and course management systems.
For
future development, additional areas to watch include collaboration and
community-building technologies. Keehn notes that technologies developed by the
gaming industry along with real-time, persistent connections for interactive
multi-user environments may ultimately contribute in these areas. "This can also
be seen from an administrative standpoint." Keehn points out. "As people are
interacting more and more online, it's important to consider how best to provide
that capability and create communities of interest online."
Campus Pipeline defines itself as an infrastructure player. David Murray, CTO, and Darin Gilson, COO, share their views on implementing new interactive technologies on campus. "We are excited and anxious to see these emerging technologies and to find out how they are going to take hold in the education market, but first and foremost, our focus is on building the infrastructure from which the technologies can be deployed," says Gilson, "And that is the chasm that needs crossing right now in higher education- making sure that the infrastructure is suitable for the broad deployment and development of new technologies.
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