Dakota State University: Technology Equips Graduates with Real-World Experience

Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology

Home > Dakota State University: Technology Equips Graduates with Real-World Experience

Features

Dakota State University: Technology Equips Graduates with Real-World Experience

12/30/2002

Today, BIS offers multiple technology-based one- and three-hour courses in enterprise software. The courses cover Internet architecture, application design, installation and the fundamentals of enterprise systems and PeopleSoft. Additionally, Dakota State University is developing an enterprise system software minor in Computer Information Systems.

Sharing the Wealth
Interestingly, Dakota State took its growing partnership with PeopleSoft a step further. A natural extension of our On Campus experience is our institution's new Center for Remote Enterprise System Hosting (CRESH). Through CRESH we offer other interested schools remote-hosted access to PeopleSoft's suite of applications. Institutions around the world are interested in utilizing enterprise systems in their courses, but not every school has the time or technical where-with-all to support complex systems infrastructures. That is where CRESH comes in, and we anticipate that it will be a significant new resource for schools across the United States. At CRESH we have the technical infrastructure in place, and we are developing business models and access and delivery options that schools may wish to utilize (for example, we can connect schools to the PeopleSoft server over Internet2). We highlighted the Center at recent events such as the Information Systems Education Conference (ISEC) and the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) and received enthusiastic interest from faculty members from around the world. CRESH is how Dakota State can "share the wealth," bringing the merits of the On Campus program to bear on other schools across the country.

"At Dakota State University, we learned first-hand that a successful, enterprise-software implementation—even for academic uses—involves a significant investment of time and resources," says President Jerald A. Tunheim.

"The implementation process—contracting, installation, training, testing, maintenance, and support—is very similar to the implementation cycles of a commercial project. But then we had to add curriculum development to the mix too! With the technical infrastructure completed, we now have a multi-year plan in place that focuses on faculty and curriculum development and the CRESH remote-access initiatives, all of which will allow us to exploit the capabilities of this new enterprise software, while offering an exciting new resource to other institutions around the country."

While extensive and time-intensive, these undertakings are helping Dakota State University keep pace with the most recent technical developments in the industry. The latest pure Internet enterprise software opens doors for remote access to applications and to new styles of teaching and learning. With the use of these technologies, industry and academia collaboration can enrich courses and provide a direct benefit to our students.

For more information contact John Webster, PeopleSoft Programs Director, CRESH, at John.Webster@dsu.