News 10-09-2001
New Workshop Added to Syllabus fall2001 Conference
Workshop: Exploring, Developing, and Delivering Web Video
Workshop Leaders: Anne Kellerman and Palmer Agnew, Instructors State University
of New York at Binghamton
Date: Saturday, December 1 (Half Day)
As prices of technology -- both software and hardware -- rapidly drop and bandwidth
slowly increases, more possibilities for satisfactory and meaningful video educadtion
experiences are opening up for teachers and students. This workshop will cover
those possibilities and offer participants hands-on experience exploring developing
and delivering Web video.
For more information on Syllabus workshops and seminars, visit www.syllabus.com.
Early Bird Registration Deadline Extended
Enthusiasm for Syllabus Fall2001 remains high, with registration advancing
at a pace that exceeds last year's. We hope all members of the Syllabus community
will join us in Danvers (just north of Boston) from November 29 - December 2.
To that end, we've extended the early bird deadline, which offers a 15% discount
through Sunday, October 14.
If you've already registered, we're looking forward to seeing you there. If
you're undecided -- or just preoccupied -- please use this extension as an opportunity
to make your plans at the reduced rate.
Registration is available online at www.syllabus.com.
For registration questions, call (541) 346-3537 or (800) 280-6218.
Drexel to Standardize on Web Platform
Drexel University said it would purchase a web platform to integrate electronic
resources and applications in a common software environment throughout campus.
Drexel University president Constantine Papadakis called the web integration
"an obvious next set for the university" after its roll-out last year
of digital wireless network and its status as a gigapop connector to Internet2.
The web platform, which will be provided by Campus Pipeline Inc., will help
integrate student information, the university's finance, human resources, and
email systems, as well as future web applications. Campus Pipeline develops
Web-integration software and services to assist colleges and universities unify
the entire campus enterprise.
For more information, visit: http://www.drexel.edu.
CalState Enlists Ed Tech to Speed Teacher Qualification
The California State University system signed an agreement with CollegisEduprise
Inc., a education services company, to help state K-12 teachers obtain their
teaching credentials. Under a three-year agreement, the company will provide
marketing and education technologies to the CalstateTEACH program, through which
the state hopes to issue credentials to 300,000 new teachers in the next 10
years. CollegisEduprise will develop a specialized marketing program, assess
the readiness of faculty to teach online, and integrate CalTEACH's student information
system with its Blackboard course development software to eliminate duplicate
record entry.
For more information, visit: http://www.calstateteach.net.
U. Ph'enix Signs Content Deal with America Online
The University of Ph'enix, an adult higher education provider, signed a deal
with America Online to provide educational content to users of AOL, CompuServe,
and Netscape.com. The services will have access to educational content from
20 degree programs offered by the school in the areas of business, technology,
nursing and education. University of Ph'enix president Laura Palmer Noone, noting
the university began offering online degree programs about the time AOL launched,
said the alliance would offer "value and academic opportunity to the AOL
member community both online and on campus" and provide the university's
students a "seamless online education experience." The University
of Ph'enix is a subsidiary of the Apollo Learning Group Inc.
For more information, visit http://www.apollogrp.edu.
University of Maryland Business School Puts Up Portal
The University of Maryland's Robert Smith School of Business said it would
launch an Internet portal to help manage online information across its academic
constituencies. The school will use software from Autonomy Corp. to organize,
personalize and deliver documents, financial, transportation and logistics databases,
federal agency information, and selected Web-based sources. The portal will
also have natural language retrieval features to allow full-sentence search
queries. Sandor Boyson, Smith's chief of information strategy, said the new
portal represents the replacement of "a Website that posted static information
with a sophisticated portal that delivers automated services to those who access
it."
For more information, visit: http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu.
Wall Street Journal Launches Site for College Students
The Wall Street Journal launched collegejournal.com, a web site offering undergraduate,
graduate and MBA students job-search and career-guidance information, including
searchable job listings, background articles, a resume builder, a confidential
online profile, and a discussion area. The company said it would work with companies
to maintain a searchable jobs database, which now contains more than 30,000
entry and junior-level positions. Other site features include, "Who's Hiring,"
an at-a-glace listing of companies with job openings, and MBA Center, to help
students choose and apply to graduate schools.
For more information, visit: http://www.collegejournal.com.
U Mass. to Build Dual Online Education Platform
The University of Massachussetts said it would expand its online infrastructure
to improve delivery of educational programs and campus services over the Internet.
The school's UMassOnline program will create a dual platform architecture using
learning management systems from Prometheus and IntraLearn. The platform will
provide tools for creating online learning content, as well as a Web portal
to help students and faculty manage their classes. UMassOnline currently has
more than 6,000 people enrolled in 25 campus-based online degree and certification
programs. UMassOnline chief Jack Wilson said the dual platform approach would
give the school both flexiblity and control in growing its distance learning
curriculum and responding to campus needs.
For more information, visit: http://www.UMassOnline.net.
U. Texas Med Center Institutes Speech Recognition
The University of Texas's Southwestern Medical Center is offering a speech
recognition service enabling callers to say the name of the employee, physician,
department, clinic, or study they are trying to reach and connect to an appropriate
number. The service uses SpeechSite speech recognition technology from SpeechWorks
International, Inc., and helps university operators, who field calls for about
75,000 patients annually, work with callers with more complex needs. The Center
said more than 60 percent of all calls are now automated using the system, which
resides on server in the data center and uses employee information from its
human resources management system. In the near future, the system will be expanded
to recognize Spanish-speaking callers.
For more information, visit: http://www.speechworks.com.
eCollege Tops Colorado List for Fastest Growth
The fastest growing company in Colorado in the past year was edcuational courseware
developer eCollege, according to the consulting firm Deloitte & Touche,
which ranked state companies in its annual Colorado Technology Fast 50 listing.
Denver-based eCollege, an application service provider that develops online
campuses and courseware, had revenue growth of 10,996 percent in the last year.
Qwest Communications was number two on the list. Five year-old eCollege has
worked on online educational programs for Seton Hall University, the University
of Colorado, the DeVry Institutes, the Kentucky Virtual High School, and Microsoft
Faculty Center.
For more information, visit: http://www.ecollege.com.
New Rutgers Site to Help Spur Applications
Rutgers University, the state university of New Jersey, unveiled a new web
site designed to help boost undergraduate applications. The site, designed by
Edgewater, N.J.-based Multimedia Solutions Inc., uses several interactive features,
including Macromedia Flash, to create an "animated experience" for
students, parents, and counselors browsing the site. Rutgers invested in the
site redesign because it wanted "to quickly and effectively convey the
entire Rutgers experience, from academics to student life ... we also wanted
to increase the number of qualified applications we receive," said Diane
Harris, the director of marketing for undergraduate admissions at the school.
For more information, visit: http://admissions.rutgers.edu.
Florida College Wins Storage Accolades
Daytona Beach Community College (DBCC) won a technology media award for an
innovative solution to its storage mangagement problems. SearchStorage.com said
DBCC deserved an award for its use of SANsymphony software from Datacore Inc.
to consolidate the management of its storage needs over a mutliple-vendor environment
in a virtual network storage pool. "The IT team at DBCC proved that you
can integrate proprietary, legacy storage hardware into a modern storage network,
balancing the leading edge with the highly practical, to deliver a high-value
solution,'' said Paul Gillin, editor-in-chief, SearchStorage.com, a media outlet
for storage professionals.
For more information, visit: www.searchstorage.com.
Don't Miss These Events from 101communications
Datawarehouse Institute
October 22-26, San Francisco, CA
http://www.dw-institute.com/seminars2001
Integration Solutions
October 24-26
http://www.integration-sols.co.uk/
The premiere conference and exhibition to bring together the developer community.
Syllabus fall2001 "Next Steps: Moving Forward with Campus IT"
November 29-December 2, Danvers, MA.
Online registration available: http://www.syllabus.com
