IN THIS ISSUE

VIEWPOINT

• Is Your CMS at Risk?

NEWS & PRODUCT UPDATES

• New SCT Luminis Data Integration for eLearning
• "Outside the Fortress Beseiged" - A Text Message Only Novel
• eCollege and Corinthian Colleges Extend Partnership
• CollegeNET Processes Over 3/4 Million Online Admissions Applications in 2003
• Penn State Dismantles Barriers to Online Teaching Winning National Award
• U. of Vienna-Austria Improves Education Quality with WebCT
• WebCT Selects Five Exemplary Courses Showcasing Power of eLearning

CASE STUDY

• Enterprise Content Management in Higher Education

TECH NOTES

• Leveraging 'Know-how' to Address Broader Educational Goals

READER RESPONSE

• Submit Your Case Study and News

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Is Your CMS at Risk?

By Frank Tansey

Browsing the news on my RSS newsreader last week, I came across a link on LWN.net referencing the following description:

"A web site creation and maintenance system permits distributed control and centralized management of a web site. The physical implementation of the web site resides on a database maintained by a database administrator. The web site system permits a site administrator to construct the overall structure, design and style of the web site. This allows for a comprehensive design as well as a common look and feel for the web site. The web site system permits content for the web site to originate from multiple content contributors. The publication of content is controlled by content owners. This permits assignment of content control to those persons familiar with the content."

D'es any of the above description sound like any of the eLearning technology in use on your campus? Chances are if you are using a CMS (content management), a blog or related technology, you may use technology that falls within the above rubric. In these types of environments there is a centrally-created structure that includes look and feel as well as navigation. To that structure, contributors including faculty and students add and control their content without the intervention of a third party. Added content is stored, frequently in a database, for access by other users of the system.

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New SCT Luminis Data Integration for eLearning

While 80 percent of institutions have implemented some type of integration between their student information and course management systems, it has been estimated that fewer than half have achieved real-time integration. SunGard SCT announced general availability of SCT Luminis Data Integration for eLearning 3.0 to more easily connect these critical components of the digital campus.

"Outside the Fortress Beseiged" - A Text Message Only Novel

That's the title of the first novel written in 80-word chapters and designed to be transmitted and read via text messaging.

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eCollege and Corinthian Colleges Extend Partnership

eCollege, announced the signing of a renewed agreement with Corinthian Colleges, Inc. eCollege has provided Corinthian with course management software, hosting and support services for its online programs since 2000, and through the renewed contract, eCollege will continue to serve Corinthian’s evolving enterprise-wide eLearning needs.

CollegeNET Processes Over 3/4 Million Online Admissions Applications in 2003

CollegeNET reported that it processed 777,741 Web-based admissions applications on behalf of 536 higher ed institutional clients during 2003. CollegeNET works for institutional clients by serving Web admissions forms for one or more schools within the institution. In 2003, CollegeNET hosted 1,505 Web admissions application forms for 698 schools.

Penn State Dismantles Barriers to Online Teaching Winning National Award

Penn State faculty research team has worked to dismantle two common barriers to teaching online and has been honored for its research with the 2004 Bill Murphy Barrier Buster Award from the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC).

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U. of Vienna-Austria Improves Education Quality with WebCT

Academic enterprise system gives University of Vienna faculty new tools for flexible instruction delivery and gives students new alternatives for learning. The 640-year-old University of Vienna-Austria selects the WebCT Vista academic enterprise system to enhance the learning experience for students and streamline the delivery of education through the deployment of university-wide eLearning to the 63,000-student institution.

WebCT Selects Five Exemplary Courses Showcasing Power of eLearning

WebCT, provider of the world's most flexible and widely used higher education eLearning solutions, today kicked off Impact 2004, the 6th Annual WebCT User Conference, by showcasing five WebCT-powered higher-education courses that are expanding the possibilities of Internet-enhanced learning. For the fifth straight year, WebCT's 2004 Exemplary Course Project has singled out courses for displaying best practices in course design, interaction/collaboration, assessment/evaluation, meaningful technology use and learner support.

Enterprise Content Management in Higher Education

By Andrew McAusland

Located in Montreal, Canada, Concordia University is an urban educational institution serving 31,000 undergraduate and graduate students from across Canada and around the world. By the mid-1990s, the Dean of Arts & Science noticed that the amount of paperwork that had to be filed, stored, and retrieved in a timely and cost-effective manner was beginning to overwhelm his administrative staff. In response, the faculty deployed an enterprise content management (ECM) solution for its 400 plus-member Faculty of Arts and Science and later expanded its use to the Library, and to the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (130 members). Following the success of this deployment, Documentum was chosen as an ECM solution to facilitate and manage the university’s admissions process.

Leveraging 'Know-how' to Address Broader Educational Goals

TaskStream expands its electronic portfolio and learning management toolset, highly regarded in schools of education and now, in a June '04 launch, adapted for all teaching and learning environments. The toolset offers a Web-based ePortfolio and program management system for documenting the learning process and showcasing, assessing, reporting, and archiving student digital products.

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