Business Edge
California-based high-tech giant Sun Microsystems has chosen the University of Alberta as home for its first-ever Centre of Excellence for E-Learning.
Project supporters announced late last month that the Edmonton university will “serve as a model to the education community in examining how to configure and operate a scalable Sun system-based WebCT environment with the security, performance, reliability and availability required for mission-critical systems.”
The facility will serve as a model for other educational institutions, which will be able to adopt the practices, implementation guides, sizing and other information generated at the centre.
“Sun chose the University of Alberta to be the Centre of Excellence for E-Learning because of its leadership in transforming the education environment today,” Kim Jones, vice-president of global education and research for Sun Microsystems, said in a news release.
“Bringing academia to students anywhere, anytime, over any device reflects Sun’s vision for education and our commitment to serving as a partner to the education community.”
Dr. Doug Owram, U of A academic vice-president and Provost, said the joint initiative illustrates the university’s leadership in the world of e-learning.
“Working with Sun, we look forward to emphasizing how e-learning is changing the face of traditional education and helping other universities around the world implement successful Web-based learning programs.”
Added Michael Byrne, the university’s director of computing and networked services: “The Center of Excellence represents a natural step in the evolution of our relationship with vendors that have proven their ability to deliver quality and performance consistently for our mission-critical application.”
The university launched its distributed learning program in September 1998 with 100 courses, but now offers more than 1,000 courses. It has more than 30,000 students in 200 undergraduate programs and 170 graduate programs.
Sun Microsystems of Palo Alto, Calif., is a top provider of open network computing solutions to colleges and universities around the world in areas such as academic, research and high-performance computing systems, campus administration, digital libraries and student instruction systems. With $19.2 billion in annual revenues, Sun operates in more than 170 countries.
