Centra Facilitates Success of eLearning in North American Universities; Signs New Deal with Alberta's Northern Lakes College.Business/Technology Editors LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2002 Centra's Live eLearning Platform Helps Canadian College Expand Educational Opportunities for Rural Communities; High Performance over Low-Bandwidth Internet Connections Critical Adding to a growing list of university customers using Centra's virtual classroom software to reach new students online - including Stanford, Wharton, UNC (Universal Naming Convention) A standard for identifying servers, printers and other resources in a network, which originated in the Unix community. A UNC path uses double slashes or backslashes to precede the name of the computer. Charlotte, University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (UT), sometimes called the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UT Knoxville or UTK), is the flagship institution of the statewide land-grant University of Tennessee public university system in the American state of Tennessee. , University of Michigan (body, education) University of Michigan - A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. , and New York University New York University, mainly in New York City; coeducational; chartered 1831, opened 1832 as the Univ. of the City of New York, renamed 1896. It comprises 13 schools and colleges, maintaining 4 main centers (including the Medical Center) in the city, as well as the - Centra (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : CTRA CTRA Canadian Therapeutic Recreation Association CTRA College Terrace Residents' Association CTRA Canadian Telecommunications Resellers Alliance CTRA Committee To Restore America ) today announced that Alberta's Northern Lakes College will use Centra's eLearning and Web collaboration platform An emerging category of computer software, collaboration platforms are unified electronic platforms that support synchronous and asynchronous communication through a variety of devices and channels. , CentraOne, to deliver college programs to adult learners in rural communities over the Internet. The College, which has delivered distance education for 20 years, plans to replace its current distance-learning technologies with CentraOne. Live, instructor-led courses and one-on-one tutoring will be delivered over the Internet using Centra to a large student population across north-central Alberta. The students, many of whom are female and of aboriginal descent, are seeking high school, vocational, workforce, university, and career courses. Without Web-based eLearning technologies such as Centra, educational opportunities would be difficult to access or unavailable to residents in remote locations. "Easy-to-use Web collaboration tools, such as real-time application sharing A data conferencing capability that lets two or more users interactively work on the same application at the same time. The application is loaded and running in only one machine; however, keystrokes are transmitted from and screen changes are transmitted to the other participants. and reliable voice-over-IP, were important criteria in selecting a product that would ensure the best experience and highest user adoption," said Rick Neidig, Vice President of College Services. "Centra meets our needs on every front. It will enable us to extend our curriculum by bringing subject matter experts to remote areas without requiring students to leave their communities. Without this type of delivery, many students would not be able to advance their education or employment potential." An early innovator in distance learning, Northern Lakes College has been using an audio-graphic teleconferencing system to teach courses for more than a decade. In moving to the Internet, Northern Lakes College sought a live eLearning platform with capabilities that would allow them to easily adapt their current teaching materials and expand their offering as the Internet infrastructure in Alberta improves. Total transition to CentraOne is expected to take two to three years as Alberta's "SuperNet" project extends to bring high-speed Internet See broadband. access to rural communities across the Province. Neidig added, "It is critical that we are able to service communities throughout Alberta until high-speed Internet access becomes available. Since Centra delivers full performance over lower-bandwidth connections, we don't have to sacrifice the important interaction of a live classroom setting or limit our reach. With the current delivery system, we are able to service approximately 850 course registrations per year. With Centra, we expect to increase our market and support services support services Psychology Non-health care-related ancillary services–eg, transportation, financial aid, support groups, homemaker services, respite services, and other services dramatically." Some of the future applications of Centra being considered by the College include more evening courses, delivery to students in their home or workplace, and online professional development programs for faculty. Meetings and administrative activities will also move online, reducing the amount of travel needed by the College's decentralized de·cen·tral·ize v. de·cen·tral·ized, de·cen·tral·iz·ing, de·cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To distribute the administrative functions or powers of (a central authority) among several local authorities. management. Scaleable Software Solution for eLearning and Business Collaboration Used by more than 775 companies, government agencies, and universities worldwide, Centra's scaleable software solutions are based on CentraOne(TM), a comprehensive, thin-client Web collaboration platform. Leveraging the core capabilities of CentraOne, Centra offers a suite of compatible, real-time Web collaboration products See collaborative software. , content creation tools, and knowledge delivery systems that can be quickly installed on-site using Centra's rapid deployment methodology, or conveniently accessed through Centra's secure, full-service ASP. Centra's products - including interactive Web meetings, virtual classrooms, and large-scale conferences - ensure universal access to users through firewalls and proxy servers, and deliver full-performance IP audio conferencing See audioconferencing. , streaming video A one-way video transmission over a data network. It is widely used on the Web as well as company networks to play video clips and video broadcasts. Computers in home networks stream video to digital media hubs connected to a home theater. , application sharing, and dynamic multimedia over low-bandwidth network connections through a standard browser interface. "As one of the more experienced adopters of technology for distance learning, Northern Lakes College conducted a rigorous evaluation of eLearning and collaboration products before choosing Centra," said Joyce Bokuniewicz, Centra's Director of Higher Education Programs. "Their decision is not only a testament to the vision of the Northern Lakes College faculty, it also reflects the strength of Centra's products and proven track record in making colleges, universities, and business schools successful in their endeavors to make education available online." About Northern Lakes College Northern Lakes College has facilities in 26 communities throughout north-central Alberta with the administrative center located in the historic community of Grouard. The College provides quality educational programs and services that enable adults to continue their education, to improve their employment opportunities, and to enhance their quality of life. For more information, visit www.northernlakescollege.ca. About Centra Leading with an undisputed track record of helping millions of users to increase revenue and improve overall business performance, Centra provides Web collaboration solutions that enable the delivery of information in a variety of live and self-service formats, and add value through unmatched capabilities to capture interactions and content, personalize and manage this information, and instantly re-use it across the enterprise. Today hundreds of global organizations across every industry and market sector choose Centra, including ExxonMobil, Cadbury Schweppes, Citigroup, AT&T, Procter & Gamble, McKesson, Merck, Nationwide Insurance, Sysco, and Stanford University. Centra's products are bolstered by a vital ecosystem of strategic partners, including PwC Consulting, Deloitte Consulting, EDS (Electronic Data Systems, Plano, TX, www.eds.com) Founded in 1962 by H. Ross Perot (independent candidate for the President of the U.S. in 1992), EDS is the largest outsourcing and data processing services organization in the country. , KPMG KPMG Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (accounting firm) KPMG Kaiser Permanente Medical Group KPMG Keiner Prüft Mehr Genau (German) KPMG Kommen Prüfen Meckern Gehen iLS, Microsoft, Siebel, Cisco, and Oracle. Headquartered in Boston's technology corridor, Centra has sales offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.centra.com. |
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