Des Moines area Community College leverages HP to create multi-campus educational portal:.An educational portal at Des Moines Area Community College The Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) is a community college in Iowa that offers classes in Ankeny, Boone, Carroll, Des Moines (the Urban Campus), Newton, and West Des Moines (the West Campus). DMACC also offers a wide variety of on-line classes. , built with Microsoft SharePoint [TM] software and running on HP servers and storage systems, may ultimately transform the entire educational experience there. "It's all about making education accessible to everyone, anytime, anywhere," explained Ann Watts, instructional design coordinator An Instructional Design Coordinator is a person who is responsible for overseeing the implementation of instructional design techniques, usually in an academic setting or in corporate training. and portal project manager at DMACC DMACC Des Moines Area Community College . Des Moines Area Community College is a public institution with six campuses. The portal--known as "my.dmacc" to users--is an outgrowth of the college's educational mobility initiative that runs on HP ProLiant servers. DMACC has implemented a systemwide wireless system to support academic programs and administrative needs. FAR-REACHING VISION Watts sees the portal as a communication tool that will link faculty to students, department to department, administration to faculty, and campus to campus. It will serve as a tool for faculty to manage their courses, while providing a central depository The place where a deposit is placed and kept, e.g., a bank, savings and loan institution, credit union, or trust company. A place where something is deposited or stored as for safekeeping or convenience, e.g., a safety deposit box. for course-related materials. And it will enable DMACC to reach out to various publics--"from pre-K to gray"--establishing connections with the community. Among the components: * Departmental sites for collaboration and document sharing See data conferencing. . * Resources to promote "best practices" for faculty. Academic departmental sites will include sample syllabi syl·la·bi n. A plural of syllabus. and assignments for new instructors. * Class sites that include announcements, events, pertinent Web links, discussion lists, and more. * Specialized sites for collaboration with colleagues outside the institution. Built-in discussion/chat features, allow instant communication. * A "Kids College" portal to serve elementary and middle school-aged children. Content might include information about journalism camp, fun days and more. * A portal dedicated to high school shared programs. Watts envisions a dynamic communication tool that will give students access to state documents, regulations and guidelines for post-secondary enrollment options. * A senior citizen portal for DMACC's "Community Connections" program. Specialized information about genealogy genealogy (jē'nēŏl`əjē, –ăl`–, jĕ–), the study of family lineage. Genealogies have existed since ancient times. , health care and other topics could easily be added. EASY TO USE Watts' team of three programmers has developed content in a way that makes it simple. For students, there is a game-based online orientation. It exposes them to different parts of the portal and how to access resources. For faculty, there's an "instructors' toolbox See toolkit and toolbar. " with links to pages on using Microsoft Front Page [R] (so they can build their own Web pages on the portal), techniques for teaching online and more. HARDWARE INDEPENDENCE One of Watts' greatest concerns was finding a tool that was truly hardware independent. "We've had a lot of help from people at HP to support the mobility initiative. While we don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. exactly what the future will be, HP is working with us on various device options. "That's one of the things we really like about HP--they are hardware agnostic," Watts said. "They work with iPAQs, cell phones, Tablet PCs (1) A tablet computer environment from Microsoft that is based on an enhanced version of Windows XP. Designed to function more like a portable writing tablet than previous tablet-based computers, it includes handwriting recognition as well as the ability to retain handwritten words ... virtually anything that can surf the Web." CAMPUS INFRASTRUCTURE FROM HP The portal runs on three HP ProLiant servers and will incorporate an HP Storage Area Network, in a hardware architecture designed to accommodate growth and flexibility. The storage area network, in addition to providing storage for faculty and administrative users to post content, will provide space for each student. "Why put things on a personal hard drive when, if it's on the portal, they can access it anytime, anywhere?" Watts asked rhetorically. |
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