Campus Technology: Building Virtual Classrooms

Campus Technology highlighted the decision by State Fair Community College to outsource expansion of its online learning environment to SunGard Higher Education.  The article states, “With the help of Robert Paulson, who came on board as vice president of technology services for SunGard at SFCC, the administration crafted a strategic plan to fully align IT with the college’s overall objectives. As part of its suite of services, SunGard set up and staffed a new Department of Educational Technology Services. SFCC Online was part of the comprehensive tech overhaul spearheaded by SunGard … With fall 2009 collegewide enrollment hours up 28 percent and a 40 percent increase in online enrollment over the 2008 fall semester, there’s no doubt in President Marsha Drennon’s mind that outsourcing was the right decision for SFCC. ‘It is very hard to stay on top of what you need in terms of classroom technologies, training for the faculty, hardware, software, licensure, all of those kinds of things. Bringing in folks with outside expertise has had a very positive impact on how we move the institution forward with online learning.’”

http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2010/03/01/Building-Virtual-Classrooms.aspx