Praxa Makes the Grade with Microsoft-based Online Learning System for RMIT University

Summary
One of Australia’s largest universities has transformed its traditional teaching practices with an Internet-based learning management solution, implemented by leading independent systems integrator Praxa Ltd.

Melbourne-based RMIT University selected Praxa to provide a solution based on Microsoft’s SQL technology to deliver a learning system, as well as other student services, via the Internet and the corporate intranet.

Underpinning the implementation of the Online@RMIT Distributed Learning System is a teaching and learning strategy that promotes more flexible learning options, as well as a shift in university philosophy to cater more to student needs.

The system allows students to: access quality learning resources and library resources which support planned learning activities, lectures, and tutorials; participate in group project discussions by extending the range of the classroom using chat rooms and threaded discussion forums; and to flexibly submit assignments, register for subjects, check results and update personal profiles.

Praxa worked with RMIT personnel to design and develop Online@RMIT, the first enterprise-wide online learning system deployed in an Australian university.

The distributed corporate system, which allows all faculties and departments to access the same infrastructure, tool sets and resources for online delivery of course material and to support collaborative learning, has saved the university millions of dollars in hardware, software and implementation costs across the University. Strategically the University sees this initiative as a means to improving the quality of the learning experience and making better use of scarce and costly resources.


Situation
RMIT University is one of Australia’s oldest and largest universities, which today accommodates almost 52,000 students (both in Australia and offshore).

The university has more than 20 research centres and institutes that are at the forefront of innovation in areas such as intelligent manufacturing systems, telecommunications, information technology, multimedia, design, transport, work-place communication and social science.

RMIT’s Vice Chancellor-designate Dr Ruth Dunkin led the introduction of the University's Teaching and Learning Strategy and guided an IT alignment project in 1998 that charted ways information technology could be used to further RMIT's educational improvement, business and marketing strategies.

RMIT Head Of Distributed Learning Services, Ross Lord, said that the technology and its ongoing investment in its people capabilities and IP are central to making education more economically accessible to more people.

“RMIT has a teaching and learning strategy aimed at promoting higher levels of flexible learning across course profiles,” he said.

“We saw online technology as one plank to help achieve this. We also have a mobile and mature age student population, so we need to be able to ensure that students can access their learning programs no matter where they are.

“RMIT has made a conscious decision to fit in with students rather than always expecting them to fit in with us. This underpins the strategy and why we are using technology.”

In addition to providing students with more flexible access to learning, RMIT has used the implementation of distributed learning to re-evaluate and improve its teaching and learning strategies for a post-information age.

“It’s all about getting people to rethink their teaching and learning strategies, changing the university’s business rules and actually encouraging students to take more responsibility for their own learning,” he said.

“Whilst we are putting the tools and environment in place, we are trying to ensure our staff have the capabilities and access to support resources in order to 'renew' programs to make better and more appropriate use of the online environment.”

Solution
After recognising that its own 'in-house' expertise could not invest the time and resources required to implement Online@RMIT, the university via Learning Technology Services approached Microsoft business partner Praxa Ltd to provide the critical design, implementation and consulting services.

Praxa is a leading systems integrator, which employs 570 staff in offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane, as well as Auckland in New Zealand.

Mr Lord said Praxa outshone its competitors during RMIT’s screening process. “When we first set up the team we spent time talking to a wide range of system integrators, including Praxa,” he said.

“The major reason we chose Praxa was their quality of service - they had a strong background in working with higher education and vocational providers and also because of the level of rapport we developed with them.”

RMIT screened all potential integrators, even obtaining reports from other organisations that had used their services. Praxa’s track record demonstrated that it was very reliable and professional, laying the basis for RMIT to build what Mr Lord describes as “a positive partnership”.

Praxa also introduced RMIT to technologies that could help to deliver its distributed and flexible learning vision. These include Microsoft’s Windows NT Server 4, SQL Server 7, Microsoft Internet Information Server 4, MS Transaction Server and Visual Studio. Other technologies used include ASP, HTML, CourseInfo, SERF, Question Mark Perception, e-Submit, WebBoard and WebLearn.

Praxa’s expertise in the delivery of world-class IT solutions played a key part in designing Online@RMIT as an enterprise-wide solution, which enables all departments within the university to access one pool of technology, tools and resources and arrange them in ways that best leverage teaching and learning objectives.

Online@RMIT is the first time an Australian university has set up an enterprise wide learning environment. The aim is to provide ‘one stop shop’ access to tools and support services for the entire enterprise, rather than putting the onus on individual departments to set up their own online learning systems.

For students, Online@RMIT offers an adjunct to traditional face-to-face learning and delivers a new level of flexibility in learning opportunities. They can undertake online tutorials and lectures as well as download learning materials such as PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Acrobat PDF files.

Any document that a teacher feels is an important resource can be made available from the online learning environment.

“The aim of the project is to promote ongoing learning and team-based learning. Chat sessions actually allow teams of students to work on projects online, rather than in lecture rooms or around a table in the student lounge.”

The RMIT library is another component of the overall strategy. As well as publishing a range of services including electronic databases to enable students to download journal articles, the online system allows them to search other Australian and international libraries for resources and information.

A key aspect of Praxa’s design of Online@RMIT is its user-friendly graphical interface. In the third phase of implementation Praxa created the “RMIT Learning Hub”, a portal for access to all aspects of the system.

“Many different software products are brought together under one umbrella for the delivery of online education,” said Praxa Business Development Manager John Temple.

“It gives the same look and feel to a diverse range of software tools that are now available from a single access point.”

The Internet-based tools that comprise Online@RMIT, include: “Classroom”, which enables teachers to publish content, manage chat sessions and allow students to upload assignments; the chat tool “Conference”; “Collaboratory”, a space for students to “meet” to prepare assignments and problem solve issues; and “Critique”, for students to undertake online tests and exams.

Mr Lord said Praxa’s design of the system gave the university flexibility in the use of these tools.

“With Praxa’s help, we have put in place a tool set in a ‘plug and play’ approach,” he said.

“So teachers get to choose a combination of tools that best fit their specific teaching and learning strategy.”
By integrating all database back ends using Microsoft’s SQL technology, Praxa has simplified the process of customising system interfaces and, most importantly, minimised the level of human intervention to manage data and the administration of the system.

Praxa has used SQL technology to build a series of connectors that automate the system without people having to add things physically.

This means that if a better product becomes available in the future, it is a relatively straightforward process to implement it within the Online@RMIT software infrastructure.

Benefits
For RMIT University, Online@RMIT is an ongoing process of development and enhancement.

Mr Lord said improvements in student learning had been observed after only one year of operating the system.

“We have an education quality assurance process where course leaders keep a course log of student’s impressions,” said Mr Lord.

“Some of those indicators are showing that students have improved immeasurably.

“Where they are promoting interactive learning, students learn the basic concepts of the course and knowledge base of the subject more effectively.”

Launched only last year, Online@RMIT has more than doubled its capacity.

In second semester of 1999, the system involved approximately 150 teaching staff and more than 8500 students covering some 350 subjects.

Now 800 staff members are involved with augmenting face-to-face teaching in more than 800 subjects which involves up to 25,000 registered students. RMIT plans to have all of its 50,000 students and the entire staff population having some exposure to the communication and collaborative tools for articulation and reflective learning activities by the end of this year.

RMIT’s decision to implement an enterprise wide solution has delivered enormous infrastructure and implementation savings. This has been achieved by eliminating the need for departmental duplication and by sharing content and data.

Mr. Lord said that leveraging of infrastructure delivered “substantial savings” but the University needs to also achieve returns on its investment.

“To date our investment in the online learning platform has been approximately $1 million dollars. However, we have avoided a costly proliferation of such systems across 220 Departments within the University which would have led to substitution of people with technology and very inconsistent quality outcomes for students. That would mean diverting scarce resources away from delivering on the teaching and learning strategy."

“The other major benefit is we can operate 24 hours by seven days. We wouldn’t be able to guarantee 24 by seven support, if each department had a separate online system.”

Online@RMIT translates the academic learning environment into an online context to provide greater access to education for the 21st century. Through its inherent interactivity, the system encourages students to become more active in their learning through project based activities and problem solving while academic staff are able to refine their teaching programs more effectively based on the interaction.

Futures
Praxa is closely involved with RMIT’s ongoing development plans for Online@RMIT, including the incorporation of advanced connectivity and decentralisation as well as integrating existing databases with backend processes.

Praxa’s Senior Project Manager, Business Systems Group Southern Region, Ron Reed, said RMIT University had provided an opportunity for Praxa to enhance its skills in the education space.

“RMIT University is now one of the leading universities in the delivery of online courses,” he said.

“They are looking at enhancing the system with audio or multi-media for the future. It is mostly text and graphical content at the moment, but they intend to put streaming video, audio and other multi-media content into some of the courses.

“With learning across the Internet, it puts delivery so far beyond the physical bounds of the University. RMIT University is effectively servicing the world.

“Overseas students are accessing the system. We have had people from United Arab Emirates, the US, Singapore and Europe using the system. There are no physical ties to RMIT’s classrooms in Melbourne. The Internet provides the capability to deliver learning anywhere.

“It changes the whole way content is delivered out of the University, and Praxa is a facilitator of that as much as the University. The University is providing the infrastructure and some of the ideas and we are the partner in the delivery.”