UWI Open Campus Technology: Seamless Integration for Effective Online Delivery

Abstract

The University of the West Indies Open Campus is an amalgamation of the previous Office of the Board for Non-Campus Countries & Distance Education (BNNCDE), the School of Continuing Studies (SCS), the UWI Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC), and the Tertiary Level Institutions Unit (TLIU). The Open Campus (OC) is a virtual campus providing many of its programmes online using Moodle as it's primary means of providing distance education through a service called The Learning Exchange. // This case study will show how The Learning Exchange is integrated with the Open Campus other online services to provide innovative and cost effective ways to deliver content, and support our online students. // Leveraging free and open source technologies The University of the West Indies Open Campus is able to connect with, and engage students in the most remote locations within, and outside the Caribbean region. Technologies such as: • Google Apps • Mahara - e-Portfolio Tool, • The OCMS - Student Management System, (which is custom-built, on open source technologies). Are integrated to form, a single Open Campus system. // This tight integration includes services such as class allocation automation for students, dynamic student dashboards, the provisioning for services such as email through Google Mail, and single sign on services that allow the student to move through the Open Campus systems seamlessly. // Finally, this case will also examine the structure of the Open Campus delivery department, and show how technologies aided in management and support of our online users. // Paper ID: 283