Consulting, Training and Support
Success Stories
Landegg International University
Landegg International University Brings Unique Vision to Three Distinct eLearning Programs
"Companies can also have their executives access courses through a customized Web portal: Sun LearnTone
LMS is flexible enough to enable us to create custom home pages that include a company's logo or other
corporate-specific information."
Shahin Sobhani
Chief Financial Officer of Landegg International University
Managing Director of Swiss Virtual Business School
Overview
Landegg International University strives to bring the concepts of peace, unity,
and success to all aspects of education. Unique not just in its philosophy,
Landegg is one of Europes few private universities, and one of the first to
offer a distance learning program to graduate students. Leveraging its
knowledge of distance learning, Landegg has recently collaborated with
professors from the University of St. Gallen to develop and manage a Web-based,
eLearning program for global executives called the Swiss Virtual Business School
(Swiss VBS).
Landegg engaged ISOPIA, a leading provider of learning management systems
software that was acquired by Sun in 2001, to architect the Swiss VBS's eLearning
and administrative systems. The solution would include two Netra[tm] 1405 servers
running what is now known as Sun LearnTone[tm] Learning Management System (LMS)
Hosted. Landegg also enlisted ISOPIA's professional services, now Suns Education
Consulting Services, to help design engaging online courses. In less than one
year, the Swiss VBS blossomed from a concept to a program, taken by
approximately 250 executives from Fortune 500 companies.
With the successful launch of the Swiss VBS, Landegg is now applying its
eLearning expertise to benefit more people by:
- Developing an eLearning program for Landegg's graduate students
- Migrating Landegg's administrative systems to Sun LearnTone LMS Hosted
- Adding online courses to the internationally funded Education for Peace (EFP) Program in Bosnia and
Herzegovina
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Landegg's Unique Vision Breathes Life into Three Diverse eLearning Programs
Overlooking beautiful Lake Constance and nestled at the base of the Alps in
Switzerland, Landegg International University is quickly gaining recognition by
global corporations, universities, and governments. Not only does the
university hire professors from more than 25 countries, including the United
States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, China, Israel, Japan, Australia, and
Denmark to teach its students from 32 countries, Landegg will be one of the
first European universities to offer a Web-based eLearning program to graduate
students. Additionally, Landegg is the only university driving the
internationally recognized Education for Peace Program, educating K-12 students
in the war-torn regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and soon around the world.
The schools unique vision reveals why it is involved in using the latest
technologies in educating executives, college students, as well as K-12
students. Landegg wants to help create a civilization that is peaceful and
just, united and diverse, prosperous and benevolent, technologically advanced
and environmentally healthy, intellectually rich and ethically sound.
Surprisingly appropriate given current events, every Landegg program promotes
these ideals. eLearning complements the schools vision not only because it is
technologically advanced, but also because a virtual campus enables interested
and eligible students around the world to connect in a universal web of
knowledge and learning.
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Swiss VBS: eLearning for Executives
Creating the vision of a robust eLearning program developed slowly, over many
years. In 1995, Landegg became one of the first higher learning institutions to
offer masters level classes through a distance education program. "We recorded
the lectures and sent the tapes to students all over the world," says Shahin
Sobhani, chief financial officer of Landegg International University and
managing director of Swiss VBS. "In just one year, we grew 300 percent because
of our distance education. And because of that, we knew distance education was
the wave of the future.
"Over the next several years our distance learning program continued to grow
on our own home-grown systems," continues Sobhani. "We began offering classes on
the Web, over e-mail, and on CD-ROMs." By 1999, Landegg International
Universitys program had earned an excellent reputation, and consequently some
professors from the University of St. Gallen approached Landegg and suggested
they jointly build an eLearning program for executives. The professors would
provide the course content; Landegg would provide the system infrastructure, the
course development, and administrative processes. The eLearning program, called
the Swiss VBS, would enable executives to take engaging online courses developed
by professors from leading universities in Europe, North America, and other
regions of the world.
Landegg began researching learning management systems to drive the Swiss VBS
system infrastructure. They found a comprehensive system and service solution
through what was then ISOPIA. "What attracted us to ISOPIA (now Sun) was its
learning management system," explains Sobhani. "It was an integrated platform
that could run online classes as well as the whole administrative side of our
vision. Then we learned about their consulting services and how they could
develop custom classes. It was like a one-two punch: we found a platform that
could run the Swiss VBS administratively, and a professional services
organization that could develop custom, asynchronous classes."
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Creating the First Online Course
Instead of developing many different online classes simultaneously, the Swiss
VBS opted first to develop one course: Strategic Management. ISOPIAs course
creation and development teams could then introduce the schools professors to
the process of building online courseware.
ISOPIA assigned approximately 20 people from its professional services to
design and produce the custom course. The team faced several challenges:
unlike product training, Strategic Management would cover abstract concepts such
as developing a corporate strategy. The course creation and development team
resided in Canada, while the professors lived in Switzerland. Additionally, the
students would be executives, so the presentation could not be simplistic.
Finally, bandwidth limitations needed to be addressed: most students use a 56K
modem, so the course designers and developers had to use technologies that would
not adversely affect performance.
After translating portions of the curriculum from German into English,
ISOPIAs instructional designers worked with two professors and their TAs to plan
the course, including its learning objectives, teaching points, and performance
objectives:
- Learning objectives outline the key concepts to be delivered in an online course.
- Teaching points are the smaller modules developed to teach the key concepts.
- Performance objectives reflect the standards that students will be expected to achieve once they have
completed the learning modules.
For each module, the instructional design team created the learning plans, based on the content provided
by professors via e-mail. The designers then discussed their ideas with the rest of the team, reviewing
which instructional methods they believed would be most effective from a pedagogical perspective: audio,
text, animation, sample scenarios, or interactivity.
Once the team established course objectives and instructional methods for
each teaching point, the instructional designers began storyboardingmapping out
each screen of the course on paper. As designers completed a module, they sent
it to the TAs for review. The time difference actually helped with this stage
since designers would turnover a module at the end of the day, and often find
the TAs comments waiting for them when they started work the next morning. Once
the storyboards were complete, the instructional designers flew to Switzerland
to meet with professors and their TAs to make any final changes, and sign-off on
the material. Approximately four months after the process had started, the
storyboards were approved and ready for production.
ISOPIA's media development team created the course using the storyboards as
the script, and Macromedia Flash technology as the development tool. The team
chose Macromedia Flash since it can deliver animation and photo-realistic
graphics over a 56K modemfeatures usually requiring higher bandwidth
technologies for optimal performance. Once the course creation process was
complete, the team installed the course on the system architecture, which
included Sun[tm] servers and Sun LearnTone LMS Hosted.
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Building the System Architecture on Sun LearnTone LMS Hosted
Sun LearnTone LMS Hosted drives the Swiss VBS, including its online courses and
administration operations. Sun LearnTone LMS, available in both hosted and
licensed models, supports various online course formats including asynchronous,
CD-ROM-based, or virtual classrooms. Content can include live or prerecorded
video, audio, and asynchronous or self-paced animations. Advanced Java[tm] 2
platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE[tm]) technology-driven functions include
personalized home pages, individual learning profiles, hierarchical
organizational structure of administrators, advanced assessment features, fully
automated statistical tracking, commerce functions for online course billing,
multiple languages, and asynchronous communication, including
voice-over-Internet protocol.
Sun's n-tiered LMS architecture can include presentation, business logic,
application logic, and database layers. Swiss VBS's implementation includes
three: presentation, application logic, and database. A Netra 1405 server
running Java technologies, including JavaServer Pages[tm] (JSP[tm]), powers the
presentation layer. Java technologies make it easy to customize the user
interface. JSP technology enables a thin-client module, so students only need
an Internet-ready Web browser to access classes.
A second Netra 1405 server powers the application logic and database layers.
BEA WebLogic Application Server and CentraOne Symposium run in the application
logic tier, enabling students, faculty, and administrators to communicate
online, as well as access classes and administrative data. The database is
driven by Oracle 8i. It contains all program information including class
content, training profiles, student registration information, and faculty data.
Even though Sun is hosting the architecture, Swiss VBS sent its system
administrator to instructor-led classes through Sun Educational Services to
learn how to operate Sun LearnTone LMS.
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Putting It All Together to Create the Swiss VBS
Once the Swiss VBS's system architecture was set up, ISOPIA installed the
Strategic Management course for final review. Within weeks, the Swiss VBS had
its first online course. ISOPIAs professional services had transformed a
five-day, instructor-led class into a 20-hour online version in only nine
months. The Swiss VBS also had a Web site, a solid process for developing more
classes, and a user interface template that could help maintain a consistent
look and feel for future courses.
Sun's Education Consulting Services is currently working on four additional
courses: two accounting, one marketing, and one human resources. They are
expected to be available over the next six months.
To meet clients varying needs, the Swiss VBS offers classes in three modes:
stand-alone, teacher-assisted, or hybrid. Sobhani explains, "Our courses, which
are divided in modules, follow our metaphor of climbing the Matterhorn. In the
stand-alone mode, the whole mountain is open to the executives. They progress
through the modules by themselves, but there is a clearly defined learning path
for them to follow. In the teacher-assisted mode, the TA becomes the guide,
meeting with executives once a week in a virtual classroom, reviewing the
information presented in one or more modules. In the hybrid mode, companies
decide which modules they want executives to work through on their own, and
which ones they want to complete in a live classroom with professors.
"What is nice about the hybrid mode is that companies can choose which modules
they want executives to work through independently," continues Sobhani. "So by
the time the executives meet in the classroom, they all share a common baseline
of knowledge. This makes the class more interesting for the executives and
faculty because they do not have to spend time reviewing information students
already know."
"Along with choosing the delivery mode, companies can lease the Swiss VBS
courses to run on their own systems," Sobhani adds. "Companies can also have
their executives access courses through a customized Web portal: Sun LearnTone
LMS is flexible enough to enable us to create custom home pages that include a
companys logo or other corporate-specific information."
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Landegg Applies Its Knowledge to Develop Two Other eLearning Programs
Leveraging what it learned in the development of the Swiss VBS, Landegg has
engaged Sun to deploy another implementation of Sun LearnTone LMS Hosted to
drive an eLearning program for graduate students, as well as support the
universitys administrative operations.
"The Swiss VBS was a new program so ISOPIA built the system from scratch,"
Sobhani explains. "With Landeggs Sun LearnTone LMS system deployment, weve had
to first integrate existing administration systems with the new architecture so
we could deliver and manage an eLearning program. We are also working on how we
will integrate an eLearning program for Landeggs graduate students with our
existing programs. We are definitely taking advantage of the learning curve
from the Swiss VBS and building courses we always wanted to do, but never
thought possible."
In a completely separate arena, Landegg is working to bring eLearning to its
internationally recognized Education for Peace (EFP) Program. The EFP Program
started in 1999, when Landegg was invited to conduct a training workshop in
Sarajevo based on the universitys unique course "Conflict-Free Conflict
Resolution." The Minister of Education of the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and officials from Bosnias Office of the High Representative
realized the impact Landeggs training could have on the people of the region,
especially children. Government officials invited Landegg to help promote peace
in the region by developing a peace-based curriculum for K-12 students. The
university agreed and in June 2000, the Government of Luxembourg funded what is
known as the EFP Program.
Landegg has led the EFP Program, bringing Bosniak (Muslim), Serb (Orthodox),
and Croat (Catholic) K-12 faculty together to form a seamless team. Overcoming
interpersonal challenges using the Programs peace-based principles, they have
developed a curriculum that explores worldviews and their influence on
civilization, and also how the concept of unity impacts all subjects including
history, chemistry, biology, and religion.
Today, over 6000 students, 400 teachers and administrators, and 10,000
parents participate in the Program. By 2006, EFP is expected to reach more than
half a million people. Additionally, Landegg will soon expand the EFP Program
to include EFP-World: an eLearning program that will bring peace-based
curriculum to any country in the world.
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By Embracing Ideals and Technology, Landegg Is Making a Difference
The EFP Program has already reached nearly 17,000 people, and that number is
expected to grow into the millions with the introduction of online courses
through EFP-World. From a small initial base, Landegg International University
is growing at an annual rate of 30 percent for the baccalaureate program, and 14
percent for the masters program. The university expects enrollment to increase
significantly once it starts offering graduate-level classes through the
upcoming eLearning program. The Swiss VBS is expected to grow 45 percent every
year, over the next three years. Landegg believes however that eLearning though
critical to the university, the EFP Program, and certainly the Swiss VBSwill not
replace traditional classroom-style classes.
"Were not going to destroy brick and mortar," states Sobhani. "We still need
that human contact. I think eLearning is going to enhance and bring human
development to another phase that we have not known." He later adds, "The fact
that we are always pushing the technology envelope has put us on the map and
made peoples heads turn. Online learning is just one area where we have done
this. We had a vision to put online learning into action. ISOPIA and Sun have
taken our vision, which we are very proud of, and put a framework around it. On
top of that, the framework is allowing us to administer our vision.
"We have outsourced all technical matters for the Swiss VBS and Landegg to
Sun," concludes Sobhani. "We do not have any servers here for Swiss VBS, and we
will not have a server here for Landeggs learning management system. Weve done
that on purpose because we trust Sun Microsystems and like their services. Sun
is helping us realize our eLearning visions."
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"We have outsourced all technical matters for the Swiss Virtual Business School
and Landegg to Sun. . . . We've done that on purpose because we trust Sun
Microsystems and like their services. Sun is helping us realize our eLearning
visions."
Shahin Sobhani
Chief Financial Officer of Landegg International University
Managing Director of Swiss Virtual Business School
©Copyright 2001, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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