Scott Sorley, Director Distributed Systems, Nexted [HREF1] scott.sorley@nexted.com
The Nexted Distributed Learning System is an enabling technology platform to support the delivery of the business of education to distributed learning centers, while maintaining central control. Centralised learning systems fail to provide adequate quality of service to remote users subject to the variable performance of the internet. The Nexted Global Knowledge Extranet (GKE) provides a second stage solution to this problem with a global replicated and redundant system providing accessibility at major regional internet junctures. The Nexted Distributed Learning System (DLS), an evolution from knowledge gained from the GKE, is a third stage solution providing system delivery on the Learning Center local network. Additionally the system provides a rich range of components, including learning management, customer service, business administration, enrolments, pre-sales, learning planners, and executive reporting and management across centers.
Nexted is in the business of providing services to education organisations which service students beyond their campus bounds. The ongoing evolution of the online and traditional education industry has seen several market niches emerge which require specialised systems and technology to fulfil them to their potential. The original Nexted technology solution was a response to providing better quality access to a distributed global user base. This has expanded to another level of complexity as education organisations extend their search for new markets resulting in the rise of learning centers and remote campuses which provide new technical challenges. The next generation of Nexted's technology solution the Distributed Learning System adresses this.
Most organisations begin supporting elearning and web based service provision with a centralised system supporting a concentrated user base on campus. Often the rationale for using the web and internet technology is actually to provide enhanced service to off campus users which can be referred to as Stage 1.5.
Web based centralised systems hosted on an organisations main campus provide important services to their remote user based but while they provide good performance on campus the ultimately fall into the trap of treating remote users as second class citizens (from a performance and accessibility point anyway). The end user experience suffers from internet issues out of either parties control.
Frustrated with the reliability and quality of stage 1.5 offerings, organisations with a sufficient off campus market can provide a second stage system which moves the services in question closer to the user removing reliance on internet links
Nexted has provided a solution for five years to organisations moving to the second stage of system delivery, namely attempting to service remote users anywhere in the world with the same system performance that oncampus users receive. This solution is Nexted's Global Knowledge Extranet (GKE) comprised of a network of replicated and redundant network nodes located at major regional centers. This distributed system allows users to seamlessly access the network node closest to them for optimal performance, while all system data is automatically replicated across the network behind the scenese.
Stage Two systems are extremely effective in providing improved service to dispersed remote users but aren't optimal for providing access to concentrated groups of users, for example in a learning center where all users are competing for access to the center's limited internet bandwidth.
Nexted's association with clients such as the Global University Alliance [HREF2] has provided important experience in the day to day operation of learning centers and the management of networks of learning centers. This has resulted in a unique featureset catering to the special needs of learning centers.
The Nexted Distributed Learning System is designed to be installed locally at a learning center. This allows the system to provide local LAN performance to center users using the system, removing any reliance on internet links for system performance and removing the necessity for expensive high bandwidth links just to access a remote centralised system.
A network of learning centers with local installations is managed by configuring replication between the centers, or from all the centers to a Head Office or Main Campus. From the Main Campus many center functions can be conrolled, and most importantly reported upon to ensure early correction of any problem issues and up to date management information.
Five years of experience delivering globally distributed systems for clients requiring stage two services have provided Nexted with an important reference base for the needs of organisations servicing remote students and the support that those students require. Matching this with our recent experience in Learning Centers reinforces our belief that effective solutions needs to be more than just a learning management systems.
Providing Customer Service, Enrolment, support for Business Functions, Student Enquiry tracking and followup and Executive reporting across all functions are vital components to success. Providing these together in a package solves many complex integration issues with trying to make different packaged exchange information and support a common interface. Building these as part of the DLS system enable all of these components to utilise the underlying technology enabling local installaion and usage of the systems with behind the scenes data replication to Head Office. Head Office is then able to easily monitor and report across installations and systems.
A critical issue in any education organisation is academic quality assurance or assessment moderation. This is a vital function to ensure protection of the organisations academic reputation. This is equally important in dealing with a network of learning centers where regular manned visits and audits are expensive and disruptive.
Special attention has been paid to the assessment moderation process and academic reporting in the DLS. This is able to be managed directly into the normal center workflow as a fundamental part of the system. Facilities are provided to manage and control the marking and moderation of assessment and reporting of compliance and anomolies at center and head office level.