Sun and iPlanet Powers UNITAR Virtual University's E-learning Portal

"Technology plays a key role in the student centered approach of e-learning for UNITAR. Our choice of Sun and iPlanet both leaders in their respective field reflects our seriousness in choosing the right technology partners to create highly available and scalable infrastructure to the teaching and learning as well as the administrative needs of the university,"

Dr Mohamad Salmi Mohd Sohod
Deputy President, Technology and Development, UNITAR

Company

• Unversiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR)

Industry/Market

• Education

Applications/Solutions

• IPlanet Application Server
• IPlanet Web Server
• VOISS E-learning Management system
• Solaris Operating Environment

Products

• Six SPARCstation IPC
• One SPARCserver (630MP)
• Sun Enterprise E10000

Key Business Challenges

• Run the entire administration (faculty, finance, account, R& D, etc) of the university
• Concerns about a reliable, robust and scalable IT infrastructure
• Previous systems lacked scalability, reliability and security

Key Business Solutions

• Entire administration powered by Sun allowing it to operate as a virtual university
• E-learning courses powered by Sun systems
• Customer confidence and technical abilities were achieved
• Can support up to 10,000 users as well as deliver web-based courseware to all levels for the various faculties.

Key Alliances

• iPlanet

Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) is a virtual university wholly owned by KUB Malaysia Berhad which started its operations on December 18, 1997. The first batch of 162 students enrolled in the July/ Sept 1998 for the Business and IT programs. Since then, the number of programs have been expanded and student enrollment has reached a figure of 5400. To support its operations and growth, UNITAR chose Sun and iPlanet to power its e-learning and portal infrastructure.

Technology and Student-Centered learning
The teaching and learning model of UNITAR rest on the role of technology as the enabler of student-centered learning. Teachers are expected to play the role of facilitators to students in their tutorial and online sessions compared to the traditional talk and chalk.

Implementation Challenges
In order for the university to run its operations, United Multimedia Sdn Bhd was appointed as its technology provider and consultant. Besides being the technology arm of UNITAR, UMM is also recognized as the e-learning solutions provider.

Upon evaluation it was clearly understood that what UNITAR needed was a reliable, robust and scalable IT infrastructure to handle its administrative functions. The system it wanted to put in place needed to handle the entire administration of the university including faculty and student administration, finance, accounting, etc.

To handle the massive administrative task of the university as well as power its e-learning courses, the university was concerned that its existing IT infrastructure would be unable to handle the ever-increasing student numbers expected to enroll. Furthermore, e-learning requires 24X7 availability and minimum server down time and slow response.

Why Sun and iPlanet were chosen
To power the e-learning portal and administrative tasks, United Multimedia Sdn Bhd recommended the purchase of Six Sun SPARCstation IPC, One Sun SPARCserver 630MP, one unit of Sun Enterprise 10000 with 34 400 MHz CPUs, 28 GB RAM. 2.22 TB Disk storage to ensure high availability, performance and scalability.

For the applications, a portal and Web server solution were needed and iPlanet was identified as one of the solutions provider. The iPlanet team demonstrated its iPlanet portal solution and did a proof of concept. It highlighted how its single sign on features for fast mail access, e-learning applications and easy integration to third party calendar applications, enabled by the iPlanet Application Server, would help the university meet its objectives.

The final decision saw the iPlanet solutions favored because they are part of an integrated stack that worked well together as well as their optimization for Sun hardware. In addition, iPlanet's features were also deemed to be much better than the competitors' offerings.

Implementation details
In the implementation of the project, UMM used VOISS, their own e-learning management system to power its e -learning modules. Sun's Malaysian partner, Cybertouch helped migrate the new Java-based VOISS from Microsoft ASP to iPlanet.

The administration module was supported with functions and services such as enhanced Web-based mail, providing a full-featured mail client that includes message searching. LDAP based address lookup, folder management, message signature, and personal address book. In addition, seamless integration with the iPlanet Directory Server based on Lightweight Direct Access Protocol (LDAP), which allowed the central management and storage of student and account information simplified management and administration significantly. This in turn enabled rapid deployment of the university's e-learning courses and reduced maintenance and administration overheads.

The entire investment for both the hardware and software solutions amounted to US$ 2 million

Today, the e-learning portal of UNITAR can support up to 10,000 users as well as deliver Web-based courseware to all levels within the various faculties.

The portal also provides access to digital libraries, online tutorial facilities, email and e-Customer Relationship Management. All of the above solutions have been tested and are fully utilized

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