Founded in 1968, Duoc UC is one of the largest educational institutes in Chile with 8 different schools including Communications, Design, Engineering, Business Management, Tourism, Construction, Natural Resources and Health. With over 23,000 students, 1,000 teachers and 1,000 courses spread over 8 campuses, the University has continuously invested in state-ofthe- art equipment and facilities, enabling students to learn and test their skills in conditions that will prepare them for the real world. Duoc UC takes advantage of opportunities offered by information technology to generate interactive courses that have been specifically designed to complement teacher-based instruction.
The Requirements
With a high number of students, teachers and courses distributed over 8 campuses, Duoc UC needed a way to allow students and teachers to collaborate on a day-to-day basis without the necessity of face-to-face contact. Another important requirement was to increase the consistency of courses, ensuring the same material was covered at a similar pace, irrespective of the class. In order to achieve these objectives, Duoc UC decided to launch a new portal for students and teachers that would be the main access point for all information relating to their courses. The Student Portal would incorporate online libraries, standard coursework, discussion forums and general administrative information. The new portal would also provide for the delivery of e-Learning courses and the submission of exams online.
The Student Portal needed to provide for:
- Intuitive learning paths for students to enable non-technical people to use the system.
- A high level of collaboration between the students and teachers and between students themselves in order to promote peer learning.
- Ease of publishing existing material by the subject matter experts into Learning Objects, enabling consistent learning materials.
Duoc UC implemented a previous version of TopClass in 1998 and this was used to deliver a small number of online courses. Because of the requirements of the new Student Portal, Duoc UC decided to begin the process with an extensive review of e-Learning platforms available on the market in order to find the best solution.
The Solution
Following the review, TopClass was chosen to provide the underlying technology in the Student Portal, on the basis of its previous implementation success and the unique availability of TopClass Publisher. TopClass Publisher allows subject matter experts to quickly convert existing training content into Learning Objects using a familiar and intuitive Windows user interface. TopClass Publisher enabled Duoc UC’s subject matter experts to repurpose content, thus saving time and money.
Results
- Using TopClass Publisher, 800 courses are now available through the Student Portal and 30% of the coursework is carried out online. A number of courses are now carried out entirely online.
- All 23,000 students and 1,000 teachers are using the portal on a daily basis to manage their classes, coursework and email.
- Based on demand from students and teachers, the remaining 200 courses are being transferred into Learning Objects.
- Discussion forums enable students to have speedy access to teachers and other students without the need for face-to-face contact.
- The success of this project has encouraged Duoc UC to establish a distance-learning center which now has 1,000 students and is growing all the time.
Quote
“WBT Systems enabled us to develop a truly interactive e-Learning solution, which has been a huge success. Not only has the portal improved the consistency of teaching materials, it has also led to better communication between teachers and students. The speed of the implementation would not have been possible without the support of WBT’s professional services staff. This was a key success factor for us and ensured the success of the project from the very beginning.”
Carlos Isaac Duoc UC
1-877-WBT-7700
