SIM University (UniSIM)

University Launches an Effective Online E-Learning Environment for Adult Learners

Established in 2005, SIM University (UniSIM) is the first university in Singapore dedicated to working professionals and adult learners. UniSIM currently has 6,300 students and more than 40 academic programs with about 200 learning modules. Flexibility and interactivity are two key factors for UniSIM, as its learning environment must be available 24x7 for professionals no matter what hours they work.

Customer Challenges

Provide 24x7 availability for learning environment and lecture materials
Ensure system scalability, stability, and availability
Provide for future archive expansion
Provide a repository for learning that facilitates continuous development and enhancements

Solution

UniSIM deployed a Web-based e-learning infrastructure based on Sun Fire and SPARC Enterprise servers and Sun StorageTek storage technology to run the Blackboard Academic Suite.

Business Results

Provided 24/7 availability for working professionals and adult learners
Delivered 40 academic programs and 200 modules for 6,300 students
Minimized custom programming
Improved time management for students and faculty
Provided reliability and scalability to support effective learning in different media formats

Products and Services

Story Details

SIM University (UniSIM) has to operate in a different manner than other educational institutions — the curricula, modules, programs, and even classes have to be flexible to enable working students to participate in distance learning. The university recognized that it had to invest in its IT infrastructure to efficiently manage and operate an online e-learning solution. “Since we have decided to implement the e-learning infrastructure, it is increasingly critical that the system that supports this remains highly available and that the archives are easily managed,” says Gary Teo, senior manager of Educational Technology and Production for UniSIM. “We have to have systems that are always available so that our students can log in anytime, anywhere. We need something that is robust, stable, and scalable. Most importantly, it must be cost-effective and highly reliable, which is why we turned to Sun.”

With almost everything online, learning becomes more flexible and interactive. Students can now submit their assignments, chat with their tutors and peers, download course materials, and even watch lectures — all of it online, from the comfort of their homes or wherever they happen to be. “We knew we made the right choice to go with Sun when the company took these seemingly irreconcilable requirements, customized them, and set up our infrastructure within a very short time,” adds Teo. “We are all very impressed.” With Sun SPARC Enterprise Server Installation Services, UniSIM was assured that its new systems were customized to its specifications and tested following installation to verify that everything was running correctly.

" That is where Sun has been most helpful — to ensure that we get a robust, stable, and scalable architecture right from the beginning. "

— Gary Teo, Senior Manager, Education Technology and Production, SIM University

To run the Blackboard Academic Suite, a Web-based course management system, the school put together an array of high-performance Sun products, including a storage area network (SAN) to house its mammoth database of lecture materials and administrative documents. UniSIM acquired high-performance Sun Fire T2000 servers for high availability, automated recovery, and up to five times the throughput of competitors' systems. To support video-streaming applications, the university chose the Sun Fire X4100 servers-touch capabilities that simplify management and reduce the total cost of ownership. Because of the high-speed performance, scalability and 24x7 reliability of the Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 server, UniSIM chose it to manage its ever growing database. In addition, the binary compatibility the Sun SPARC Enterprise servers running the Solaris 10 Operating System helped saved UniSIM time and money because the university's applications didn't need to be recompiled. UniSIM’s critical storage and archive systems run on a Sun StorageTek 6130 storage array and Sun StorageTek C2 autoloader. With this comprehensive storage solution, UniSIM can easily incorporate additional arrays for future archive expansion.