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IBM Donates E-Learning Software Code to Sakai

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 July 2006, 12:00 CDT

IBM is donating e-learning software code the Sakai Project, a US-based group of learning institutions creating and deploying open-source course management, collaboration and online research support tools for higher education. The donation is part of IBM's overall support of open computing in education.

Last year, the company announced that it will allow royalty-free access to its patent portfolio for the development and implementation of selected open software standards for web services, electronic forms and open document formats in education.

IBM developed the donated code exclusively for Sakai to enable the tracking of learning content and help Sakai better support universities that adopt its collaboration and learning environment (CLE). IBM will also contribute the expertise of a senior architect to help speed the development and growth of Sakai software and of open-computing communities in higher education.

IBM says its code donation will enable teachers using the Sakai environment to track the progress of their students using Sakai-based courseware. For students, the IBM code will allow more freedom in how they access distance and self-directed learning applications. Since the Sakai environment is on the web, students can learn and track their progress while in class, at home or anywhere else where they have a device connected to the internet.

"Sakai was created on the premises that open standards and open source solutions lower costs, increase interoperability and enhance flexibility," said Chuck Severance, executive director of the Sakai Foundation. "This donation will help Sakai offer the most comprehensive and accessible open learning CLE framework in higher education."

Source: Datamonitor

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