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3.4.4.1. History & Approach
The UOC was born with the promise of efficiency gains made possible through internet technology. The venture was started with an internet connection based on a rack of 30 modems in 1995. For the first years, the virtual campus was a stand-alone software platform. The internet connection was increased to 2Mb the following year. Generally, the system grew rapidly to serve the exploding user base. UOC started in 1995 with 200 students and in 1996/97 it already had 1500 students connecting themselves to the interface through Telefonicas Infovia service. Over the years, the architecture of the core application – the virtual campus – has evolved from a ‘closed non-standard solution,’ to a monolithic, but more standardized solution using mostly CGI scripts (1996,) to its third generation version utilizing mainly Java (2002). Development of the virtual campus was basically frozen from thereon-- due mainly to financial constraints, and because since 2004 a complete new version was planned. Today, that project is now taking shape in the form of a UOC led project to develop an free software based campus for all Catalonian universities. The project is substantially financed by the Catalonian government, which was formative in its long political anamnesis.
In spite of the important role technology has played in the functioning of the UOC, the organization has always stressed that the student’s learning itself, and not the medium of its transmission, was deservedly at the centre of its pedagogic attention.
From the very beginning, UOC opted to outsource most of its technological development (UOC faculty 3). Nevertheless, they maintained a reasonably small team of computer specialists who monitored, and tweaked the system as per necessary. This solution proved less expensive than spending high amounts of money on continuous in-house development.
One of the leading IT consultancies had been entrusted to review the architecture in 2003, and again in 2006, and their advice continues to serve as a blueprint for strategic technological decisions regarding model and process development.
The appropriation of innovations meant to enhance UOC’s knowledge services is entrusted to the Educational Technology Department. Here, eight fulltime staff and 16 freelance specialists dedicate their efforts to scan the market for innovations. The department is receiving only basic funding from the university (480,000 € in 2007) and has managed to secure 1.5 million € (in 2007) The UOC has achieved these numbers by pursuing opportunities at the regional and national level, in partnership with other companies and universities. Recently, they have also begun to address both foundational and European Union funding (UOC administration 35).
3.4.4.2. IT Infrastructure
In 2007, UOC spent around 11% (5,532,040 €) of its overall budget on IT services and hardware (UOC management 29). Considering that there are only 37 employees to be paid from this budget, there is sufficient room for development. However, this was not always the case, stakeholder reports show that IT investments were not sufficient for several years during the final phase of the first management team (UOC management 24). This perspective seems relatively true [i] when reviewing the concrete receipts of money spent (see table 1).
Table 3.4.1 - UOC's IT budget development
UOC installed and still maintains the servers for the virtual campus which serves about 70,000 logins per day, or-- 24 and a half million logins per year (UPC management 25).
All of UOC’s work stations come with an internet enabled PC and employees have the option to connect to their workplace from home over the internet. The intention of the IT department is to have the workstations replaced every three years (UOC management 30).
At the time this research was being conducted, UOC had undergone a profound reassessment of its IT infrastructure [ii]. The result of this self-reflection was a genuine evaluation that asserted several problems. Specifically, out of the 19 elements considered essential for UOC’s IT landscape, only three were without issues, while four were singled out as having big issues, and 11 were cited as having ‘some’ issues (Gartner, 2006). A fundamental reorganization of the systemic architecture, which will end the monolithic composition of functionalities (outlined in illustration 1), has been thusly recommended.
Figure 3.4.2 - UOC current IT Infrastructure
In the current system, there is a very high degree of complexity and abundant interfaces because, as can be seen in the diagram, there is one central authentification function (TREN). Contrast these between a host of back-end services and front-end services that were gradually developed, making the TREN function a highly complex non-standard piece of software.
The external consultants, in close collaboration with several UOC specialists, have developed a proposition for an IT strategy that is meant to give UOC an IT landscape using global standard based enterprise architecture (namely Service Oriented Architecture). The suggested plan has been presented to the ‘techie’ community and, after having been debated among the internal stakeholders, its implementation is set to begin (see figure 3.4.3).
Figure 3.4.3 – UOC future IT Infrastructure
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[i] The budget nearly doubled since 2004 but the increasing trend was already present during the last years of the anterior management.
[ii] implemented by one of the top five technology consultancy firms
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