Supporting Open Source Software for Education
Phoenix, Ariz. (October 29, 2008) - Today, at EDUCAUSE 2008, rSmart announced additional growth for its Sakai collaboration and learning solutions. rSmart, the leading full-service provider of open source solutions for education, is very pleased to contribute to Sakai's growth by supporting adoption of this open source platform by institutions around the globe, including:
These new clients are using the Sakai CLE's powerful course management tools, ePortfolio functionality, and other collaboration features to enable and support innovative approaches to teaching and learning. Some of these institutions are augmenting existing systems in order to get specific best-of-breed functionality that Sakai offers. Others are using Sakai as a comprehensive replacement for an existing LMS such as Blackboard or WebCT. All of these organizations are relying on rSmart to support their innovations.
"As a company that provides a multitude of educational services focused on teacher and faculty development, Performance Learning Systems has unique requirements of its learning platform. We picked Sakai because of the control, flexibility and cost advantages offered by this open source solution," says Pam Vreeland, Director of Online Instructional Design, Performance Learning Systems. "Partnering with rSmart has allowed us to get up and running very quickly. Just as importantly, it has given us the certainty that comes from having an accountable support partner. By working with rSmart, we have freed our resources to focus on delivering the best learning experience possible to our learners."
The 14 organizations noted above join the world's largest base of commercially supported Sakai installations. They also join a growing list of institutions (now numbering more than 160 worldwide) using Sakai as they strive to make the most of their IT budgets in increasingly difficult economic times. These organizations have found that community-driven innovation and software development produce the best platform for collaboration and learning and that rSmart ensures that any institution can take advantage of Sakai without adding IT resources.
"Often IT leaders on campus believe that to benefit from open source software like Sakai they have to add development and IT staff," says Chris Coppola, President of rSmart. "This just isn't the case. The implementation and ongoing support and maintenance that rSmart provides ensure that any institution, regardless of size or capability, has access to this important open educational resource."
In addition to announcing these new clients, rSmart also announces that it experienced a 90% renewal rate this past year for its client support and maintenance subscriptions.
"Many of our clients start with small pilot implementations consisting of a few courses or a department using Sakai," reports K. Crawford, rSmart's Director of Client Support. "We're very pleased to see these pilots succeeding. Their success has increased usage and adoption of Sakai, and this increase is reflected in our strong renewal rate."
The rSmart Sakai CLE is the company's fully packaged, tested and supported distribution of the Sakai software. Similar to the way RedHat distributes and supports the Linux operating system, rSmart distributes and supports Sakai. The CLE provides a feature-rich, fully scalable, enterprise-ready software application that is unique in its ability to support teaching and learning, project collaboration, group interaction and ePortfolio construction.
The rSmart Sakai CLE is available immediately for hosted or on-site deployments. To experience the rSmart Sakai CLE please visit www.sakaisandbox.com and sign up for a free account or download a full, easy-to-install version free of cost from rSmart's website.
rSmart is the leading open source application software company serving the education market. rSmart packages, certifies, deploys and supports a suite of enterprise financial and collaboration and learning applications for colleges, universities and institutions serving grades K-12. As an active member of open source projects like Kuali and Sakai, rSmart is able to provide its clients with software applications specifically designed to meet the unique needs of educational institutions. This collaborative approach allows rSmart to offer open source applications that break the dependence of educational institutions on traditional proprietary software vendors. For more information, visit www.rsmart.com.
The Sakai Project is a landmark venture to create a comprehensive open-source course management, collaboration, ePortfolio and online research environment for the education community. Started in 2004 by a collaboration of the University of Michigan, Indiana University, Stanford and MIT, the project is now run by the Sakai Foundation and includes over 100 members representing universities, colleges and institutions of learning around the world. For more information visit www.sakaiproject.org.
rSmart is a registered trademark of rSmart, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.
Press contact:
Megan Perrone
Marketing Specialist
602-490-0485
mperrone@rsmart.com