Supporting Open Source Software for Education
PHOENIX, Ariz., March 1, 2010 -- This week rSmart welcomes University of the Pacific to the Sakai Community as a recent rSmart Sakai CLE support customer. Pacific is one of the West's most distinctive, student-centered national universities. Recognized as the first chartered institution of higher learning in the State of California, Pacific is a private university with about 6,700 students on three campuses in Northern California.
Pacific offers an extensive selection of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs on three campuses in Stockton, San Francisco, and Sacramento. With nine schools and colleges and more than 80 majors and programs of study - including continuing education, law, pharmacy and dental programs - Pacific has that rare combination of small-university friendliness and programs found at much larger universities.
University of the Pacific decided on the rSmart Sakai CLE in June 2009 and began transitioning students and faculty across its campus enterprise in August 2009. After using a leading proprietary course management system, Pacific made Sakai part of its overall plan to reduce TCO through the use of open source solutions. The University also chose to utilize rSmart’s Application Hosting Services for Sakai in a move designed to reduce overall hardware infrastructure costs.
rSmart provided Pacific with implementation services to switch from their commercial software and deploy Sakai. In addition, rSmart assisted with the integration of several of Pacific’s systems as part of a 3-year Premium Support services agreement.
“We’ve been very satisfied with our move to Sakai and with rSmart for support,” said Peggy Kay, Director of Enterprise Applications and Interim Chief Information Officer at Pacific. “The resources and budget we’re saving by deploying Sakai, hosting with rSmart, and utilizing rSmart’s support services will enable us to fund other important projects and services to the benefit of our students and faculty.”