Minnesota’s Saint Paul College plans on implementing a textbook-free curriculum beginning this fall semester, and will offer some courses using Sun's Project Wonderland as part of an immersive virtual reality teaching project.

The text-free curriculum was an easy decision for the the two-year technical college that has offered students access to necessary computer resources anytime, anywhere, from any computer with Sun Ray 1 clients. A 10-year history with Sun Ray 1 clients, which are still serving it well, convinced the college to implement a thin client model with Sun Ray 1 and Sun Ray 2 virtual display clients for its 100-seat computer lab. The cost is nearly 70% less than comparable PC lab.

"On average, computer hardware and software need to be replaced every two and a half years. When you need 100 seats in a lab, the hardware and software licensing costs make that kind of solution completely out of reach for us," says the Chairman of Saint Paul College's Computer Science Department Warren Shaeffer. "And we just couldn't maintain all of those systems; it's too complex and time consuming."

All of the college's applications reside on a Sun SPARC Enterprise T2000 server, which runs the Sun Java Desktop System as the primary teaching platform. Students access all applications from Sun Ray thin clients using a smart card and a password. With all of their work stored on the server, student assignments are all turned in online. Sun Secure Global Desktop Software allows students to securely work on assignments from off-campus sites, accessing their personal files and a variety of lab operating environments (Windows, Solaris, or Linux) from a Web browser.

"Using Sun's thin client approach to distributing software and content, we will be able to displace the textbook," says Shaeffer, who adds that all students have laptop or netbook computers. "We estimate that this approach will save students between 20% and 25% of their total cost of education."

Saint Paul College is also making the innovative move toward virtual reality this fall with Sun's Project Wonderland, a Java and open-source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Users can communicate with audio and share live desktop applications and documents in virtual worlds. The computer science department is also integrating streaming video from the classroom. Students, represented by avatars, can attend class from anywhere. "We're challenging the whole notion of concrete, sequential learning by offering a rich learning environment that allows students to communicate with remote learners and experiment in virtual worlds," says Shaeffer.

The 2009 Fall Semester will be further offering students a course on OpenSolaris, converting its previously titled course Linux Systems Administration to Sun's open OS.

"Sun's commitment to open source has done wonders for education," says Shaeffer. "By making these open-source tools available, Sun has made the opportunity to learn available. That's not insignificant in my view, and that's one reason I am such a fan of Sun."

More Information

Saint Paul College Saves Nearly 70% with Distributed Sun Solution

Sun SPARC Enterprise T2000 Server

OpenSolaris Operating System

Solaris 10 Operating System

Sun Java Desktop System

Sun Secure Global Desktop Software

Sun Ray 2 Virtual Display Client

Project Wonderland [...read more...]

		fullsource
Print Email Current Profile Archive Blog Generate newsletter