Online Education

Since its inception in October 1997, University Access, Inc. (UA) has been changing the face of higher education with the introduction of the TeleWeb Course. With its high performance virtual campus Web site, powered by a Cisco ® solution, UA produces high-quality business courseware for partnering colleges and universities.

"Much of our capabilities are related to Cisco. Every internal process and all communication through the Internet with the outside world runs through a Cisco product."

Michael Cremean
Director of Technology
University Access, Inc.

Background

University Access, based in Los Angeles, is a distance learning company specializing in producing high-quality business courseware by combining the strengths of two distribution media--television and the Internet. Founded in 1996 by Alec Hudnut, former McKinsey & Company executive, and Tom Geniesse, a veteran in the television business, UA brings together a team of leading academics, television producers, instructional designers, and Web designers to produce engaging video and online content, for a powerful, interactive, educational experience. UA has received multiple awards for its courses from the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA), including its highest honor, "Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching." The company employs more than 35 full-time staff, and uses up to 50 contractors at any given time. UA is experiencing an explosive growth phase, evident in an impressive 2000 students who are expected to take UA courses by late 1999, up from a modest 300 enrolled earlier in the year.

Challenge

The success of University Access depends on its ability to make learning in cyberspace challenging and fun for students, and as close to a real classroom experience as possible, while acquiring the highest-quality educational experience. The rapid advances in technology and the growing acceptance of the Internet are impacting the way people access education. From the virtual whiteboard that provides instant instructor feedback and live classrooms, to interacting with professors one-on-one and viewing online video clips, the virtual campus is the center of all UA activities, providing a powerful multimedia interactive experience.

This type of cyber-communication was a brainchild of UA's co-founder and President Tom Geniesse, who needed the technology to transform his ideas into reality. Geniesse knew that there was an untapped market in education, and he had the idea of an interactive solution that no one else had yet implemented. The problem was figuring out how to transmit this breadth of information across the miles--through e-mail, Internet, file sharing, and other services.

Solution

To handle the demand, UA built an internal network that comprises ten servers and more than thirty desktop PCs (running Windows NT and Windows 98) and Macintosh computers, connected with various 10/100-Mbps hubs and switches. Four of the servers support the Web site and run Oracle and mSQL databases. Three Cisco 2501 routers direct data traffic between the Web servers across the company's three T1 connections to the Internet.

Michael Cremean, director of technology, credits Cisco with much of UA's growth: "Much of our capabilities are related to Cisco," he says. "Every internal process and all communication through the Internet with the outside world runs through a Cisco product."

Results

Currently, UA's library comprises four business courses, three of which have won awards for excellence in distance learning (the fourth has not yet been submitted). According to CEO Hudnut, the company's goal is to expand its library into a full 50-course business curriculum. University Access recently signed an agreement with Western Governors University (WGW) to deliver a complete business undergraduate degree. "University Access provides a richer media approach to the Web, one of the richest currently out there," says Hudnut. "As broadband expands, University Access will continue to produce a library of premier content, allowing students and faculty of distance learning to have an experience that is world-class."

Over the last 18 months, sales have increased dramatically, with 35 percent of new customers making initial contact through the site. With such demand, the founders foresee having co-location facilities in the very near future, and adding the appropriate routers and servers to meet that task as they progress and grow.

"We've only scratched the surface of the burgeoning distance learning market with our teleweb courseware, and we are confident that University Access will remain on target with our goal to sustain a steady growth curve semester by semester," says Geniesse. "And our capabilities and production qualities will only improve as networking technology continues its spectacular advancement."