Centra Platform Powers New Web-Based Distance Learning Initiative at Canada’s LaSalle College
Centra (NASDAQ: CTRA) announced that LaSalle College, Canada’s largest bilingual private technical training establishment, has selected the CentraOne™ eLearning platform to underlie a new distance learning initiative known as iLasalleCampus. Using Centra’s real-time virtual classroom application, Centra Symposium™, iLasalleCampus will be able to connect remotely located instructors and students and engage them in a highly interactive online learning environment. Together with self-paced training modules developed by iLasalleCampus, Centra’s live eLearning platform, and access to a full library of training content from SmartForce, LaSalle College offers students a full range of eLearning options to suit their learning preferences and program requirements.
“We turned to Centra to enhance the success rate of our distance learning program by offering students a way to engage online and participate in a community of learners, regardless of their physical location,” said André Lefebvre, Director of eLearning, LaSalle College Group. “Our distance learning program enables LaSalle to extend its core business beyond the campus to reach a segment of the population traditionally not well served by on-campus programs – including working professionals, the handicapped, and those located in remote geographic areas. We chose Centra’s eLearning platform because it was extremely easy to install and operate, and provided a stable environment with robust tools that could be easily adopted by our target population over the lowest bandwidth Internet connections.”
Already, LaSalle is using Centra for an online course – helping two working mothers, a handicapped person, and a traveling musician get the training and education they seek. LaSalle expects that by fall 2003, over 200 students will be participating in its distance learning program, and benefiting from Centra-powered eLearning.
Lefebvre added that the use of Centra would not be limited to online learning, and expects to leverage the technology to demonstrate its distance-learning program to both current and prospective students, and as a method for conducting administrative meetings among the staff and between directors located at LaSalle campuses around the world.
Scaleable Software Solution for eLearning and Collaboration
Used by more than 850 companies, government agencies, and universities worldwide, Centra’s scaleable software solutions are based on CentraOne, an open and extensible Web collaboration platform. Leveraging the core capabilities of CentraOne, Centra offers a suite of compatible, real-time Web collaboration products, content creation tools, and knowledge delivery systems that can be quickly installed on-site using Centra’s rapid deployment methodology, or conveniently accessed through Centra’s secure, full-service ASP. Centra’s products – including interactive Web meetings, virtual classrooms, and large-scale conferences – ensure universal access to users through firewalls and proxy servers, and deliver full-performance IP audio conferencing, streaming video, application sharing, and dynamic multimedia over low-bandwidth network connections through a standard browser interface.
“Canada is a prime eLearning market, given the sheer size of the country and widely distributed population. LaSalle College is a great example of how our Canadian educational customers, including Alberta’s Northern Lakes College, University of Calgary, and Alberta Distance Learning Centre, are leveraging Centra’s eLearning platform to expand their business and reach new markets,” commented Joyce Bokuniewicz, Centra’s Director of Higher Education Programs. “It is exciting to see how the combination of Centra’s live eLearning solution and SmartForce’s global content distribution system is changing the landscape of distance learning programs, providing a rich, blended learning experience unparalleled in most distance learning programs.”
About LaSalle College Group
LaSalle College Group is a privately owned holding company with affiliates active in career education, industry training, consulting, international project management, courseware development and e-learning. LaSalle College Group is headquartered in Montreal, Canada and has 23 educational institutions as well as a network of 6 corporate training centers in Eastern Canada. With over 800 employees, the Group serves over 10,000 students a year, with 500 programs in some 30 training sectors offered in English, French and Spanish. For more information, visit http://www.ilasallecampus.com./
About Centra
Leading with an undisputed track record of helping millions of users to increase revenue and improve overall business performance, Centra provides Web collaboration solutions that enable the delivery of information in a variety of live and self-service formats, and add value through unmatched capabilities to capture interactions and content, personalize and manage this information, and instantly re-use it across the enterprise. Today hundreds of global organizations across every industry and market sector choose Centra, including Cingular Wireless, Cadbury Schweppes, Citigroup, AT&T, Procter & Gamble, McKesson, Merck, Nationwide Insurance, Sysco, and Stanford University. Centra’s products are bolstered by a vital ecosystem of strategic partners, including PwC Consulting, Deloitte Consulting, EDS, KPMG iLS, Microsoft, SAP, Siebel, Cisco, and SmartForce. Headquartered in Boston’s technology corridor, Centra has sales offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.centra.com/.
