Unicon, provider of open source-based enterprise portal, collaboration, learning, and integration technology for higher education institutions, announced that the Centers for Learning and Teaching Network (CLTNet www.cltnet.org), an NSF-funded organization supporting the Centers for Learning and Teaching (CLTs), will be starting Pilot Sakai projects through Unicon for 10-20 professors of its member colleges this summer. The pilot projects are designed to provide CLTNet instructors with easy, low-cost training and hands-on experience to evaluate the Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment course management tools.

"CLTNet is exploring the latest technologies, products, and services with its member institutions to understand what different technologies can provide," said Judi Fusco, Ph.D., CLTNet Staff. "The Pilot Sakai program from Unicon is an excellent fit for us because it allows us to create custom, real-life classrooms for the CLT members (instructors and future instructors) to evaluate. And best of all, the pilot program accomplishes all of this quickly, easily, and affordably."

Unicon's Academus Open Campus Web site (www.academusopencampus.com) is a portal designed to allow administrators, faculty, and IT personnel to fully test and evaluate the latest open-source technologies from Sakai, JA-SIG and others in a low-cost and risk-free environment. As educational institutions face increasing costs of proprietary software licenses and maintenance fees, Unicon provides an increasingly attractive alternative with open-source and hosted solutions for cost-conscious, resource-constrained organizations for their online campuses and communities. 

Features & Benefits of Pilot Sakai Program incude:
Fully Functional: Educators and students can experience the functionality of Sakai's Collaboration and Learning Environment.
Fast, Easy Deployment: ASP model enables pilot classroom launch in a matter of days.
Low Cost: Zero hardware & software costs. Minimum development & maintenance fees.
Accurate, Real-World Testing: Enables educators and administrators to fully evaluate solution capability and plan for scaled deployment to more classrooms, departments, and campuswide.
Growth of Open-Source Technologies in Higher Education

Open-source technologies for online campuses and classrooms is gaining in popularity from higher education as recent vendor consolidation in the industry has given them few future purchase options and serious choices for the future. Open-source solutions have been successfully implemented at many of the largest universities and colleges around the nation. Open source is attractive for many reasons including its dramatically lower purchase price and lower costs over time. Now higher education organizations can implement the most sophisticated technology solutions utilizing open-source technologies, reducing their spending budget significantly.

Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment for Education -- A community-source software development effort to design, build, and deploy a new Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) for higher education. The technology consists of the Sakai application framework and associated course management software (CMS) tools and components that are designed to work together.