Canadian students living in remote or rural areas will soon get a boost in their education as a result of a partnership on behalf of Xerox Canada and Athabasca University in Alberta, which is aiming to develop a research program focused on advancing e-learning and mobile learning for students.
Athabasca has been awarded $250,000 in funding from Xerox to support a research chair in learning technologies and to develop technologies for distance education programs. Athabasca is a distance-education and online university, and currently serves approximately 37,000 graduate and undergraduate students.
Dr. Frits Pannekoek, president of Athabasca University, said in a statement that “it’s a natural partnership.”
“Xerox is recognized internationally as a leader in developing innovative business systems and Athabasca University is a recognized world leader in distance education. The strategic alliance will let both organizations grow and learn from each other.”
Ways to use small, portable devices such as PDAs to deliver courses and instructional material will be the focus of the research. Also as part of the project, Xerox will fund research for e-learning and mobile applications for elementary and secondary school students participating in the Northern Alberta rural education research project.
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