SME Online University

Development History

Site development has been carried out in the first three phases described below:

I. Resource building phase

The mission of the initial phase of development was to build the infrastructure for future development and to identify best practices for operating this unconventional collective learning online environment. The project focused on three main tasks:

	Creation of a single sign-on e-learning portal: This single sign-on e-learning portal was designed to function as an information portal and e-learning platform with back-end administrative functionality for membership management, news and announcement publishing, and advertising as well as course management, learning management, and learning statistics functionality included in the e-learning platform.
	Creation of online course material: Initially, The project had to convert classroom-based course material into e-learning material because of the limited supply of e-learning online content in the marketplace at the time. This approach, although not ideal, satisfied the need for relevant content to launch the site and spurred business opportunities in Taiwan's e-learning industry.
	Establishment of selection criteria for acquiring e-learning courses: In order to provide a rich variety of online course material, the SME Administration agreed that course material for the SME Online College should be mostly acquired from the marketplace. Thus, the international standard SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) was selected as the basic frame work for e-learning content on the site and announced to the e-learning content development industry.

II. Resource integration phase

After the first-year pilot phase, the project was on the right track for further development. To increase the impact and reach of the project, the SME Administration decided to integrate more resources into the site and to lay down operational standards for the project. Major work during this phase was as follows:

	Opening up more channels for acquiring courses: Because online course material from commercial sources were insufficient for meeting the SME Online College's needs, the SME Administration succeeded in tapping into course materials from other government agencies, colleges and universities through the exchange of course materials. By the end of 2005, the College was able to offer 268 courses from which to choose.
	Launching of customized enterprise learning program: The SME Online College was originally designed as a B2C model, primarily serving individuals instead of enterprises. At the request of the SMEs, the SME Administration initiated a B2B program whereby any small business could submit an application requesting a customized e-learning program to meet their specific needs, which would then be carried out by a project-assigned e-learning consultant.
	Establishment of operational standards: The standards that were established covered the definition of completing a learning task, the rules for uploading and downloading course materials from the platform, customer service and complaint handling procedures, and the minimum bandwidth required to ensure fast delivery of streaming content. By the end of 2005, the SME Online College site had 20,000 members; 150,000 individuals had enrolled in at least one course; and 390,000 visitors had been recorded.

III. Resource enrichment phase

Encouraged by its initial success, the SME Administration decided to take a big step and upgrade the College to a full blown University, thus the "SME Online College" became the "SME Online University”. This virtual university was organized around four colleges: financial management, marketing and channel management, information technology and general knowledge.

As economies of scale were reached, use of the new online university site took off. In the two-year period of 2006~2007, courses offered through the four colleges increased to 702 more than doubling the number of courses available during the previous project phase. Other remarkable accomplishments in this stage included:

SME Administration introduced other online learning materials to its portal, the audio and videos speeches by well-known business executives, scholars, and management consultants.

By the end of 2007, the number of members skyrocketed to 260,000, a 13-fold increase over the figure from two years earlier, mostly due to word-of-mouth recommendations from bloggers in Taiwan's blogosphere. Course enrollment jumped to 580,000, a 3.6-fold increase over the earlier period.

Host: Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs

Administer: Information Service Industry Association of R.O.C.

6F., No.239, Sec. 2, Chengde Rd., Datong District, Taipei City 103, Taiwan R.O.C.

E-Mail: jane@mail.cisanet.org.tw

TEL: 886-2-255339 88 FAX: 886-2-25531319