XEROX DOCUSHARE

AND XEROX FLOWPORT

College of Education

“DocuShare

is changing

the culture

on campus

dramatically.”

Dr. Charles Schmitz,

Dean of the College

of Education

University of

Missouri - St. Louis

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI - ST. LOUIS

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

FOCUSES ON THE FUTURE.

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THE ENVIRONMENT:

■

Higher Education

THE CHALLENGES:

■

Purchase advanced

digital solutions for the

Technology and Learning

Center, and then show

students, faculty, and the

community how to use them

effectively

■

Develop a workflow that

will ease the sharing of

knowledge

THE XEROX

SOLUTION:

■

Xerox DocuShare

■

Xerox FlowPort

■

Xerox Document Centre 332

THE RESULTS:

■

An improved way of

managing documents

■

An easier, simpler means

of exchanging ideas, infor-

mation and best practices

■

A versatile system

that can be used by

people of a full range

of technological skill

■

The College of Education

has become a source of

pride for the University of

Missouri - St. Louis

CLIENT PROFILE

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI - ST. LOUIS (UM-ST. LOUIS)

Step inside the E. Desmond Lee Technology and Learning Center and the

first words that come to mind are high technology. You’re surrounded by it—

a fully networked Xerox Document Centre 332 multifunction device; a room

filled with brand new Macs and desktop PCs; and a futuristic meeting area

with a myriad of two-way audio and visual devices.

Using Technology Effectively

There’s no doubt that the

Technology and Learning Center

is state-of-the-art, but Dr. Charles

Schmitz, Dean of the College of

Education, who sits proudly in the

Center’s Cyber Lounge, admits that

it wasn’t always like this. Schmitz

says that just four years ago, they

were grossly behind the times. They

simply didn’t have the technology

they were going to need for the

future. Schmitz says that “one of

today’s greatest dangers is the

widening

gap of technological haves and

have-nots. To be successful in the

21st century, it’s imperative to have

access to technology, and know how

to use it. That’s what the Center is

all about.”

The College’s mission was therefore

not only to equip the Center with the

most advanced technology, but even

more importantly, to teach students,

faculty and the community how to

integrate the technology into their

everyday work processes to become

better at what they do. “After all,”

says Eric Aplyn, the Center’s

Assistant Director, “it’s one thing

to go out and buy technology… it’s

another to develop its capabilities

and get people to use it to be more

efficient.”

The first part of the mission was

easy. Dean Schmitz and Dr. Carl

Hoagland, Emerson Electric

Endowed Professor of Technology

and Learning, met with Xerox

Central Region Sales Executive Mark

Rice who researched different solu-

tions, and recommended the most

cutting-edge technology available.

Based on Rice’s suggestions, Dr.

Hoagland says that “the Center

has become the envy of the entire

University. We have the first wireless

network, the first Document Centre,

the first center equipped with a non-

linear editing lab and CD burners,

and the list goes on.”

“ The Center has

become the envy of

the entire University.”

Dr. Carl Hoagland

Director,

E. Desmond Lee Technology

and Learning Center

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“.DocuShare provides

use of state-of-the-art

technology to people

who are not state-of-

the-art users.”

Xerox DocuShare

One of the Center’s most promising

technological solutions that was

recently implemented—one that the

entire staff is enthusiastic about—is

Xerox DocuShare. DocuShare is a

Web-based document management

system that lets individuals and

groups share and control knowledge

freely. With DocuShare, electronic

files of any type can be uploaded to

a document repository on the Web,

or paper documents can be scanned

into the repository using the

Center’s Document Centre 332.

Authorized users then have instant

access for viewing, downloading and

editing, printing, or posting revi-

sions—from anywhere, at anytime.

Although DocuShare has been in

place for less than a year, the Center

has already implemented DocuShare

in various ways:

Student Portfolios

Before receiving teaching certifica-

tion, the State of Missouri requires

students to submit a comprehensive

portfolio to be reviewed by at least

three professors. The portfolios con-

tain ten different sections of lesson

plans, presentations and research

papers, and generally consist of

more than 20” of paper. Aplyn

explains that if they were to stack

the 500 portfolios that the UM-St.

Louis College of Education needs to

review each year, the paper moun-

tain would stand higher than the

St. Louis Gateway Arch.

In the past, professors would be

forced to sit in a room and pass port-

folios, and all the paper documents

they contain, back and forth. And

while this method worked satisfacto-

rily, DocuShare provides a better

way for all involved in the process.

In the future, professors will enjoy

DocuShare because rather than

being holed up in a room for hours

at a time reviewing the material,

they can access student portfolios

from the DocuShare website at any-

time, from anywhere. They will be

able to review the information

online, or download the documents,

make revisions, and upload the files

back to the website. Faculty can post

the latest revision, so if one profes-

sor edits a document, the next pro-

fessor will view the most recent file.

Aplyn points out that DocuShare can

also “reduces the paper mountain

and makes things more functional.”

That is, rather than forcing profes-

sors to deal with a mess of papers

that are easily misplaced or misfiled,

DocuShare divides each portfolio

into ten different electronic folders,

divided by subject. This organiza-

tion, plus DocuShare’s full text

search engine, makes retrieving

specific documents quick and easy.

Dr. Hoagland explains that there

are benefits to students, as well.

“DocuShare makes everything

accessible and available. Students

are crazy about it.” Students can add,

edit, and update documents to their

portfolios from any Internet-ready

computer at their convenience. This

ensures portfolios are ever-evolving,

“living” documents that continually

improve. A new technique learned

one semester can be added to a les-

son plan posted the semester before,

and so on.

DocuShare can be beneficial to stu-

dents because many times, they will

use their portfolios when interview-

ing for jobs. Now students can pro-

vide school districts with the URL

and password to their online portfo-

lios as opposed to photocopying sec-

tions of the portfolios and delivering

them in paper form. School district

representatives are grateful because

they, too, can then access the stu-

dent portfolios at their convenience,

and are also impressed with the

students’ use of technology.

Dr. Carl Hoagland

Director,

E. Desmond Lee Technology

and Learning Center

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KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING.

SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE.

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2000 Xerox Corporation. XEROX

©

, The Document Company

©

, Keep the Conversation Going. Share

the Knowledge., and the digital X

®

are trademarks of XEROX CORPORATION. Other product and/or

company names used herein are trademarks of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Printed in USA. 6/00 610P703520

Sharing Best Practices

One of the Center’s key objectives

is to help teachers integrate technol-

ogy into their lessons.

DocuShare facilitates the communi-

cation between teachers. Teachers

using DocuShare can collaborate on

lesson plans in real-time, if desired—

sharing ideas and best practices,

and crafting the very best lessons

together. Dr. Hoagland states that

“DocuShare can reduce isolation. It

expands the ability for professional

development because education is

more interactive… and because no

one has to work alone anymore.”

In-Home Childcare Training

Dr. Hoagland explains that the

Center is proposing to work with

people who don’t have extensive

computer knowledge, and a key

requirement of DocuShare was that

it had to be easy enough to use with

little or no training. For example,

the Center is developing a course

to enhance the skills of in-home

childcare providers, many of whom

don’t even own PCs.

Using DocuShare, the Center will

upload training materials, like videos

and interactive documents to the

DocuShare site. In-home childcare

providers will then be able to easily

download the content on Web TVs

that will be provided by the Center.

Aplyn is especially excited about the

opportunities and sheer number of

people that can be positively affected

because of DocuShare’s ease of use.

“DocuShare provides use of state-

of-the-art technology to people who

are not state-of-the-art users.”

Xerox Flowport

The Center has had so much success

recently, they decided to comple-

ment their current technological

configuration with Xerox FlowPort.

Even before FlowPort’s full imple-

mentation, the Center’s staff has

devised ways in which to use it.

Streamlined Internal Work Processes

Any time a new course or program is

added or amended, documents must

be created and approved by a multi-

tude of people in different locations,

with multiple revisions along the

way. A faculty member recommend-

ing the new course would have to

print out the documentation after

each revision, and have it signed

and re-signed.

With FlowPort, however, users simply

create a PaperWare cover sheet and

scan it, along with the documentation

using the Document Centre 332.

With the mere check of a box on

the PaperWare sheet, the FlowPort

server sends the file as requested to

any individual or group of individuals

as e-mail or Internet fax. The user

may also send the file to print on any

networked printer across campus or

store the file in a DocuShare folder.

Hardcopy documents with the appro-

priate signatures are easily scanned

and sent along to the next person for

review.

On the Right Track

DocuShare and FlowPort have had

profound effects on the Technology

and Learning Center—and not just

because of their advanced capabili-

ties. True, the Center is now

equipped with some of the world’s

most cutting-edge technology, mak-

ing it the pride of UM-St. Louis; and

true, this technology will go a long

way in improving the College of

Education. But just as importantly, it

has spread an invaluable enthusiasm

among the people who are using the

solution. They see a glimpse of what

can be accomplished using

DocuShare and FlowPort, and they

also see that they haven’t even

scratched the surface of the solu-

tions’ full capabilities. Now their goal

is to use the technology—and teach

others how to use the technology—

to its maximum potential.

“ DocuShare reduces

isolation. It expands the

ability for professional

development because…

no one has to work

alone anymore.”

Dr. Carl Hoagland

Director,

E. Desmond Lee Technology