Harris Corporation has signed a contract with e-learning service provider Edgenics, Inc. that will enable the delivery of e-learning services utilizing rich media content, including interactive and file-based video. An infrastructure will be built to include content creation, media asset management, rich media networking and distribution systems, all integrated for a simple and seamless end-user experience.
According to the agreement, Harris and Edgenics will collaborate on system design and construction, joint sales and marketing, and joint development of new intellectual property. Harris was chosen because of its breadth of technologies in broadcast communications, including NetVX(TM) video networking technology for high-speed connectivity; Invenio(TM) enterprise-wide collaborative content management; and DataPlus(TM) WAN-based media management for real-time capture, search, retrieval, and scheduling of digital assets.
In an early phase, Edgenics will focus on the delivery of live interactive and file-based video programming to rural K-12 educators in the Southern Delta region of the United States. The creation of Edgenics’ next-generation communication and collaboration solution is part of an $11 million program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to extend continuing education to geographically isolated regions. The USDA-sponsored program serves 55 counties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas and is designed to help teachers and teachers’ assistants in rural areas achieve certification in math, science, foreign languages and other disciplines that would otherwise require intense in-class study. By enabling teachers to gain certification through media-rich distance learning, rural school districts can better retain their teaching staffs and help ensure students in the Delta receive the same quality instruction as those in metropolitan communities. In addition to serving academia, Edgenics’ services are also available to students and give them the opportunity to take university-level courses and begin earning college credit while still in high school.
Harris’ media asset management and content distribution technologies will provide Edgenics and its customers with instant access to the educational content they need when and where they need it. The completed infrastructure will use collaborative content management, and WAN-based media management to enable the real-time capture, search, retrieval and scheduling of digital media assets, including video and other rich media.