ARMONK, NY--(MARKET WIRE)--Sep 3, 2008 -- IBM (NYSE:
IBM -
News) announces today it is making its
courseware and technical skill-building tools accessible
free of charge to
university faculty. These new resources will help them prepare
for Fall
semester IT and business courses as they expose students
to in-demand IT
job skills such as software development, enterprise systems
management and
business process modeling.
| Source:
IBM | |
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Previously open only to IBM Business Partners, more than 800 on-line courses on over 45 software, hardware and services offerings are now available to IBM Academic Initiative members. |
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According to the U.S. Department of Labor, jobs requiring
science,
engineering and technical training will increase 51 percent
by the end of
next year. The increase could lead to six million job openings
that require
a balanced mix of strong technical and business skills.
IBM plans to help
educators prepare students for the job surge by sharing
its own resources
to address this demand.
"Educational institutions today are challenged to keep abreast
of the
fast-changing, dynamic nature of work. This impacts both
their ability to
plan technology courses and deliver real-time teaching material
to their
students," said Kevin Faughnan, Director of IBM's Academic
Initiative. "By
opening up resources to faculty that were previously only
available to
partners and ISVs, they can now access on-line training
on IBM
technologies, allowing for enhanced education, at their
own pace, on their
own time."
Now available through IBM's Academic Initiative web site
- Teaching Business Process Management with Innov8 teaches
the concepts
and methodologies of Business Process Management using a
3D videogame
simulation that bridges the gap in understanding between
business leaders
and IT teams in an organization. Innov8 fits well into the
curricula of
both undergraduate and graduate level business courses,
as well as many
computer science programs.
- Teaching Business Process Modeling helps professors
both reinforce BPM
concepts, provide a hands-on environment to elevate understanding,
and
develop new skills. Faculty can download WebSphere Business
Modeler, an
industry leading commercial tool that helps clients fully
visualize,
understand, and document business processes, at no cost
or use a live
WebSphere Business Modeler environment.
- Teaching with Rational Team Concert demonstrates how
to enable
real-time collaboration across a global software delivery
team -- thereby
improving productivity. Using IBM's Jazz platform, IBM Rational
Team
Concert includes Web dashboards to help software project
teams see
real-time project status data such as the status of work
items and project
health.
- Teaching Enterprise Systems introduces students to a
wealth of
opportunities in enterprise computing technologies, such
as the System z
mainframe which powers all 50 of the top 50 worldwide banks
and 22 of the
top 25 U.S. retailers. To help prepare students with the
skills necessary
for employment at IBM's top multinational customers, IBM
offers an
Enterprise roadmap which shows universities how to begin
integrating IBM
enterprise systems concepts and examples into their own
curriculum.
- Course Mapping Guide: IBM has also published a new mapping guide for faculty on its Academic Initiative
website that
easily links IBM technologies and courseware to existing
university courses
recommended by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM),
the
Association for Information Systems (AIS), and the Association
of
Information Technology Professionals (AITP).
Also available at no cost to faculty:
- Virtual Innovation Center for IBM Academic Initiative:
The Virtual
Innovation Center (VIC) is a complete resource for on-line
training on IBM
technologies. The VIC offers more than 800 on-line courses
on over 45
software, hardware and services offerings. Previously only
open to IBM
Business Partners, the VIC is now available to IBM Academic
Initiative
members.
- Training Demos: No-cost demos available from IBM's developerWorks
site
can help faculty familiarize themselves with typical software
development
scenarios that map to IBM technologies in an easy to follow,
guided Flash
animation format. One of the demos describes how to build
an online auction
using the Rational Software Development
Platform and
Eclipse.
IBM's free resources will be implemented in the classroom
this fall at San
Jose State University. Assistant Professor Rich Burkhard
plans to teach
IBM's Innov8 game to 120 students in the school's MIS department
as well as
use Teaching With Business Process Management with Innov8
to help him
maximize his students' experience and his own learning.
"Innov8 adds to SJSU's interests in increasing the focus
on business
services and service management -- skills that students
today increasingly
need to have to succeed in a global business environment,"
he said.
"Getting students to understand and integrate the concepts
of Business
Process Modeling and collaborative software development
can present many
challenges. Innov8 will give us new ways to approach student
learning of
these subjects in ways that can increase student engagement.
This is a
truly interactive method that puts students in the driver's
seat."
IBM's Kevin Faughnan and Dan Griffin talk to dW Podcasts
about how
educators can prepare for the growing skills demand in enterprise
computing, BPM and software collaboration. Listen to the
podcast here:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/podcast/dwi/cm-int090208.mp3
Academic Initiative faculty members may access all of these
resources at no
cost by visiting: www.ibm.com/university/scholars/academicinitiative/
Video training and access to the Virtual Innovation Center
can be found at:
www.ibm.com/university/scholars/training/online.html
IBM Academic Initiative members may also participate in
hands-on training
sessions at any of its 40 IBM Innovation Centers worldwide.
More
information can be found at: www.ibm.com/partnerworld/innovationcenters
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