Current status of WebCT and future of information basis for higher education

WebCT that has been used widely in higher educational institutes of North America is going to be a mission critical e-Learning platform in on-campus education, rather than mere WBT system. In this paper, we describe WebCT and its current status in North America from the viewpoint of Japanese higher education. Then, we introduce three critical trends for educational information basis that we can observe in the movement of WebCT in North America; (1) contents exchange hub, (2) the integration of WebCT with existing student information system, and (3) campus portal that provides university-wide one-stop service for all member of the institution. Finally, we give a general view for educational information basis that should be contracted in Japanese higher educational institutes in 200X. We have already had all of technologies in our hands that would be necessary for higher educational institutions in the first decade of 21st century. How we can integrate and implement them to use in our own daily education seems to be a critical issue in the expected competitions in higher education.