An electronic infrastructure for a virtual university

Abstract

This article is about the Electronic Education Environment, or E³ an infrastructure developed at the University of Texas at Austin to support processes in a virtual university (VU). A VU does not have a traditional campus, professors' offices, or a library. Instead, there are electronic workspaces and global libraries that provide richer functionality and features than their physical analogs. E&sup3 gives a VU the flexibility needed to match market demand with customized content and a mode of administration designed to minimize total transaction costs for all players. Students get content when and how they need them, paying only for resources they actually use. Thus, in addition to supporting more efficient distribution of educational content, E&sup3 reflects a reengineered vision of the education process itself. the E&sup3 infrastructure consists of many components, including a collaboratory, a payment system, and a document filtering system.