This document discusses academic and industry alliances and how they can enhance technical education. It provides details on several specific alliance programs including Microsoft Dynamics, NetApp, and Oracle Academy. These programs provide benefits like software, curriculum materials, certifications, and other resources to integrate industry technologies into academic courses. However, there are also challenges to consider like the effort required to integrate new materials, content becoming outdated quickly, and potential vendor lock-in. Overall such alliances can add significant value if managed carefully.

1. OEC-Global 2016
Workshop/session of Thursday 14th April
[Action Lab] Teaching coding and
computer science: a test case for
OER?

2. Academic / Industry Alliances
• Background …
• Me
• Professor of Information Systems, Orfalea College of Business
• Member of various industry / academic alliance boards (NetApp, Microsoft
Dynamics, Peoplesoft …)
• Cal Poly
• Polytechnic university, strong in architecture (#1 in US), computer science,
engineering, agriculture, business …relatively selective in admitting
students (about 1 in 15)
• Teaching philosophy: learn-by-doing, teamwork, project based learning,
small class size, required senior project, interdisciplinary work, heavy
investment in labs
• Strong industry / academic interaction: silicon valley nearby, industry
advisory boards, strong placement of students in Silicon Valley …
• Member of the CSU, founder of MERLOT … Multimedia Ed Resource for
Learning and Online Teaching
• OER: http://guides.lib.calpoly.edu/open

3. Proposition
• Developing technically astute students can be
enhanced through participation in industry /
academic alliances
• Alliances I will mention …
• Microsoft Dynamics Academic Initiative
• NetApp Academic Alliances Program
• Oracle Academy
• Other software used
• QuickBooks, Predixion, Tableau, Shopify, …

4. Microsoft Dynamics
Academic Alliance
• Benefits
• Microsoft Dynamics software licenses and product upgrades
• Service and support, including access to the Microsoft Dynamics
customer portal, which provides access to product downloads,
documentation, knowledge bases, e-learning, and training material
• Microsoft Dynamics curriculum and related materials shared by fellow
faculty members through the DynAA Resource Portal
• Access to the Microsoft Dynamics Student Certificate program
• Access to Microsoft Dynamics User Groups
• Invitations to Microsoft-hosted events
• Opportunities to engage with Microsoft Dynamics partners and
customers to enhance your students’ job opportunities, as well as
fellow educators who are equally passionate about technology and the
success of their students
• Other
• Advisory board, online journal, participation in conference, other ERP
software as used in the EU

5. NetApp University Academic
Alliances Program
• Benefits
• Access to various curriculum options on storage, data
network fundamentals, virtualization, …
• Courseware and other content including case studies, white
papers, analyst reports, technical presentations
• Access to commercial-grade software VSIMs that
provide students with a hands-on learning opportunities
• Online, web-based courses and self-paced labs that
allow students remote, 7x24 access
• Student/Faculty access to the NetApp Certified Storage
Associate (NCSA) certification, a 30-hr track of study that
leads to an industry credential for students
• Innovative curriculum and global delivery – e.g. recent
MOOC
• https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-data-storage-management-ieeex-storage101x

7. Oracle Academy
• Access to
• Curriculum
• Programming (Java), SQL, Database foundations, database design
…
• Technology
• Software licenses, Application Express Workspaces, Oracle XE, …
• Support
Software updates, patches
• More
• Workshops, Faculty courses, discounts on training, certification
vouchers, eBooks
• https://academy.oracle.com/en/membership-
benefits.html

8. Issues
• Pluses
• Significant added value for my students using state of the art technology
• Can add content units as needed, not all or nothing
• Develop a learning / teaching community where faculty share ideas, techniques,
content, structure
• Students can earn industry recognized certifications
• Negatives
• While the cost of the technology is ‘free’ the cost to the instructor can be high
in integrating the material into the curriculum
• Focus is on education not on training … need to be careful about where the line
is
• With applications as a service, changes can come too frequently and curricular
materials become quickly out of date
• System install / setup / maintenance can be a huge cost (e.g., especially ERP …)
• Be careful not to tie yourself too closely to one company’s technology

9. Conclusion
• I continue to work with industry partners and use
their technologies and expertise in my classroom.