The Dallas County Community College District
(DCCCD) is comprised of seven junior level colleges, along with a center for economic
development and business incubation, a center for educational telecommunications, and two
administrative offices, all of which are located throughout Dallas County, Texas. There
are approximately 4,000 computers in the educational network, with another 3,000 computers
on the administrative network. The system's current credit student enrollment is
approximately 42,000 students, with a similar number of continuing education students.
Jorge Ayala is the Student Email Postmaster and Network
Support Specialist for DCCCD. He explains, "In May of 1997, we were presented with
the challenge of providing web email for our credit students, a service that had only been
available on a limited basis from some of our campuses. We estimated that up to 35% of our
population would require web email access; the other 65% would already have an email
address or would not be interested in this service. The first stage of the project would
be to implement web email access at three of the seven colleges and have it available for
use by the beginning of the fall semester, 1997.
"Our goal was to find a web email access system that
was easy to use, portable, scalable, easy to administer and support, and affordable.
Because many of our students take only one or two classes a semester and may not have a
lot of time to spend on campus, opportunities for training are limited. The web email
system had to be easy to learn and use. It also needed to be accessible from work or home,
as well as from any of the computers available for student use at the colleges.
Administratively, the system needed to be scalable." Eventually, Jorge thought, an
increasing number of students would required the service at the initial three colleges,
and an added number of mailboxes would be needed when the web email access was expanded to
the remaining four colleges.
Jorge continued, "To
minimize support issues, it was imperative for us to have minimum setup and configuration
requirements for PCs and student accounts. Also, since students would not be required to
pay any additional fees for web email service, costs had to be contained.
"We couldn't find any one product that met our needs,
so we decided on a combination of products: the Netscape Messaging and Directory Servers
for administration and mail hosting, and Captaris' Infinite' WebMail for the client
interface."
Jorge explained that the Netscape servers give them the
flexibility they need to add and delete accounts each semester. This is important as many
students only enroll for one semester, with long intervals before enrolling again. The
Netscape servers allows them to add more servers as the number of email accounts
increases. The Netscape Directory Server serves as the security manager for the mail
accounts and allows DCCCD to offer Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) searches for email addresses. The Directory Server
LDAP database also includes the email addresses for faculty and staff, who use GroupWise
for email. Students can search for email addresses of their instructors or fellow
students, regardless of which email system they use.
Jorge stated that Infinite WebMail was chosen
as the best client interface software to meet their needs. WebMail provides a Web-based
interface for email. With WebMail, students can use any workstation with Internet access
and a Web browser to check their email without any special setup or configuration. They
can go from computer to computer inside the lab, to a different lab at the college, to a
different college, or to their office or home, and still have access to their email as
long as they have Internet access.
"Although WebMail offers many different configurations
that can interface with other systems," Jorge explained, "we chose to use the
IMAP interface since our student population is highly nomadic. IMAP technology was
designed with the nomadic user in mind, in that messages are stored on the server and the
client is just an interpreter."
He continued, "WebMail also has many other web email
features that we found useful. Students can configure how WebMail looks and choose the
view that best fits their needs. Folders can be created and synchronized with the IMAP
server. There is a spell checker feature that gives students the ability to add custom
words to their own dictionary. One key feature in our search for a web email product was
the product's ability to attach files to the messages so that students and faculty can
exchange information and turn in assignments. WebMail includes this feature! WebMail also
includes an LDAP search engine, which allows us to connect the student's web email account
back to the Netscape Directory Server and find student and faculty email addresses. They
can also save email addresses to a personal address book."
Jorge explained the environment in which WebMail operates.
"We are currently running three Windows NT 4.0 computers to service 2,000 students
who signed up for email access in our first semester of implementation. One of the
machines is our WebMail server. The other two are running the Netscape Messaging and LDAP
servers, and we're ready to expand with additional mail servers as the need arises."
Jorge states that the Infinite staff has helped
them configure their environment to best serve their students. "When we've had
problems, they're very responsive and quick to find a solution," he explains.
"They are constantly evaluating their product and finding ways to improve it. They
keep an open mind, listen to customers' requests, and are quick to adjust to changes in
the industry.
Here's what some DCCCD students say about WebMail:
"I like the new web email system because it allows me
to access my mail from other locations and not just from the lab."
"I was very happy to get into WebMail. It was very easy
to follow the instructions and it did not take more than a few minutes to
understand."
"WebMail has a very friendly interface and I love
it!"
In conclusion, Jorge calls Infinite WebMail a
very flexible tool that allowed DCCCD to provide complete web email access service to
their students. He says that WebMail is very easy to use, as students don't have to worry
about a different client between school, office, and home, nor do they have to install or
configure differing software to read or send mail. WebMail gives them a
"clientless" environment where there is no information stored on any local hard
drive.
"WebMail has proven to be a vital piece of our email
solution. We have been able to provide a more reliable and user friendly environment for
our students to communicate via electronic mail. Captaris' assistance and
support makes the administrator's job more manageable. I know that their future
enhancements will only make their product better and I look forward to continuing a
progressive relationship with them," Jorge says.
Web Email
Available to Students
