The e-Learning Network Science Park

      (ePark) is a virtual industrial park constructed over the Internet. Its purpose is to help the development of the registered member companies, including both the supply and demand side enterprises, so to facilitate the formation of value-added services as to speed up the expansion of the e-learning industry.

Service Structure

      Stationing companies settled in ePark include 7 types of organizations from both the supply and demand sides of the industry. The ePark Service Center provides services to help the e-learning industry form industrial clusters, strengthen industry supply chains, and create areas of specialization. The purpose is to establish a robust e-learning industry in Taiwan by accomplishing the four tasks of ePark (see Figure below.)

Service Functions

Quality Guidance: The ePark Service Center, in order to promote high-quality e-learning market environment, is devoted to providing consultation on the industrial certification of e-learning courseware and services, as well as the promotion of certification of interoperability standards of e-learning courseware and platforms.

Knowledge Services: The ePark Service Center provides information on industry trends and market needs, in order to enhance the communications and sharing of business knowledge and market information.

International Exchange: The ePark Service Center engages in and promotes strategic alliance with international organizations, assists companies to participate in international contests and exhibitions, and, as a result, increases the international visibility and expand the international market share of Taiwan’s e-learning industry.

Legal Consultation: The ePark Service Center aims to achieve a sound policy and regulatory environment that is conducive to the development of the e-learning industry, and also to assist businesses to make the best use of government incentive measures to speed up the development of the industry.

The ePark Service Center, through these four major service functions, aims to assist the demand side enterprises in proposing solutions that are most suited to their needs, and to help the supply side enterprises in finding ways to solve their obstacles and barriers.


The Knowledge Services function aims to provide both the supply and demand side enterprises with e-learning related knowledge and information exchange (i.e. by creating basic processes including knowledge convergence, analysis, sharing, and recycling) and the sharing/communication of business opportunities.

Guidance and Consultation Services
        The demand side enterprises often fail to apply e-learning effectively to its optimal functionalities for the lack of e-learning specialties. Therefore, they need the “guidance and consultation services” of the Knowledge Services function to facilitate planning and implementation so that they can best cooperate with vendors to promptly incorporate quality e-learning.

       On the other hand, because supply side businesses sometimes are not able to fully obtain the latest technological development and trends, they need the “guidance and consultation services” of the Knowledge Service function to provide them with external consultation services so as to enable technology enhancement or core specialty development. The guidance and consultation services include: consultation services on e-learning specialty knowledge areas, training services on the planning and design of e-learning, and the training of in-house trainers on e-learning planning and implementation for the demand side enterprises.

Information & Intelligence Services
       Presently, the scale of the current e-learning enterprise implementations (both the supply and demand sides) is not able to support sufficient resource investment to collect and analyze related information and intelligence. Therefore, in order to aid in both the supply and demand side enterprises to quickly and accurately obtain the most up-to-date information, the “Knowledge Services” function provides enterprises with the latest information and intelligence with low cost. The Information and Intelligence services include: 1) evaluation, analysis and recommendation on the e-learning implementation needs investigations, 2) evaluation, analysis and recommendation on the investigations of ROI of training, 3) analyses of superior products (courseware, platform, and tools), 4) case studies of successful practices of businesses in Taiwan and abroad, and 5) provision of up-to-date information through e-News.

Community share services
      To implement e-learning into enterprises requires cooperation from different sectors. Digital services can make use of the combination of virtual and physical community exchange model to leverage the wisdom of the masses and effectively utilize the results of e-learning. As a result, the “Knowledge Services” function provides a mechanism for community exchange, and aides in the continued information exchange of various communities to achieve the best synergy. The major services include: to host events for the integration of business opportunities and the management of Internet community exchange.

URL：http://www.epark.org.tw/kmc

Quality guidance is a mechanism that aims to ensure that e-learning solutions can continue to develop to their best potential. The current e-learning quality standards are available for the following: courseware content, learning services, learning centers, and technical standards. For supply side enterprises, receiving quality certification enhances product image and increases sales, expands application range and augments the added value of market competition. For the demand side enterprises, certification levels can be used as the criterion for courseware selection in order to ensure the learning quality and outcome for end-users.

Guidance for the certification of e-learning courseware content and learning services
        Continued flow transformation and quality enhancement provide the key to sustaining organizational e-learning operation. The quality certification standards of e-learning courseware and e-learning services can be used as references by organizations when making purchases, developing, or outsourcing e-learning services. Furthermore, in addition to providing assistance in the certification process to large learning service providers, government agencies, enterprises, and content vendors, ePark also provides e-learning client enterprises with the analyses, evaluation and intermediary services when purchasing e-learning products.

Guidance services for E-learning centers demonstration sites
       E-learning centers are based on the notion of combining the virtual and the physical learning services to provide learners with a superior learning environment. By establishing the necessary assessment and selection regulation of demonstration sites, the aim is to help e-learning centers in the development of better software and hardware equipment scale standard, establish an all-encompassing system of operation, provide abundant team support and high-quality learning space. The government, the enterprises, and education institutions can adopt this new model to fulfill their diverse learning needs and, in the mean time, to narrow the urban-rural digital divide.

E-learning technical standard consultation services
      SCORM is a technical standard widely accepted by international e-learning enterprises applied to e-learning platforms, tools, and courseware production to ensure that e-learning courseware can be used interchangeably among different systems. Since international certification will increase competitive edge, ePark therefore also aide the e-learning enterprises in SCORM standard test package operations in order to become certified. In addition, ePark also provides services in the transfer of standard technical modules to reduce the time and cost of development.

URL：http://www.epark.org.tw/qsc

The goal of the legal consultation services is to achieve a superior regulatory environment so as to better enable the development of the e-learning industry. The aim is also to help enterprises make better use of the government’s various incentive measures, and to improve the businesses’ operation efficiency through government awards and subsidies.

1. Provide related legal information: Provide “Legal FAQ’s” to systematically answer commonly asked legal questions.

2. Provide vendors with information on government incentive measures: Provide vendors with information on related government subsidy and awards for e-learning industry.

3. Provide expert evaluation: Every year, application is accepted from enterprises registered with ePark for individual in-depth assessment and analysis of legal matters.

4. Hold conferences and symposiums: Hold conferences and symposiums and invite the participation of legal experts for discussions and    recommendations.

5. Provide recommendations for policy: Regularly propose recommendations for e-learning policies and ordinances.

6. Provide online legal consultation: Provide a convenient legal consultation avenue through online legal consultation services.

7. Draft the “Internet Teaching and Learning Services Contract Template”: Assisted the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of    Economic Affairs in drafting the “Internet Teaching and Learning Services Contract Template.”
   
   
   Four major functions of the legal consultation services:

Information function: Enables fast access to legal knowledge and information by providing a comprehensive legal information repository.
Education function: Provides necessary knowledge and information to enhance the function of legal education so that vendors are able to understand and obey the law.
Consultation function: Provide consultation services from legal experts to help analyze possible legal risks and prevent the occurrences of legal disputes.
Recommendation function: Provide recommendations to government agencies on law amendment, in order to construct a sound legal environment for industrial development.

By providing legal consultation services, the aim is to lower the invisible expenses for e-learning vendors, and to further protect consumer rights, in order to establish a advantageous market environment.

URL：http://www.elearn.org.tw/ePark/Law

International Collaboration: Under the trend of knowledge economy and industrial globalization, internationalization is the necessary avenue for the industrial development of Taiwan. Therefore, ePark provides this service function in order to allow for international business opportunities and to learn from others’ experiences, so that information can be easily shared, and an international perspective can be cultivated while also attending to local needs. ePark provides and shares information regarding international market intelligence, enables international business opportunities, and reports on the current conditions of e-learning markets, international e-learning conferences and business exhibitions and other related international events. There are three categories of services under this function:

Seizing the global Chinese language e-learning market
       Chinese language has become the most widely-spoken language in the world, and Chinese-language learning has become very popular. There is wide interest in the Chinese-learning market, and it is predicted that there will be a profit of two billion NT dollars from the global market Chinese-learning in the next five years. Therefore, if the e-learning industry in Taiwan reaches to gain share of this market, it might become another Billion-Dollar Industry of Taiwan.
Hence, ePark plans to host market tours to create more international business opportunities. ePark also plans to hold Chinese-language conferences and seminars, to better enable the communication between Chinese-language teachers and e-learning vendors, and to assist in the development of appropriate teaching and learning courseware to advance the quality of Chinese language e-learning.

Assisting in international business cooperations
      The Taiwan e-learning industry has already achieved international standards, and therefore the industry hopes to cooperate with vendors worldwide to promote successful solutions and applications. ePark especially hopes to assist both the supply and demand side enterprises to promote international exchange and cooperation with Southeast Asia, India, and China.

Establishing connections with international organizations
     International organizations are the gateway through which we can achieve effective international collaboration. Therefore, by cooperating with international organizations, ePark seeks to bring in the latest e-learning technologies and knowledge into Taiwan, in order to further the internationalization of e-learning enterprises on both the supply and demand sides. ePark is currently working with American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and ADL/IMS, and is also seeking opportunities to cooperate with other international organizations.

URL：http://www.elearn.org.tw/epark/International