Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Testimonial
The e-Government Executive Education Project has, in one form or another, reached out to the government community on a global basis with collaborative research and education since 1987. While we have preached the sermon of the benefits (and risks) of information technology as a strategic concern for senior managers in government, we have not used it much or very well in our own program. Information technology infrastructure and applications have not been particularly well developed or supported over the years at the Kennedy School.
This led us to go to an outside developer for assistance with an application to support executive education courses, starting with those related to e-government. The focus of our application is heavily on an incoming or "diagnostic" assignment to better prepare program participants for their classroom participation while at Harvard. We then use the application to help students produce personalized analyses that summarize the major ideas developed at our courses that can be communicated and applied "back home."
We turned to .LRN when the major educational software vendors were not able to produce what we needed and were especially not able to do so within the time frame and budget required. We were encouraged when we learned that: 1) the Open Source movement had created code that could support something very close to what we needed "out of the box," and 2) the further development and ongoing support we needed could be provided by a local firm with strong ongoing connections to MIT's Sloan School.
I've been delighted with the results. The work of Caroline Meeks and Solution Grove has been excellent, responsive, and cost-effective. For our sort of work, the Open Source movement has created a framework that has gotten us quickly and successfully off the ground. Given that the .LRN community has now grown to considerable size, we are comfortable that the stability, responsiveness, and efficiency provided by Solution Grove (and other .LRN vendors) will continue to be available for the foreseeable future.
Jerry Mechling
Lecturer in Public Policy and Director E-Government Executive Education Project
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University 79 JFK St.
Cambridge, MA 02138