Fuji Xerox Launches Japan's First e-Learning Service for University Faculties and Research Institutes

TOKYO, August 11, 2008 — Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. will add a new educational program to its e-learning service, Knowledge-Drive Service^{Note 1}, on August 11, 2008, which guides universities and research institutions to properly utilize public research funding.

As a result of a spate of misappropriation of public research funding at universities and research institutes, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology enacted Guidelines for the Management and Auditing of Public Research Funds in Research Institutes in February 2007. In order to appropriately manage competitive funds^{Note 2} allocated by the Ministry and to prevent inappropriate action by staff, research institutes such as universities are required to educate their staff so that they thoroughly understand and comply with the Guidelines.

Fuji Xerox's new, Japan’s first e-learning program^{Note 3} for universities and research institutes, which was planned in conjunction with Nagoya University and developed by Lightworks Corporation^{Note 4}, aims to help all staff understand the purpose of the Guidelines, and realize that their misconduct could lead to a loss of confidence in the institute and its potential demise. The program contains an overview of the Guidelines, actions to be implemented by research institutes, case studies of misconduct, as well as countermeasures against illegal activities. In addition, the staff can check their awareness of the problem and understanding level of the program by answering a questionnaire included in the material. An education official can leverage the evaluation results to make amendments to rules based on the Guidelines.

The Knowledge-Drive e-learning service is a form of distance education using the Internet, meaning that the staff can easily take the program at anytime so long as there is a network environment, as well as a client PC and browser to view the material. Thus, research institutes can quickly familiarize their staff with the ideas of the Guidelines.

Note 1

Knowledge-Drive Service is an ASP service using Fuji Xerox's own MediaDEPO software that distributes video images on the Internet.

Note 2

Public research funds allocated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology or an independent administrative agency belonging to the Ministry.

Note 3

Copyright of the material belongs to Lightworks Corporation.

Note 4

Lightworks Corporation website (only in Japanese): http://www.light-works.co.jp