r
r
r
September 25, 2001 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Dublin’s e-xamit.ie and the Educational Company of Ireland (edco.ie) launched their pilot site this week to teachers and students across Ireland. The Web site, which offers free tutorials to students, has been developed for Edco by Mimesis Consulting (mimesis.net).
r
r
This project has selected Host Ireland in a competitive approach with other
r
hosting providers in Ireland.
r
r
John Evans, a senior partner with Mimesis Consulting says the project was a
r
complex one that needed a flexible hosting partner. “We have just launched
r
the pilot to teachers and students, but we intend to scale very quickly. We
r
needed a flexible hosting company that could meet our needs now but also be
r
able to provide greater capacity when and where we needed it.”
r
r
E-xamit.ie was launched with two key products: one for Leaving Certificate
r
Maths (higher & ordinary) and one for Junior Certificate English (both
r
courses). The site links traditional learning methods with modern
r
technology, designed to empower both teachers and students with easy and
r
rapid access to relevant information. While users of the site must first
r
have purchased Edco Examination Papers, the online service is free.
r
r
The technology allows students to carry out exam revision in a structured
r
way. The e-xamit.ie site brings students through a preparation stage, a
r
sample answer stage and also includes a smart tips stage, all the while
r
linking the materials to previous examination papers gathered by Edco. The
r
fear of the “exam” in Irish education is tackled and the student learns how
r
to cope and respond with this pressure.
r
r
“While scalability was an issue, so too was security,” says Evans. “The
r
service is free to teachers and students who have bought Edco’s Examination
r
Papers. Therefore we required a simple-to-navigate registration front-end
r
to allow customers to go forward with ease. The Apache server provided by
r
Host Ireland included all the flexibility that we needed. Other ISPs have
r
very restrictive policies regarding CGI and Perl scripts, only offering the
r
kind of freedom we wanted by means of a physical machine of our own on a Web
r
farm. The cost of this was not commensurate with the pilot nature of this
r
project. Host Ireland had the right technology and they were very flexible.”
