1145 The Open University of Catalonia as a Virtual University Josep Cobarsí Morales Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain O IntroductIon Electronic Web-based campus information systems and e-learning educational delivery became increasingly important for higher education practice in the late 20 th and early 21 st century (Bates, 2000; Cobarsí, 2005). These emergent information technologies brought about changes in the traditional face-to-face campus and paper-based communication and teaching (Brown & Duguid, 2000). There are several trends in the introduction of information technology in universities that can be summarised into three main types (Duderstadt, 2000; Folkers, 2005). Firstly, most universities gradually adopted electronic campus information systems and e-learning to reinforce functionalities offered by their physical campus, with no intention of substituting the traditional campus but simply to strengthen their capabilities. Secondly, other institutions, the so-called first generation distance universities, had no physical campus from the very beginning, such as the institu- tions founded in the 1970s: the British Open Univer- sity http://www3.open.ac.uk or Spain's Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia http://www.uned. es/portal/index.htm. Thus, they incorporated electronic media to complement their usual means of communica- tion by post or periodical face-to-face tuition. Thirdly, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, hereinafter the OUC) is a quite differ- ent case: it was created from the very beginning (the academic year 1995-1996) as a wholly e-learning and Internet-based higher education institution, where a vir- tual campus with wide-ranging functionalities supports most of the day-to-day activities. As a result of these original premises, this university has some important organizational and information system features, which are summarised and discussed in the sections below, from the chronological perspective offered by its hav- ing been in operation for 10 years. Background Recently, forces such as the growth of the Internet or the emergence of new student profiles challenge the traditionally slow-moving higher education institutions (Folkers, 2005). Online e-learning education is a clear indication of the changes taking place in universities. Its potential and impact are currently under study (Freitas & Oliver, 2005; Guri-Rosenblit, 2005; Kirkwood & Price, 2005). We define e-learning as: The application of electronic information technologies to education, whereby teaching contents and actions are delivered by electronic means. The OUC, http://www.uoc.edu/web/eng/index. html, is an open distance higher education institution based wholly on the Internet and e-learning from its inception. The OUC was created by the autonomous Catalan government as a private foundation under public control, dedicated to providing open distance higher education. The first academic year was 1995-1996. The man behind the project and the Rector from the start and until De- cember 2005 was Dr. Gabriel Ferraté. The current Rector is Dr. Imma Tubella. Academic activity began with 200 students on two 3-year official degree courses; this has now risen to 36,000 students (studying on 45 courses, including 3- and 4-year official degrees, master's, and the PhD on the information and knowledge society). The OUC has become a world-renowned networked university. The institution has received awards, as an information technology educational application, for quality, innovation and social impact; for example, the World Information Technology and Services Alliance Award for the world's best digital opportunity 2000, the International Council of Distance Education Prize of Excellence to the best virtual and distance university 2001, and the European Foundation for Quality Manage- ment Gold Standard for European Quality 2005. We define academic networked environment as: A set of contents and services available and distributed to Copyright © 2008, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.