IBM will go to the campuses of the ACA's member schools in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia to hold the workshops, which will include sessions on such topics as IBM's DB2 database software and its WebSphere business software, as well as Linux, services-oriented architecture and other topics. The first workshop was held last week at Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn., where faculty members from the ACA's colleges learned the inner workings of IBM's Rational Software Architect development platform.

By teaching dozens of professors from ACA schools, IBM will spread the lessons to hundreds and thousands of students when the professors go back into their classrooms, Ramsey said. Next fall, an estimated 350 to 500 students will take classes from professors who have participated in some of the training workshops, according to IBM.

Earl Reed, an assistant professor of computer science at Bryan, said the IBM/ACA partnership will bring a huge variety of resources to the school and its students.

"For us, it will revolutionize the [computer science] program in a number of ways," Reed said. "It brings new tools that we can use to teach the students" from a central IBM portal that can be easily accessed at any time. "It's very valuable. In the past, we have had to go to numerous sources to get open-source stuff. It takes a lot of time and energy."

Also, he said, the use of IBM's wealth of technology information could help boost enrollment in his department. "They've had a trend in the last few years of computer science enrollments dropping" across the nation. "Something is needed to get it going again." The project uses open standards and open-source applications, along with IBM technologies and educational resources to help faculty and students stay current with the IT industry and to get students better-prepared for IT jobs. About 450,000 students around the world are participating in the program. Mark Hanny, vice president of IBM's Academic Initiative, said his company sees the program as helping to provide customers and partners with future IT workers, which will also benefit IBM.