Yesterday in Redmond, Washington USA at Microsoft HQ, Business Mechanix and University of Canterbury were thrust into the spotlight on the global technology and education stage. In front of 300 top technology in education organisations from 50 counties around the globe, top Microsoft executives showcased the Student Portal and Cloud Services Solution, Live@EDU worked on jointly by the University of Canterbury, Business Mechanix and Microsoft teams.
Business Mechanix directors Wayne and Lyndal Stewart proudly smiled as the University of Canterbury Student Portal was showcased as putting the ‘Student Experience’ in the centre of this technology solution.
“We didn’t even know our work was going to be showcased and when Microsoft pulled a slide up and I saw the Business Mechanix logo and the University of Canterbury logo side by side with the words “Student Experience” in the centre of the slide, I just grinned from ear to ear, the slide was so simple, yet said it all!” said Lyndal Stewart, Business Development Director for Business Mechanix. It was the first time a NZ Education provider and NZ company had been showcased live on the global stage for such work in Education at this level.
The solution consists of a Microsoft Sharepoint Portal which is the gateway for Students to access key services such as e-mail, calendar, course information, announcements, important feeds and online storage. The experience is backed by innovative ‘cloud services’ technology ‘Live@EDU’, hosted by Microsoft and integrated by Business Mechanix to University of Canterbury core services such as their Learning Management system, Moodle, to provide course related information, as well as showing the student latest e-mails and calendar entries.
“The functionality we can now provide to the student is far superior to anything else we have seen. Using Sharepoint, the students have the ability to customise their home page with what is important to them as well as having tailored content flow right onto that page, such as just showing their recent e-mail messages. Its all Single Sign-on so the student has a seamless experience and never realises they are actually using 2,3,4 or more systems at once, nor the fact that some of the services are hosted by Microsoft” says Wayne Stewart, Managing Director of Business Mechanix.”
The most surprising element about the solution is that it is showcasing several breakthrough areas, including one of Microsoft’s first Open Source integrations in education with Learning Management product Moodle. In addition, it shows University of Canterbury’s leading position by stamping a clear mark that they are innovators with technology and first and foremost put the ‘Student Experience’ first. The combined Student Portal and Cloud Services solution with Open Source integration, is the first of its kind in New Zealand, with further enhancements to the services to be added over the coming months. Students at University of Canterbury can expect an exciting year of continued enhancement to the UCLive solution and these online services designed to enhance their experience while studying at University of Canterbury.