Back in 2008, we blogged that the NSW Department of Education had successfully deployed Gmail to over 1.2 million students, joining Macquarie University and a number of other Australian schools in switching to Google. Since that time I'm pleased to say that more Australian universities have gone Google, including the University of Adelaide, University of Southern Queensland, Monash University and the University of Western Australia, who've all made the decision to offer our powerful set of communication and collaboration tools to their students.
For the University of Western Australia, implementing Google Apps for its 30,000 students meant offering a compelling set of features while allowing staff to focus on their core competencies. "The service we could offer for students through Google Apps was much better than we could reasonably hope to provide ourselves. Our staff can now concentrate on the things we do best - serving the teaching and research needs of the University," said John Arfield, University Librarian and Director (Information Management). "Providing a good experience for our students is a very high priority at UWA. The students are delighted, and so are we."
Over at the University of Adelaide, the ITS team who implemented Google Apps for their 16,000 students in early 2009 recently scooped the primary award at the Universities Services and Resources Annual Awards for Excellence (pictured below is the University of Adelaide project team managed by Bianca Velder (third from right) receiving their award on November 19 this year). Google Apps went live for the University of Adelaide on March 16, after a 5 month planning and development period. The University saw a 50% take up rate within two weeks of go-live, students were enthusiastic to make the switch from the previous mail system to Google Apps.
"Google Apps allows the university to deliver seamlessly integrated email, calendaring and IM services to students with significant capacity, and the migration has been a huge success for the university" says Virginia Deegan, director, infrastructure, property and technology. "The strength of Google Apps Education edition lies in the ease of implementation and the ability to deliver an integrated and flexible platform for collaboration and communication technologies in the future. All at no cost to the University, and that was a compelling story to us.
"Post implementation surveys show a very high student satisfaction with Google Apps. Many students offer suggestions how we can add value to the student experience, by increasing the functionality of Google Apps as a teaching and learning environment. Google Apps is rapidly becoming part of the DNA of the university, and that is exactly what we hoped for".
Across in Melbourne, at Australia's largest university Monash, Alan McMeekin, CIO and Executive Director IT Services Division is very pleased with the outcome for their 58,000 students and staff. "Monash has a commitment to principles of equity and diversity, so accessibility of services for students is important. We want to remove the blocks that prevent students from learning and growing. Google is one of the few products that provides a html version for email that works well with assistive technology." For Alan, demand from students and the support Google offered with the implementation were two key ingredients in a successful implementation. "The demand from students to participate in the pilot was encouraging, with over two hundred students registering in a weekend. Google have been great to work with on the implementation, providing dedicated resources and making changes where necessary to ensure Monash's move to Google is successful."
Lisa Marsh, Manager of the Flexible Learning and Teaching Program at Monash, leads the team that builds and runs the award winning my.monash portal for staff and students. In partnership with Calvin Chow, IT Analyst and Project lead, Lisa lead the project to migrate students to Google Apps. "The team are excited by the move to Google Apps. Calendar, email space, and collaboration tools have always been high demand items with students. We're also working on integrating Google Apps with other core university services via the my.monash portal, so there's lots of excitement around the potential to enhance the student experience. It's great to be running a project that is overwhelmingly positive. The pilot was oversubscribed by students. We're already getting 'thank you' email".
We look forward to working closely with more Australian universities and making 2010 a year in which even more students across Australia get the benefits of going Google.
