news Cisco has published a blog post discussing its partnership with the University of Queensland as the two organisations have sought to bring digital transformation to the educational institution over the past few years.
In that time, the University has deployed what it calls “an extensive” wired and wireless network across multiple campuses that supports the educational process for both staff and students.
The network is aimed to provided a platform for the development and deployment of digital services to further improve the student experience.
In the post, Cisco spoke to Robert Moffatt, Director of Information Technology Services at the University of Queensland to explain the impact that digital transformation has on the uni and its community.
About five years ago, Moffatt said, the University of Queensland campuses at the were “pretty barren” in terms of technology and communications infrastructure.
At that point, it embarked on a program aimed to improve connectivity both between campuses and on campus.
“This aimed to provide ubiquitous wireless technologies and ensuring that we had the bandwidth, the access and the communications facilities in place to underpin all that we wanted to do to deliver content,” Moffat said.
Fast forward to 2016, and digital transformation is now “vital” at the university, he said.
“What digital transformation enables us to do is deliver more and more useful services to our university community,” Moffat explained. “Digital is all about leveraging technology and enabling us to innovate, enabling our students to innovate and enabling them to be successful.
How have educational institutions become more dependent on technology to meet the needs of students and educators? Moffat was asked.
Students and staff come from a society that is used to using social media and communications “on tap”, he replied.
“So, if you provide them with an environment that is conducive to their collaboration and their ability to access information, then you have an engaged community – a successful community,” he said.
“In a university, that’s what it’s all about — student success. It’s also important for staff to utilise new pedagogies, and utilise technology to enable the delivery of new pedagogies. Technology underpins all of our initiatives,” Moffat said.
Describing Cisco’s role in that transformation, Moffat said the tech giant is a “fundamental partner” for the University of Queensland.
“They’ve been with us for a very long time now, and they’ve assisted us in the transformation of our campuses to a more digital, more connected environment,” he said.
Cisco helps to ensure that the institution can leverage the investment it has made to better effect, he added.
Image credit: Axel Schwenke, Creative Commons