$1.8M AUD in savingsis a lofty claim, but that's exactly what the team at Open Access College (OAC) in South Australia achieved by focusing on creating a digital collaboration learning experience enabled by Cisco technology.

OAC delivers educational services in remote South Australia where students cannot attend traditional schooling. In the past, classes were conducted via audio-conference. Now, through a high performing network and collaboration tools by Cisco, OAC can expand access to learning.

At OAC, the staff and students now connect via Cisco WebEx, and can collaborate in digital video spaces. They benefit from working together in teams, from connecting to experts they otherwise wouldn't be able to access in person and from being able to revisit lessons using recordings stored in the online learning system.

These students are able to access learning anywhere, any time, on almost any device, while teachers can work freely on campus with reliable connections supported by Cisco wireless access points. Quality distance learning is underpinned by highly-reliable, secure WAN connectivity to the locations where the remote students are. While on the campus itself, Cisco Catalyst? switching foundation also provides speed for bandwidth-hungry applications like graphics rendering, which is ideal for subjects like photography.

What school wouldn't benefit from fostering a greater camaraderie amongst its students? Or from accessing experts not bounded by geographical limitations? Or from allowing staff to communicate with each other from disparate locations?

Digital learning provides all of these opportunities and opens up pathways to further benefits along the way.

I'd encourage everyone to read more about the deployment at Open Access College and read this recent report on the benefits of digital collaboration technology.