First Access Grid Meeting for Further Education

Ashton Sixth Form College and Carlisle College used Access Grid technologies to host a collaborative meeting between South Manchester Information Learning Technology (ILT) and Cumbrian eLearning Collaboration (CEC).

Conducting the meetings this way enabled the RSC North West’s four sub-region groups to share good practice and work ideas whilst saving time and money and reducing their carbon footprint.

Stretching from Liverpool to Carlisle, the geographic distance between these sub-regions has previously limited the opportunities for a meeting involving all four groups. Even within sub-regions such as CEC, attending a meeting can take a whole day.

The ability for the meeting to be opened out to wider groups meant that issues that would usually have been discussed on a sub-region basis benefited from a wider level pool of. Participants were able to share documents using the AG collaborative tools, as well as desktop screens and web pages. Carlisle College was able to share project updates and gain valuable feedback and comments from two sub-regions, as well sharing new ideas with the SMILT group. The multiple video feeds that are possible with AG technologies provided the instant communication that is required for a videoconference meeting.

Over the coming months, the Access Grid Support Centre will be working closely with Ashton Sixth Form College to explore the new opportunities that lie before them with AG collaborative video technologies, and encouraging other FE institutions to follow Ashton’s lead.