VU a finalist in technology excellence awards for 'BYOD' initiative

Victoria University has been named a finalist in the Operational Excellence category of the 2022 CAUDIT Awards for its introduction of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) capability, including at the new VU City Tower.

The CAUDIT Awards recognise, celebrate and promote the outstanding achievements and innovation of staff working in IT in higher education organisations. Particularly, they acknowledge the application of digital capabilities that positively transform the experience of students, academics and professional staff.

About the project

VU’s BYOD initiative enables access to VU course-related applications any place, any time and on any VU or personal device with internet connection.

Virtual workspaces are accessed via a cloud-based hosting system portal called MyWorkspace. The system supports the VU Block Model (the university's course-delivery model) to provide a more flexible and self-directed modern mode of learning.

With 40% of VU students continuing to study online (in part, or totally) in 2022 from various locations around Australia and globally, BYOD is enabling access to essential applications any time they need.

“The virtual desktop is intuitive and easy to use. All my required applications are provided as a shortcut and are extremely easy to access,” said Swati Gupta, a final-year business student who is studying remotely in India.

Many hundreds of students and staff across VU local and remote locations are now enjoying:

• access to VU applications from any device, anytime, anywhere with an internet connection
• consistent user experience across devices
• access to applications on their own devices regardless of hardware capability
• applications that follow the user to any location and are not constrained to just one room/facility.

Scott Bingley, a senior lecturer in the VU Business School, says: “The virtual desktop has offered a dramatic change in how students, and academic staff, access our systems. In the past, a significant amount of time was taken up with trouble shooting student problems with installing various applications for the semester/block on range of different devices. Now all students have to do is jump on to MyWorkspace and it all works on any device, and can be accessed from any location.”