A POLYCOM® CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY

In VUC Storstrøm invents the Virtual and Parallel Classroom with Polycom® RealPresence® Platform and Industry Education Increase Student Enrolment

Daily Use • Distance learning Overview The General Adult Education Programme in Denmark forms part of the public education system and is Solution designed to help young and mature students improve or supplement their knowledge and skills within general Based on a platform of Polycom® subjects. VUC Stormstrøm is one of 30 adult education centres in Denmark providing students with the RealPresence® Collaboration Manager, opportunity to improve their educational skills and, ultimately, employment prospects. It is often referred to as Polycom® RealPresence® Resource the ‘second chance’ programme. VUC is situated in the region of and comprised of five campuses, Manager with over 1300 CMA® 180 teachers and 5,000 students. Classes are held from 08:00 through to 22:00 to accommodate its desktop licenses, and 13 RealPresence students’ busy lives which often include jobs and families. The programme delivers courses in all general classrooms, VUC delivers distant education subjects such as chemistry, foreign languages, mathematics, geography, social science and political education and increase enrolment. science. Students have the freedom of registering for one or several courses, depending on their agendas and personal goals. Results and Benefits • Increase school enrolment Innovating with the First Parallel and Virtual Classroom • Increase level of education in rural The challenge VUC faced was to be able to extend their educational services and provide access to as many areas students as possible, giving students in rural areas equal opportunity to the programmes. It was also necessary • Improve quality of life for teachers to increase attendance in some classes where only a few students were registered, and the cost of running the class was difficult to justify. VUC sought to break down distances and barriers preventing students to get • Reduction of carbon footprint the education they wanted, and developed a programme called ‘Parallel Teaching’ in 2008. This programme allowed students to follow any course by going to the centre nearest to them.

To accomplish its objectives, VUC needed a trusted expert and partner in distant learning. It found the support and the answers to its questions within the Polycom team. Together, Polycom and VUC planned, designed and deployed Polycom® HDX® video collaboration solutions. Initially, the network connected classrooms in , Naestved, Fakse, Vordingborg, and Nykobin, and due to its great success has expanded to 13 classrooms delivering courses through video collaboration. In 2011 they were the first to expand the model to allow students to attend lessons virtually, using a home computer adding greater flexibility. VUC Storstrøm invited the local vocational college, CELF, to join the development concept called Global Classroom.

The Polycom RealPresence Platform To bring the project to life, VUC decided on dual screen Polycom HDX room solutions. The multipoint connections are done using the Polycom RealPresence Collaboration Server (RMX®). Students participating in the programme have the option to attend from home or go to the nearest centres. For the ones who choose to work from home, VUC provides them with Polycom® CMA® software to download on their home computer. This desktop video collaboration solution has an intuitive click-to- dial IM-Style interface. The students benefit from easy and high quality video interactions. Flemming Neilsen, Project Manager responsible for the Parallel teaching project explains, “With the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform, we are able to attract students who would otherwise be unable to attend; this is a true advantage for the second chance programme.”

“With the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform, we are able to attract students who would otherwise be unable to attend qualifying courses, this is a true advantage for the second chance programme.”

Flemming Neilsen, Parallel Classroom Project Manager, VUC Strostrøm A POLYCOM CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY VUC Strostrøm

“As educators we need to find new ways to optimise the teaching methods, and deliver our courses to more students. This technology allows us to reach more students and have a full virtual classroom.”

Jens Illum, English Teacher, VUC Storstrøm

The teacher conducts his course normally in a classroom students to work in a much more structured manner which Product Listing not like other. Students can dial into the course from benefits everyone.” Voice Conferencing any location. This has opened the catalogue of classes • Polycom® Unified to many new students as it is so flexible and easy. A For VUC, the Polycom RealPresence Platform is the key Collaboration System great benefit is the classes which traditionally had low component which allowed them to reach their goal to CX7000 registration are now filling up to normal 20 student innovate and create a revolution in the way education capacity. is pursued and delivered. The programme is in constant Telepresence and Video evolutions, as more teachers use the technology. Madsen Conferencing A New Way of Teaching, a New Way of is proud of their accomplishments and vindicates, “VUC • Polycom® HDX® 7000 applies modern technology and embraces the world Learning RealPresence® Room students live in. These innovative tools are today an For the teachers, it takes a little training, and a little getting Solutions integral element of our teaching, and a natural part of the used to. They must ensure all participants have the proper learning process.” • Polycom® HDX® 6000 books and materials to follow their course. Today, most ® class materials are available in electronic format, making RealPresence Room The Success Opens New Possibilities this very simple. Teachers using the technology are trained Solutions on how to communicate with distant locations. It takes VUC quickly noticed the strength and power of students • Polycom® CMA® Desktop just one session for the teachers to see the benefits. completing their classes, raising the general level of Infrastructure “As educators, we need to find new ways to optimise education in the region. The scale of this successful ® ® our teaching methods, and deliver our courses to more concept is now shared with other VUCs, and thus • Polycom RealPresence students. This technology allows us to reach students generates further educational development for the Collaboration Server in distant locations, and have a full virtual classroom.” expansion of the project. Current plans are for VUC to (RMX®) expand the programme and grow the ‘Global Classroom’ explains Jens Illum, an english teacher. • Polycom® RealPresence® concept. The idea is to work with other schools who are Resource Manager (CMA®) For students, having access to the classes from their also using the technology to exchange best practices, home or a centre near them has numerous advantages. share knowledge, allowing each teacher to reach more This opens up the doors of the school to many who would students, and give the students the benefits of a greater not be able to attend. Lark Menko, a student who attends education. school from her home explains, “I have to pick up my daughter from school at 16:00, if I had to attend class at Learn More the VUC, I would not have time to get from my school to To find out how Polycom solutions can help your hers. Being at home makes it possible.” organisation, visit us at www.polycom.co.uk or speak with a Polycom Account Representative. Results Kristian Madsen, Project Manager at VUC Storstrøm says, “Using the digital tools, we develop a new educational work experience. For example, the Internet enables us to use information, share knowledge, visualise and communicate material in ways we have not been able to until now. At the same time, parallel teaching forces the

About Polycom Polycom is the global leader in standards-based unified communications (UC) solutions for telepresence, video, and voice powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform. The RealPresence Platform interoperates with the broadest range of business, mobile, and social applications and devices. More than 400,000 organizations trust Polycom solutions to collaborate and meet face-to-face from any location for more productive and effective engagement with colleagues, partners, customers, specialists, and prospects. Polycom, together with its broad partner ecosystem, provides customers with the best TCO, scalability, and security for video collaboration, whether on-premises, hosted, or cloud-delivered. Visit www.polycom.co.uk or connect with Polycom on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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