Universities Breaking Distance Barriers with Fuze Video Collaboration

SAN FRANCISCO and DENVER, April 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Hearing impaired students in disparate locations learning together through a rich visual experience. Nursing school students interning at hospitals able to remotely attend classes. Fuze video collaboration technology is enabling leading universities across the U.S. to eliminate distance and other barriers to make these types of enriched learning environments a reality.

Georgetown Law School, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Saint Louis University, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Gallaudet University are the latest to adopt Fuze to help faculty and students pursue new opportunities through cloud-based video collaboration. Fuze recently partnered with Internet2, offering Fuze to all non-profit universities, colleges, schools and research organizations in the U.S. Fuze is the official video collaboration sponsor of the Internet2 Global Summit in Denver this week, where it is demonstrating major advancements in video collaboration technology and real-world use cases for education.

"Distance as a barrier to education is disappearing," said David Obrand, Fuze CEO. "Fuze is breaking geographic boundaries between students and their passions and allowing faculty to collaborate on an unparalleled scale, which helps foster better results for students and institutions as a whole."

Madrid to Missouri: International Degree Programs

Saint Louis University now offers a full-degree program for their Madrid campus that they couldn't offer before implementing Fuze. Students can now earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from the Madrid campus by using Fuze to connect to a required course at the main campus in Missouri.

"Fuze is a great way to connect students and faculty internationally, and offer programs we were unable to previously," said David Hakanson, Saint Louis University vice president and chief information officer. "Both faculty and students love the Fuze experience – being able to connect and collaborate through high-quality video has generated exciting new opportunities for us."

Cross-Campus Connections Enable Students to be in Two Places at Once

Nursing school students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst use Fuze to connect to on-campus classes they otherwise would've missed while interning in hospitals. Fuze is also used by the university's Isenberg School of Management to broadcast informational sessions to MBA students.

"Since Fuze works on any platform and with any type of hardware, including mobile devices, it allows us to reach students no matter where they are, helping them connect to resources that otherwise wouldn't be available," said Michael W. Gilbert, Advisor for Information Technology Initiatives & Services at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "Because Fuze allows for any type of HD content sharing, including full video, we're able to offer a rich experience for remote students and really engage them in the learning process."

Video collaboration also helps when students are physically unable to reach their class, a frequent problem plaguing college campuses this year with extreme weather. The University of Alaska Fairbanks has been historically challenged by the long distances that students travel to campus and the unpredictable weather and snow. Having Fuze-enabled courses keeps students on track and lets them learn in a safe environment.

Visual Learning for Hearing Impaired

Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf and hard of hearing, is using Fuze to open new possibilities of remote visual learning and faculty connection. Prior to Fuze, students had to relocate to the Washington D.C. campus for classes, and staff had to meet face-to-face. Fuze eliminated the need to be in one location, breaking the boundaries of visual learning opportunities for students, and allowing staff to connect much more frequently. Fuze was also the only tool Gallaudet found with a high-quality experience able to handle the intricacies of sign language.

About Fuze

Fuze is redefining video communication and collaboration in the workplace. Experience it for yourself at www.fuze.com.

About Internet2

Internet2® is a member-owned advanced technology community founded by the nation's leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 provides a collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to solve common technology challenges, and to develop innovative solutions in support of their educational, research, and community service missions.

Internet2 also operates the nation's largest and fastest, coast-to-coast research and education network, and serves more than 90,000 research and educational institutions, including more than 245 U.S. universities, 70 government agencies, 38 regional and state education networks, 60 leading corporations working with our community and more than 100 national research and education networking partners representing more than 50 countries. Internet2 offices are located in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Emeryville, Calif.; Washington, D.C; and West Hartford, CT. For more information, visit www.internet2.edu or follow @Internet2 on Twitter.

SOURCE Fuze