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Spotlight
Web Conferencing Cuts Costs for California Community College System
7/16/2008
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Growth of Electronic Conferencing
The e-conferencing system's popularity is evident in its growth: In 2003, fewer than 1,500 meetings among 15,000 users were held on the e-conferencing system. In four years, usage has grown to 10 times that number, and numbers for 2008 will almost certainly be significantly higher, according to Project Director Blaine Morrow, as the program continues to expand and as he publicizes it further. "We took a gamble [in setting up the system originally]," Morrow said, "and it's really paying off now."
The savings in travel time and expense, as well as reduced time away from work and staff time savings, Morrow estimated, are so widespread and immense that they can't really be calculated.
With headquarters in San Diego, California's southernmost large city, CCC's e-conferencing project, called CCC Confer, serves community college districts ranging in size from a few thousand students to more than a hundred thousand in some districts, and everything in between. The system uses video cameras and optional connections with ordinary telephone services via a toll-free conference call. It relies on Web conferencing and e-learning software and services from Elluminate called Elluminate Live!, which the consortium switched to last year after using a system from another vendor. With either vendor, Morrow estimated, CCC Confer was the company's largest customer.
Part of the reason for the switch was features in Elluminate, although the deal Morrow was able to negotiate using the size of his constituency was a factor as well.
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