The first group of educational users in the world to utilise Microsoft Office 365 Lync have delivered a virtual lecture to MBA students at the American University of Cairo, Egypt.  The lecture was delivered by NUI Galway Lecturer Dr Murray Scott with final-year BSc Business Information Systems (BIS) students and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass).

The lecture was delivered as part of an international student virtual team project that aims to prepare students for the modern working environment and was received by participants from around the globe including Galway, Cairo, Boston, and Barcelona. 

Dr Murray Scott, BIS Module Director at NUI Galway, said: “For the last number of years we have been collaborating with Professor Gino Sorcinelli and his team at UMass Amherst to deliver this exciting new course, which is at the forefront of teaching modern cloud computing technologies.  This is a great example of students putting what they learn into practice and being able to utilise the latest cloud technologies we teach in the classroom.”

The lecture was delivered partially by Peter Langan from Drumcliff, Co. Sligo, a final year BSc Business Information Systems (BIS) at NUI Galway. Peter describes his experience of the module as one of a kind. “It was an amazing feeling to jointly deliver the lecture on a Sunday morning from my home in Sligo along with colleagues based in Galway to a class of MBA students in Cairo.”   

Classmate Dorothy Rab, from Portlaoise, Co. Laois, was also involved in lecture saying: “This was a great opportunity in preparing me for the modern working world, where employers no longer limit their employees’ boundaries to one building or even one country but require them to communicate with colleagues located on different sides of the globe.”

The students’ experience of collaborating across international boundaries has been captured by Microsoft and now features on their Office 365 for Education website.

-ENDS-