An Elluminate
Success Story

Prairie Spirit School Division Reduces Travel Costs with Elluminate Live!

According to Distance Education Coordinator Donald Girouard, Prairie Spirit School Division (PSSD) wanted to reduce the need for school principals and resource (special needs) teachers to travel significant distances for meetings. "We looked at several solutions, and Elluminate Live! satisfied our need for low-bandwidth connectivity and reliable audio," he explained.

Today, teachers and administrators are using Elluminate Live! to share information and best practices, ask questions, and make decisions. In addition, PSSD uses the virtual classroom to supplement its Blackboard and IITV courses. "We’ve also used Elluminate Live! to provide real-time application training, recorded tutorials, and technical support for teachers and administrators," Girouard added. “In the future, we’ll be incorporating it in a more formal way for classes and teacher professional development."

"Since implementing Elluminate Live! I’ve been keeping track of mileage saved," Girouard concluded. "I estimate that we save approximately $18K per year in time and mileage by eliminating some of the travel. Add to this several thousand dollars in savings for meals, substitute teachers, plus other intangible benefits, and we are at almost half of our ROI in a single year."

From the beginning Student Services Administrator Cheryl Dyer-Vigier saw Elluminate Live! as the way of the future. “I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it,” she said. “We like to try new things, and we’ve used Elluminate Live! for professional learning communities, hands-on training for new forms, and meetings with rural health authorities,” she said.

“With Elluminate Live! we’ve been able to increase meeting attendance and involvement by cutting down on travel and holding sessions at different times,” Dyer-Vigier added. “As a tool for professional development, Elluminate Live! has become a real strength for the division. I’m quite excited about what it has done for us and will continue to do.”

Elluminate Live! Benefits

• Low-bandwidth support for dial-up connections
• High-quality voice over the Internet
• High degree of control for moderators and teachers
• Whiteboard and file sharing
• World-class training and support
• Significant annual cost savings

About Prairie Spirit School Division

Prairie Spirit School Division offers a dynamic, flexible, and academic superior educational opportunity situated in a beautiful and picturesque area of south central Manitoba located in the centre of Canada. There are 29 schools, 13 Hutterite colony schools, and 16 public schools, two of which are French immersion. The sizes of the schools range from 10 students in one of the Hutterite colony schools to 250 in a Kindergarten to Grade 12 public school.