Charles Sturt University (CSU) has adopted a new videoconferencing platform to boost the engagement and collaboration of its students and staff.

Mr Philip Roy, acting Executive Director of the CSU Division of Information Technology, has announced that the University has selected the Pexip® Infinity scalable meeting platform to power its world-class distance learning program.

"Pexip® is a leading Norwegian innovator in scalable, distributed videoconferencing software, and its Infinity education and communications network will allow the University's students, faculty and staff to instantly communicate face-to-face via personal Virtual Meeting Rooms (VMRs) that foster engagement and collaboration," Mr Roy said.

"Charles Sturt University is Australia's largest regional educational institution with more than 20 000 students enrolled in undergraduate, postgraduate, or single subjects, and it is the leading provider of distance education in Australia, with 60 per cent of our students studying fully online.

"The University needed a system that is accessible from many different devices, from any location, and required the scaling capabilities to facilitate the provision of the videoconferencing service to all our users.

"Using the Pexip Infinity scalable meeting platform, the continuing education program provides intuitive online learning where students and lecturers can meet in VMRs in order to participate in classroom discussions, knowledge sharing, or team-based collaborations within an easy-to-use virtual environment.

"The University has taken a definitive step by deploying Pexip Infinity to ensure that our online learning remains empowering and simple to use while guaranteeing that it can be easily expanded to meet any of our future requirements. By giving our distance learning students their own personal VMRs, we're taking away some of the fear and mystery of not being able to physically attend classes on campus."

Pexip Infinity will be deployed at multiple data centres and managed from a single location by a team of only two administrators. It will power more than 25 000 VMRs and virtual auditoriums.

The new videoconferencing platform will be operational at CSU mid-2015 and the University estimates that the majority of students will be active users within 12 months.

"With Charles Sturt University's users being web browser-based, Infinity removes any accessibility obstacles by providing the easiest-to-use distance learning solution that doesn't require users to be information technology experts in order to engage with it," Mr Roy said.