Media Releases

University of Toronto supports students’ success with Microsoft Live@edu web-based tools

June 1, 2011

TORONTO, ON — Microsoft Cana­da and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to are pleased to announce that UofT is the lat­est high­er edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tion to deliv­er Microsoft­’s Live@edu e‑mail and doc­u­ment man­age­ment ser­vice. This joint ini­tia­tive enables UofT’s 77,000 stu­dents to join a rapid­ly grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of 11 mil­lion peers in more than 10,000 schools world­wide who are ben­e­fit­ing from the pow­er of Live@edu.

This cloud-based col­lab­o­ra­tion suite will help the Uni­ver­si­ty reduce costs, improve com­mu­ni­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion between stu­dents, and equip them with the tools they need for their aca­d­e­m­ic career.

“Live@EDU is an out­stand­ing addi­tion to UofT’s robust stu­dent sup­port ser­vices,” says Cheryl Mis­ak, Vice-Pres­i­dent and Provost for the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to.  “Our stu­dents are very much look­ing for­ward to hav­ing this pow­er­ful tool to help them get the most out of their uni­ver­si­ty expe­ri­ence.”

Out­side of the class­room, Cana­di­ans are increas­ing­ly using col­lab­o­ra­tion soft­ware and ser­vices and now expect these same capa­bil­i­ties in their learn­ing expe­ri­ence. Exten­sive con­sul­ta­tion with stu­dents led by the Uni­ver­si­ty’s Chief Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer, Robert Cook, showed that stu­dents want­ed more com­pre­hen­sive tools to com­ple­ment their aca­d­e­m­ic involve­ment.

The plat­form pro­vides the flex­i­bil­i­ty of Office Web Apps that include web-opti­mized ver­sions of Word, Excel, OneNote and Pow­er­Point — essen­tial tools now acces­si­ble to UofT stu­dents any­where, any­time, via any pop­u­lar web brows­er or mobile device. Live@edu also includes Out­look for e‑mail plus a 10 GB inbox, and enables pow­er­ful doc­u­ment shar­ing and col­lab­o­ra­tion with 25GB of pass­word-pro­tect­ed online stor­age.

“Now more than ever, uni­ver­si­ties such as the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to require secu­ri­ty-enhanced cloud ser­vices to deliv­er the flex­i­bil­i­ty and func­tion­al­i­ty that stu­dents need to suc­ceed in their stud­ies and in their future careers,” says Mike Trem­blay, Vice Pres­i­dent, Pub­lic Sec­tor, Microsoft Cana­da. “Live@edu is arm­ing Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to stu­dents with tools that dri­ve suc­cess in the class­room, and even­tu­al­ly the board­room.”

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About Live@edu

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to joins more than 10,000 schools in more than 130 coun­tries around the world that have cho­sen Live@edu as a plat­form for stu­dent com­mu­ni­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion. Live@edu inno­va­tions include great tools such as:

• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Ser­vices: Free, host­ed email and cal­en­dar­ing with a 10 GB inbox and instant mes­sag­ing through Out­look Live
• Col­lab­o­ra­tion Ser­vices: Abil­i­ty to access, share and col­lab­o­rate through Sky­Drive, with 25 GB of free online stor­age space
• Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty Ser­vices: Cre­ate, view, edit, and share Microsoft Word, Excel, Pow­er­Point, and OneNote files online with Sky­Drive

More infor­ma­tion about Microsoft Live@edu can be found at www.microsoft.com/liveatedu.

About Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to

Estab­lished in 1827, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is Canada’s largest uni­ver­si­ty, rec­og­nized as a glob­al leader in research and teach­ing. U of T’s dis­tin­guished fac­ul­ty, insti­tu­tion­al record of ground­break­ing schol­ar­ship and wealth of inno­v­a­tive aca­d­e­m­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties con­tin­u­al­ly attract out­stand­ing stu­dents and aca­d­e­mics from around the world. U of T is com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing a learn­ing expe­ri­ence that ben­e­fits from both a scale almost unpar­al­leled in North Amer­i­ca and from the close-knit learn­ing com­mu­ni­ties made pos­si­ble through its col­lege sys­tem and aca­d­e­m­ic divi­sions. Locat­ed on three cam­pus­es in and around Toron­to, one of the world’s most diverse regions, U of T’s vibrant aca­d­e­m­ic life is enhanced by cul­tur­al diver­si­ty in its learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty.  For more infor­ma­tion the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, please vis­it www.utoronto.ca

About Microsoft Cana­da

Estab­lished in 1985, Microsoft Cana­da Inc. is the Cana­di­an sub­sidiary of Microsoft Cor­po­ra­tion (Nas­daq “MSFT”) the world­wide leader in soft­ware, ser­vices and solu­tions that help peo­ple and busi­ness­es real­ize their full poten­tial. Microsoft Cana­da pro­vides nation­wide sales, mar­ket­ing, con­sult­ing and local sup­port ser­vices in both French and Eng­lish. Head­quar­tered in Mis­sis­sauga, Microsoft Cana­da has nine region­al offices across the coun­try ded­i­cat­ed to empow­er­ing peo­ple through great soft­ware — any time, any place and on any device. For more infor­ma­tion on Microsoft Cana­da, please vis­it www.microsoft.ca.