Service of the FCT FCCN Unit that allows videoconferencing sessions, whether in the scope of the classroom, events or meetings, shows an upward trend in the number of minutes, participants and sessions held, in the first four months of 2021, compared with the previous year.
The impact of online academic activities on Colibri service
During the first four months of 2020, the Colibri service registered a very significant increase in its use. In that same period, due to its strategic importance for conducting distance learning activities, this FCCN Unit service consolidated its front-end infrastructure and reinforced its licensing by 1111%.
One year later, these developments resulted in a sustained strengthening of the usage metrics of this service. By analysing the usage data for the first four months of 2021, we can see a significant growth trend in terms of the number of minutes, participants and sessions held.
In comparison to the same period of the previous year, there was a 420% increase in the total number of minutes relative to meetings and webinars, surpassing the 1.8 billion minute mark. With regards to the number of sessions, this increase was 393%, having been carried out, over the last four months, about 1.85 million events and meetings using this service.
This increase is also matched by a significant increase in the total number of participants. If during the first four months of 2020 about 7 million users passed through the sessions, in 2021, this number more than tripled, reaching about 26 million. This growth of 263% is explained, in part, by the approximately 19 thousand new users registered in the same period.
These numbers show the preponderant role of this service of the FCCN Unit of the FCT, in a context of distance classes. In an interview published in July 2020, the manager of the Video Technical Service of the FCCN Unit, Nelson Schäller, highlighted the importance of the service in replacing face-to-face classes: "the Colibri service started to have a marked demand, as a support tool for distance learning, to cope with isolation, maintain teaching activities and bring people together now in a telework regime".
You can follow the updated usage data of this and other services at the FCCN site and for more information and user manuals visit the Colibri site.
