A University of Otago team has won Microsoft's ''supreme award'' for a virtual desktop project.
University teaching and learning facilities manager Emerson Pratt led the project, which allows any Otago student to remotely log on to university computers using their web browser.
That meant students could now access computer applications usually available exclusively on campus from ''wherever they are in the world'', Mr Pratt said.
''It could be in their flat, or they could be in, well, we have students in about 120 different countries.''
Otago introduced the system at the beginning of the semester in February, and 16,000 students had used it so far, Mr Pratt said.
''It's a really exciting project. We've had visits from universities from Hong Kong; 20 different universities have contacted me asking for information about what we're doing from around the world.''
Mr Pratt said the system could be especially useful for students taking Otago classes from overseas.
''We have distance students all around the world,'' he said.
''This gives them that equal opportunity as if they were studying here in Dunedin.''
The project won both the supreme award and the excellence in technology innovation award at the Tertiary Education ICT conference, which was held in Dunedin last week.