SMU has been awarded the 2015 Excellence Awards at the Ignite Asia Pacific conference on the Gold Coast, presented by the EdTech company that created Brightspace. The awards recognise institutions in the region that have used the Brightspace platform to deliver learning experiences that are innovative, collaborative, or have made an extraordinary impact on learning outcomes. Together with SMU, the other two winners this year, Queensland’s Saint Stephen’s College and Victoria University, have demonstrated exemplary results in student engagement, staff efficiency and social communication. The article noted that SMU has harnessed the power of big data and analytics to transform teaching and learning in higher education. Using the learning analytics capabilities of Brightspace, the University gains deeper and actionable insights into students’ learning progress, challenges and behaviours.