Higher Ed Institutions Enable Hybrid and HyFlex
Instruction With Aruba ESP-Based Networks
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today
announced that a multitude of universities and colleges are turning
to network infrastructure based on Aruba ESP (Edge Services
Platform) to help solve the challenges of educating students during
the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a combination of Aruba’s integrated
wired, wireless, security, network management, and location-based
solutions, these institutions are exploring new and innovative
learning models like Hybrid Flexible or HyFlex, that combine online
and in-person instruction, and are using Aruba innovations like
contact tracing and location heat mapping, to ensure the health and
safety of students returning to campus.
As higher education institutions across the nation consider how
to safely and effectively reopen this Fall, network infrastructure
and related technologies have moved to the forefront of their
priorities, whether via the addition of strategic technology
solutions for contact tracing and social distancing, or full
network refreshes.
For The University of New Hampshire (UNH), the largest provider
of post-secondary education in New Hampshire serving approximately
15,000 students on its main campus, a flexible, hybrid model was
crucial for this academic year. UNH will deliver Fall 2020 classes
with a combination of in-person and online instruction. UNH is
opening new, larger classrooms at 50% of their usual occupancy,
with additional interactive technology, to enable social distancing
while ensuring that teaching and learning strategies are effective.
UNH will also rely heavily on Zoom, with 80-90 classrooms
classified as Zoom Rooms with upgrades that support live
streaming.
Key to enabling UNH’s flexible plan is their Aruba ESP-based
network which incorporates Wi-Fi 6 access points (APs) – including
2,000 APs just in the University’s 40+ residence halls – ClearPass
for policy management, and AirWave for network management.
“When it comes to planning for our students’ 2020-2021 academic
year, flexibility is the key,” said Dan Corbeil, director of
WAN/LAN and Telecom Operations, USNH Enterprise Technology and
Services. “The Aruba infrastructure allows us to quickly and
securely extend high-speed wireless across all the campus locations
that need it so we can ensure that whatever form learning takes –
in the classroom or over Zoom in a student’s dorm room – it will be
efficient and effective.”
Rollins College, a private liberal arts college in Winter Park,
Florida, is deploying a hybrid learning model to serve students of
its 80-building, 80 acre campus. Led by the College’s Emergency
Operations Team and Fall 2020 Strategic Planning Task Force,
Rollins has developed a comprehensive plan for how instruction will
resume this fall. Students will be allowed to return to campus
voluntarily, with classes taking place in person, supplemented by
virtual synchronous instruction. Rollins will also provide students
who opt-out of in-classroom instruction with the option to attend
class virtually with their classmates.
The College’s Aruba infrastructure, which includes APs, Aruba CX
Series and access switches, and ClearPass Policy Manager, will play
a major role in supporting this hybrid learning model. Since
teachers will be able to choose their platform for instruction – in
person, or via Zoom, Teams, Webex or other videoconferencing and
collaboration applications – and dorm rooms will have 100% Wi-Fi
saturation to support real-time, online instruction, the network
foundation is vital. Rollins also deployed Aruba User Experience
Insight sensors to help the IT team identify issues and resolve
them before students, teachers and staff discover them. Finally,
for helping to enable the safe return of students, faculty and
staff to campus, Rollins will use Aruba’s contact tracing solution
in addition to traditional methods of contact tracing to help
identify anyone who has come into contact with a person that has
tested positive for COVID-19.
“Our Aruba infrastructure has enabled us to quickly devise a
plan that meets the needs of all of our students, whether they are
returning to campus or opting into remote learning,” said Ian J.
Lyons, senior network engineer for Rollins College. “And from a
cost perspective, we’ve been able to leverage our existing Wi-Fi
infrastructure to deploy the contact tracing solution – a key
benefit during this economically challenging time.”
State Technical College of Missouri, a technical training
college offering over 35 associate degree and certificate programs
to its approximately 1,900 students, found itself in the midst of a
network refresh, expanding its wireless footprint to enable
augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) for classrooms,
when the pandemic hit. Because of the flexibility of the Aruba
infrastructure, the College was able to quickly pivot to a hybrid
learning approach that combined online classes with the in-person
instruction necessary for some of its more hands-on, technical
training content.
According to Mike Ely, director of Information Technology at
State Technical College of Missouri, the upgraded network which
utilizes Aruba Wi-Fi 6 APs, switches and ClearPass Policy Manager,
has been a critical factor in the College’s ability to continue
providing the kind of hands-on education that has earned it
nationwide recognition.
The new pandemic requirements have resulted in the College
looking at a variety of ways to better utilize their available
technology. With the upgraded network, the College has begun
incorporating VR and AR into its curriculum using Microsoft
HoloLens-powered safety helmets, as one example.
“The speed and reliability of the Aruba infrastructure has made
the implementation of devices like this possible,” Ely added.
For California State University (CSU) Sacramento or Sacramento
State University, one of the 23 schools that comprise the CSU
system, the return-to-campus efforts began back in March when the
COVID-19 pandemic hit. As the University’s diverse student
population began experiencing the pandemic’s impact, CSU Sacramento
started searching for a way to ensure that students living off
campus could access their educational content.
In addition to procuring and supplying students with laptops,
web cameras, headsets, and microphones, as needed, CSU Sacramento
realized that many students lacked network connectivity; the IT
team, in concert with campus leadership, transportation and
parking, and campus police, quickly devised a plan to use CSU’s
new, six-floor parking structure as a Wi-Fi hub where students
could drive up, park and connect safely and efficiently. As Ted
Koubiar, senior director of Operations and Network Services for CSU
Sacramento, explained, the University relied on Aruba for the
structure’s secure, reliable connectivity.
“We leveraged our existing Aruba outdoor APs, along with AirWave
network management, to implement the Wi-Fi hub quickly and
cost-effectively,” Koubiar said. “With Aruba’s help, in just over
two weeks, we were able to launch this new Wi-Fi access location
and get students online.”
The University plans to extend this coverage to students for as
long as required. As the Cal State system announced some time ago
that the Fall 2020 semester will be online-only, CSU Sacramento has
the benefit of having tested out this portion of their distance
learning model already.
Additional Resources:
- Podcast: What The Return to School Means for IT, a conversation
with Dan Corbeil of the University of New Hampshire
- Podcast: Hybrid Education in Action, a conversation with Mike
Ely of State Technical College of Missouri
- Blog: Pandemic Spurs Drive-up Access for Online Learning by Ted
Koubiar of CSU Sacramento
About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is the global
leader in secure, intelligent edge-to-cloud networking solutions
that use AI to automate the network, while harnessing data to drive
powerful business outcomes. With Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform)
and as-a-service options, Aruba takes a cloud-native approach to
helping customers meet their connectivity, security, and financial
requirements across campus, branch, data center, and remote worker
environments, covering all aspects of wired, wireless LAN, and wide
area networking (WAN).
To learn more, visit Aruba at www.arubanetworks.com. For
real-time news updates, follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook, and
for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba
products, visit the Airheads Community at
community.arubanetworks.com.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200908005163/en/
Kathleen Keith Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
+1-707-529-4507 kathleen.keith@hpe.com Jennifer Miu Aruba, a
Hewlett Packard Enterprise company +1 650-236-9532
jennifer.miu@hpe.com
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024