Solve education challenges with a modern campus network

Greg Kovich

March 18, 2024

A modern campus network helps streamline operations, reduce costs, and offers a safe and caring place to work and study.

For many of today’s students, their first taste of online and hybrid learning environments came during the global health crisis. And they liked it.

Add flexibility in course delivery to the many priorities educational institutions are juggling. Such as the pressure to up the quality of student-centric learning opportunities and make the role more rewarding for faculty members. Address the blossoming need to create a nurturing and supportive community that helps students stay on track and complete their education. Defend against all threats – both in terms of physical space and cyberspace.

That’s a handful for any single school administrator or IT manager. And after the health crisis – when so much regular work was waylaid – the situation is now reaching dire proportions on a global basis.

Modernising the campus network to address these challenges has never been so clearly needed.

A modern campus network makes it easy and efficient to securely support large volumes of users, data, devices, applications and systems end-to-end across wired and wireless networks, including off-campus locations. It also provides fast access to the high-capacity bandwidth to support applications and services that improve student success from every perspective.

Let’s look at the demands today’s educational institutions face, and how a modern campus network can help them solve their educational, wellness and safety challenges.

Student-centric service delivery

Modern campus networks empower educational institutions to permanently accommodate student preferences, learning styles and the need for flexibility. The existing network infrastructure was hurriedly adapted during the pandemic to meet urgent and supposedly temporary requirements. In contrast, the modern network infrastructure is designed and built from the ground up to provide the security, reliability and performance needed for consistent, high-quality online course delivery.

The modern network also empowers students and faculty to incorporate new and more sophisticated digital learning tools and technologies into their courses — whether they are participating on campus or remotely. For more engaging and interactive educational experiences, students can take advantage of HD video, virtual reality, augmented reality and other cutting-edge technologies.

For primary and secondary students, a modernised network fully supports personalised learning pedagogy, 1:1 device classrooms and secure adoption of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) curricula.

A nurturing and supportive environment

Academic and societal pressures have long caused students mental grief, particularly in higher education. However, the stress and uncertainty of the past few years – combined with rising rent, food and tuition costs – have pushed student anxieties to new levels. As a result, many students are struggling with low energy, concentration issues, depression and other challenges that hinder educational performance.

The modern campus network supports critical applications and services that help to counter mental health challenges. Online campus communities give students an easy way to collaborate, communicate with professors, engage in meaningful activities and connect with other students. There are also digital nudge technologies that provide reminders, alerts and resources that help students stay on track and feel valued.

Optimal campus safety and resilience

Technologies that protect the physical safety of everyone on campus and secure their personal data and course content are crucial. A secure and reliable, high-capacity, high-speed network that covers indoor and outdoor spaces meets these requirements.

To improve collective safety, mass notification systems can instantly alert students and staff to emergency events such as a fire, flood, gas leak, approaching storm or other threats.

For individual safety, panic buttons, safety hotlines and alarms can be implemented across campus and centrally monitored through a campus-wide safety dashboard.

When it comes to campus resilience, the network continues to deliver online learning and critical campus services during and after unexpected events and emergencies. And it includes robust cybersecurity mechanisms that protect against unauthorised network access.

The next steps

In addition to student success initiatives, a modern campus network helps educational institutions streamline operations, reduce costs and build their brand. By adopting an engaging approach to teaching using cutting-edge technology environment, institutions can build a reputation as future-oriented within an environment that offers a safe, caring and appealing place to work and study.

Upgrading to a modern, campus-wide network is a significant undertaking, so it is important to work with a network partner that provides deep experience, technical expertise and a flexible, cost-effective approach. With the right partner, strategy and network technologies, educational institutions can create a secure, agile and high-performance Ethernet and Wi-Fi network that supports the educational, wellness and safety goals of students and staff – campus wide.