EDUCAUSE 2011 Three Paths, One Goal: Three Institutions’ Journey with Providing and Supporting Mobile Technology Bentley University, Waltham MA Preparing for the MAC Mike Davis (IT Project Manager)
About Bentley 4,000 undergrads 1,000 grad students ~500 faculty and staff Business-centric school just southeast of Boston, MA Has a Mobile Computing program, which provides students with a University laptop
The Status Quo Bentley pushes a “expose students to what they will see in business” approach Tight leash kept on a heavily-customized, internally created Windows image for all devices. Only support for Mac laptops and iPhones was Internet and Email connectivity
A Call for Change Undergraduate students began to clamor for increased support of all Mac mobile devices, especially iPad Student Government IT group became a focal point for formal requests to IT This soon morphed into a call for “choice”: Bentley should offer Mac laptops and PC laptops to students
Beginnings of a Plan Once tide began, the Client Services group was charged with making plans to do a “pilot” Small group of students would have a choice between a Windows Laptop and a Macbook The Help Desk began to evaluate its current capacity/skill for broad Mac support
A Comprehensive Approach Client Services realized quickly that making Macs work well in a Windows environment was a broader undertaking Needed to consider: Infrastructure and network needs: servers, security, bandwidth Faculty needs: impact in classroom Communication and training needed
Ahhh, Inclusiveness! Conducted surveys of faculty to gauge comfort with Macs in class Reached out to peer institutions to see how they tackle Macs Worked with Academic Technology groups to ensure Mac-compatible software was available Continual engagement with students
After much planning…. A pilot student laptop program was approved for Fall of 2012 IT group would purchase a variety of MAC devices for full academic year testing Faculty agreed to research ways to teach to a mixed OS environment Largest obstacle: supporting Boot Camp or Paralllels
Lessons Learned Listen to the voice of the students –to an extent! Ensure that ALL of IT is on-board and on the same page. Honestly assess your capabilities (support, infrastructure, training) before you leap!
Questions? Feel free to reach out with any questions, or you own experiences! michael.davis@simmons.edu