Canadian Institution Delivers Anytime, Anywhere Learning for 100,000+ Students and Prepares to Securely Manage IoT Across 10 Campuses
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced
that Seneca, one of the largest comprehensive colleges in Canada, has
deployed Aruba wireless, security and management solutions, along with
Aruba’s location-based services portfolio, to expand its learning spaces
beyond traditional classrooms and to improve student experiences.
With a student body of 30,000 full-time and 71,000 part-time students
spread across four main campuses and six satellite locations, Seneca has
seen dramatic growth in the number and diversity of devices being
connected to its network. Seneca’s IT department has focused on evolving
its systems and platforms to ensure that these devices can connect
easily and securely, but more importantly, to improve and enhance the
user experience for Seneca’s students, staff and faculty. With a digital
strategy that seeks to change the way education is delivered, Seneca has
also been an innovative and enthusiastic user of wayfinding and other
location-based services.
“We want to make sure that our students, staff and faculty have no
limitations when it comes to where and when to meet and connect,” said
Hassan Assiri, Director, Infrastructure Services, Seneca. “Our network
infrastructure has to support that philosophy of anytime, anywhere
learning, as well as deliver a rich and satisfying experience for all of
our users.”
To enable this flexible learning environment, Seneca tapped partner RDEL
Technologies Inc. to deploy approximately 1,300 Aruba location-ready
indoor and outdoor Access
Points, Aruba Mobility
Controllers, Aruba ClearPass
for device profiling, and AirWave
for network management. In addition, the College has supplemented its
location-ready APs with 1,200 Aruba Bluetooth
Low Energy (BLE) beacons and used the Meridian
App Platform to enhance Seneca Navigate, the institution’s mobile
app, to help students, staff and faculty navigate Seneca’s various
campuses. While the app is currently focused on wayfinding, Seneca plans
to incorporate more features including push notifications that could,
for example, alert students to menu specials when they are near the
cafeteria or inform them of special events happening in a particular
Seneca Student Federation location. Wayfinding is currently deployed on
three of Seneca’s campuses.
“Students love the app experience,” said Assiri. “Especially prospective
and new students who are just finding their way around campus. The app
saves them time and helps them quickly locate a building and a room or
find their friends.”
Assiri said the feedback from faculty and staff has been just as
enthusiastic, particularly amongst Seneca’s approximately 3,000
part-time faculty members at their Newnham Campus, who come onto the
campus at night and are frequent users of the app.
Seneca has leveraged the strong integration capabilities of the Meridian
AppPlatform to integrate its Seneca Mobile app with Seneca Navigate.
Seneca Mobile app is a student-facing, transactional mobile app that
allows students to view their time table, pay their school fees, view
shuttle bus timings, and many more features. The integration with Seneca
Navigate allows the students to launch turn-by-turn navigation directly
from their time table to find the appropriate room number.
From an academic perspective, the Aruba infrastructure is instrumental
in Seneca’s emphasis on digital content in its curriculum. Seneca has
more than 300 programs that vary widely from aviation and business to
fashion and broadcasting, so accommodating these programs means offering
a wealth of resources outside of traditional textbooks and ensuring that
they can be accessed quickly and easily online. Many of the classes
provide students with iPads or Microsoft tablets with pre-loaded
curriculum, and Seneca has recently extended tablets to their aviation
program for pilots and flight attendants, to their 911 program for
public safety, and to their nursing program to help interact with the
patient mannequins that are used.
Said Assiri, “The Aruba Wi-Fi infrastructure has been transformative. It
truly changed the way we deliver courses and allowed us to look at them
through a different lens. We can put much more curriculum on the network
because now we have the capacity and reliability to do so.”
To further improve upon Seneca’s educational and campus experiences,
Assiri said Seneca plans to upgrade to ArubaOS
8, which will help evolve the wireless network to meet the
institution’s long-term requirements.
“Things like Live Upgrade that allow us to further reduce our network
downtime and AirMatch to reduce AP congestion by automatically load
balancing the APs and users, are exciting features for us that will
allow us to continue meeting the needs of all our users as we grow,” he
said. Assiri adds that Seneca will look to build on its Aruba
infrastructure in the future, extending its use of ClearPass to both the
wired and wireless networks and to securely connect IoT devices.
“Seneca has embarked on a multi-year digital optimization strategy to
leverage technologies like mobile, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, cloud,
analytics, and Blockchain to significantly improve on areas like
operational efficiency, student experience, digital learning, smart
campus and digital workforce,” said Radha Krishnan, Associate VP,
Information Services for Seneca. “Seneca has identified 24 digital
opportunities to be implemented in the next three years. Most of these
initiatives require a strong Wi-Fi network, and Aruba’s Wi-Fi
infrastructure provides that foundation to jumpstart many of these
digital initiatives.”
Added Assiri, “The number of tickets or complaints about the Wi-Fi has
gone down to almost zero and for me, that’s success. But even more
importantly, we’re confident that we have the right infrastructure in
place to move forward with our future innovations and initiatives.”
About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is a leading provider of
next-generation networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes
worldwide. The company delivers IT solutions that empower organizations
to serve the latest generation of mobile-savvy users who rely on
cloud-based business apps for every aspect of their work and personal
lives.
To learn more, visit Aruba at
http://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 Airheads Social at
http://community.arubanetworks.com
.
Pavel Radda
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
+1-408-419-0294
pavel.radda@hpe.com
OR
Kathleen Keith
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
+1-707-529-4507
Kathleen.keith@hpe.com