2. 2
Case Study
Colleges and Projects
Barnsley College Cloud Computing Hub Core, Hub Metro, Hub Mobile
Blackburn College Blackburn College Virtual Desktop Service
Grimsby Institute GIFHE Zone
Leeds City College Classroom in the Cloud – Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
North East Worcestershire College Using Software as service to deliver cloud based email and
office tools
Oxford and Cherwell College Video Production and Editing for Flipped Classroom Online
South Devon College Cloud Access and backup
Warrington Collegiate Institute
Summary
This set of applications based projects includes a wide range of learner and teacher focused applications
and different Cloud related approaches.
These applications include; making software and communication/collaboration tools available across
colleges, to mobile learners and learners at home, making software widely available to those with
learning difficulties, making self-directed learning videos available to vocational students and making
college software available at remote college locations. The different Cloud based approaches include
remote and college based Cloud servers linked with virtual desk top structures, use of Google apps, docs
and mail for education, including Chromebook, Microsoft 365, and the Kaltura open source online video
platform used in the Cloud.
Key Drivers
■ Software licence costs.
■ Potential of collaboration.
■ Limitations on server capacity.
■ Constraints to learning
approaches.
■ Limitations of buildings,
Limitations of bandwidth and
room utilisation issues and
student software costs.
■ Need to integrate information
systems.
Intended Beneficiaries
■ Learner.
■ Prospective learners.
■ Partners.
■ Staff.
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Impact to date and anticipated
The impact of these projects includes increased accessibility to applications software by learners and
staff within college, at home and on mobile devices. This increased flexibility is enabling efficiencies in
learning and support. In one project learners are able to access some specific software for those with
learning difficulties at any time or place. Another project enables students in Hospitality and Hair and
Beauty to engage in self- directed learning from videos on how to practice their vocation. A number of
projects enable learners to use their own devices both in and out of college. Some of these projects enable
collaborative working through document sharing.
Barnsley College: “By bringing this project into the College and making available externally, it will offer
Staff / Students a mechanism of sharing, developing of information and communication tools previously
unavailable within the College. The College have developed an understanding of how we can use and
develop the collaborative aspects of the social and group spaces that Cloud Computing and this project
will bring. This project will have the most impact in September 2013 when all of the new Students return
and will heavily use the system and resources, the project needs to fully test and stress test the system to
ensure that it will meet the needs of our Staff and Students”.
Blackburn College: “Blackburn College has designed and created a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
which allows students to access the MindView software anytime, anywhere without the need for a
laptop. The software supports students, particularly those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities
to brain storm ideas enabling them to structure their essay plans using diagrams, words or images. This
method of studying can also be beneficial to any students so we aim to extend the service beyond the
initial pilot and promote it so that any Blackburn College student can access it. In addition College staff
can now access internal software such as Microsoft Office and SPSS externally to the College. Session
based desktops are also available which enables software to be accessed via the student network in
classroom settings. Over the next year, the College will look at any additional software packages which
can be included in the VDI service”.
Grimsby Institute: “As part of our ILT and IT strategies we have identified the need to support the
bringing of learners’ own technologies into our College network environment. This has generally been
through the provision of internet access on their devices. Taking this a step further we are now going to
provide access to full College resources on their device or home PC via a 'Cloud' desktop infrastructure.
This would allow the same experience on these devices as College owned devices, and supplement
considerably on the VLE which gives access to learning materials to radically enrich the learner access
and control. It would give access to the full ‘College’ experience from home or mobile devices.
Student experience has generally been positive”.
Leeds City College: ”IBM Virtual Desktop Infrastructure has been delivered to a trial group of staff and
students, allowing access to desktop resources and applications from a range of mobile devices. Leeds
City College students are now gaining a rich mobile learning experience gaining a technologically
immersive experience using both College and their own devices, interacting during a lesson in a
controlled environment. Global accessibility, allowing learning on demand -accessing college systems
and software when and where they choose on any web enabled device”.
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Case Study
North East Worcestershire College: “A key feature is Single sign on to allow access to Google and all web
based resources. This is currently in pilot. Staff and students have reported ease of access to files and
ease of sharing with others. Students use features such as forms for research tasks”.
Oxford and Cherwell College: “The Kaltura open source online video platform was installed and
configured to OCVC platforms. Presentations were given to prospective curriculum areas to pilot the
project with their students. Pilots were run in Hair Beauty and Hospitality. Students engaged well
with video content for learning and flipped learning and good practice was identified. The Platform
allowed control and a managed environment for specific selection of video sharing and keeping students
focused on tasks. Peer-to-peer learning was taking place and students collaborating on techniques and
experiences. Demonstrations were arranged to re-enforce effective methods of engaging, motivating and
supporting student progression”.
South Devon College: “The project delivers applications, resources, data storage andcommunication to
remote locations to enable staff and learners. It also enabled back up for disaster recovery purposes of
some of our critical servers. We have allowed all of our staff and students at our seven remote sites to
access all the software and resources, to enable them to complete their studies. The staff and learners
have remote access to software and resources which they have never had and they are finding this
invaluable to the curriculum.”
Supplier engagement experiences
Some projects experienced very productive supplier experiences. JISC has proved helpful in informing
supplier selection. Some colleges used their own services rather than an external supplier. Others
were naturally limited in their supplier choice by the specialist nature of their project. Renegotiating
bandwidth provision within a context of supplier constraints proved to be a challenge. There are some
valuable hints and tips that have emerged for dealing with suppliers.
Blackburn College: “The College consulted with a number of suppliers but found their services
to be expensive and lacked the flexibility to support our project and current college systems and
infrastructure. It was decided that in order to gain the most value from this project, it should be designed
in house using the expertise of the Colleges’ Computer Services team”.
Leeds City College: “We have had an extremely positive experience in selecting IBM as a key technology
partner. No issues were identified - both Leeds City College and IBM worked together to deliver the
cloud solution”.
North East Worcestershire College: “There were issues finding a reliable and reputable provider to work
with. Using the JISC Community of practice - helped find a supplier based on recommendations and real
life project work completed”.
Oxford and Cherwell College: “Identifying the Cloud provider was fairly straight forward as we were
looking for video production in the Cloud, so the search was specific. There were a lot of companies
that could provide the platform but not the cloud facility, but that was identified early in discussions.
Suppliers are very forthcoming with information but I have learnt about the 'sales' pitch. The larger
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Case Study
companies will definitely promise all functionality, but when the account is passed over to the account
manager you realise that certain aspects are still in development. It is important to see the functionality
before purchase, question all scenarios and ask for demonstrations and to also see the platform in use at
other providers”.
South Devon College: “We used long standing contacts with years of IT experience to recommend cloud
service suppliers and having met several, the decision and implementation was very simple. Contacting
them to report issues has been simple”.
Warrington Collegiate Institute: ”We struggled to get our broadband service provider to provide our
upgraded internet bandwidth”.
Technical and Security Challenges
Barnsley College: “There were no major issues but getting the data from all the data streams proved to
be difficult at times - contacting all suppliers asking them to provide access and code as required”.
Blackburn College: ”Remote Desktop services have many components and proved complex to configure
to our environment. As the system was designed in house we were able to create a bespoke system
which integrated with our current infrastructure”.
Grimsby Institute: “The only real risk we had was the worry that a full cloud desktop may just not work
in a real environment. This risk was mitigated by having a backup plan - of putting back into the FE
Learning Centres the 50 full PCs that we were replacing with cloud technology. Thankfully the project
has worked really well and will be the backbone for future roll-outs within the group”.
Leeds City College: “One technical challenge was identified in creating the virtual desktop environment
and integrating to the college networks, however this was solved pretty quickly”.
Oxford and Cherwell College: ”LDAP authentication caused issues as we had not anticipated that
this caused delays with implementation. Application of the service certificate through JANET delayed
the implementation. Use of devices - we had planned to use iPads but then found the platform didn't
support uploads, although you could view the video. We now have the code to install this so that this
feature works”.
Change Management experience
The main themes emerging here are the need for well -planned training for staff and students, selling
the benefits of the technology to gain buy in and the use of pilot groups to share findings and inform
training,
In one project change management was informed by the needs of learners as a driver for change against
the background of a reluctant IT department.
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Blackburn College: “The response to the VDI has been positive across the College and following the
pilot it is our intention to showcase the service and encourage feedback from staff and students on what
software would support their work and studies. Staff development sessions will also be held to support
staff in the use of the service and its further development”.
North East Worcestershire College: “Staff were initially wary of using a cloud based service to host files
and were worried about issues of access - could they get them all the time etc? Initially we did Google
apps training as one thing but found we had to break down each individual element and work on
supporting staff on each element of the app family”.
Oxford and Cherwell College: “With a view to technological advances, it was recognised that we needed
to move with requirements of 24/7 access. Students’ priorities to learn are drivers of change, and with
this in mind the decisions to move to Cloud provision was needed. The IT team were the most reluctant
to change and needed to be convinced of the need to move services with greater accessibility. Although
data security is still very important, IT Services need to recognise that the Cloud facilities are essential
for change”.
South Devon College: “To update software we have done these during half term so as not disrupt
teaching”.
Return on investment
Some colleges have stated that it is too early to identify savings. Others have identified significant
specific and general savings from server, licence and internal application costs. Other savings are
identified in saving teaching and technical staff costs. General gains through technology-influenced
retention of learners are also cited.
Barnsley College: “It is too early to provide hard facts in the cost saving, but server and external hosting,
text messaging and other communicating systems costs will all be reduced or removed, and we will
evaluate and review requirements during 2013/14”.
Blackburn College: “The College estimates that through further investment the VDI service will save
the College £150,000 over 3 years. Students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are currently
loaned laptops to access MindView until they receive their Disabled Student Allowance. The laptops can
be loaned out up to 4 months each time and due to demand there is a waiting list. The current laptops
are of considerable age and are all due for replacement. The VDI service will enable students to access
MindView, without the need of a laptop, and therefore will save the College £25,000. In addition when
each laptop is returned it must be cleaned andreimaged in line with changes to core applications i.e.
windows, ant virus etc. This will save the College £1,058.40 in staff time. There are also operational
difficulties encountered in retrieving laptops and the costs incurred through non returned items
(approximately two laptops per year = £2,500) and the associated small claims procedures”.
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Case Study
Leeds City College: “If the College progresses with the solution across other departments, anticipated
savings of over £100,000 could be achieved with a reduction in hardware capital expenditure”.
North East Worcestershire College:” Reduction in server maintenance and overheads through
reduction in reliance on on-site storage and email servers potential reduction in printing costs through
collaboration tools (students using forms for surveys certainly have reduced the amount of printing
needed)”.
Oxford and Cherwell College: “Staff time - in re-designing the curriculum, staff have identified
the benefits of saving demonstration time, and using that time to 'teach' and test knowledge and
understanding”.
South Devon College: “No cost savings but more learners at remote centres have now got access to
software”.
Lessons Learned
Barnsley College: “We would have liked the project aligned with the launch of office 365 and ended in
September 2013”.
North East Worcestershire College: “We would have worked on understanding the training needs
required to fully grasp the tool sets and features available. Full roll out to everyone was ambitious, but
as more people make use of the tools, more are moving towards the platform”.
Oxford and Cherwell College: ”We would have Identified the compatibility of the platform to current
college platforms. We would have ensured that all functionality of the system, promised by the sales
team, is operational”
