University IT Updates Post-Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a rapid shift to remote learning, impacting all levels of education, from kindergarten through twelfth grade (K–12) to colleges and universities. Some schools went entirely online, others embraced a hybrid model, while some returned to in-person instruction with regular coronavirus testing of students and staff. In the spring semester of 2020, over 1,300 colleges and universities in the US shifted to virtual instruction or canceled in-person classes. By the fall 2020 semester, 44% of institutions planned to operate using primarily or fully online instruction.

Even before the pandemic, university IT teams faced several challenges related to safeguarding personal and institutional information:

User numbers exceed tens of thousands at larger institutions.
IT infrastructure can consist of an assortment of legacy systems that differ from one department to another.
Limited IT budgets are often the norm among educational institutions, with an average of just 4.2% of spending allotted to IT.

For these reasons, many IT teams struggled to meet the remote access demands spurred by the pandemic. As the pandemic moves through its second year, vaccine distribution opens the door to on-campus engagements. However, the increased demand for anywhere, anytime digital tools and resources is likely to continue.

Many staff and students want to teach and learn in hybrid and digital environments, and institutions are responding accordingly. A survey conducted by the Institute of International Education found that 87% of US colleges and universities planned to offer a hybrid learning model starting in fall 2020.

The Changes Brought by University IT Updates Post-Pandemic

UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank had called the covid-19 pandemic the “worst education crisis on record” back in May 2022.

After COVID-19, the student-consumer has access to educational possibilities that weren’t available before the epidemic. Students will enroll at institutions that provide year-round, both online and in-person, programs, according to trends in student mobility over the previous two years.

Despite the fact that it is impossible to estimate the global increase in college and university students seeking mental health counseling since before the pandemic, it is possible to concur that since the pandemic, the mental health needs of college and university students around the world have gained attention.

Top 5 Post-Pandemic Updates for University IT Teams

The pandemic highlighted the critical role IT teams play in enabling ongoing, quality learning experiences during times of disruption. With little time or planning, IT administrators had to develop new ways of managing virtual education environments and open campus information systems for remote access. They also had to support faculty members, many of whom had no previous experience with virtual classrooms. Looking ahead, university IT teams will play a critical role in the post-pandemic recovery and transformation of higher education.

With that in mind, here are the top five updates that university IT teams should prioritize in order to provide better virtual and hybrid learning experiences for students.

1. Consolidate IT Resources

Universities are often comprised of numerous departments, and each uses different software applications and hardware. Adding to that complexity is the fact that teachers and students often use a variety of devices and operating systems, all of which must be able to access necessary applications and shared resources. Maintaining complex IT infrastructures can be a very costly and complicated process.

An alternative is to shift to a virtualized IT infrastructure setup, such as Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). Application and desktop delivery solutions such as Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS) help simplify and streamline remote access. This enables IT teams to deliver applications and data to an end user’s device easily, regardless of location and choice of device.

2. Enhance Network Security

Higher learning institutions often use a variety of IT systems and services, creating a complex technological environment. Students and faculty possess varying degrees of technical capabilities, and potentially unsafe actions can result in system breaches. Because remote learning increases potential security risks, IT departments should develop a clear remote-access policy, which is a document that identifies how users should connect remotely to the school’s internal network.

Remote access policies are typically found within a school’s broader network security policy, or NSP. The security policy guidelines apply to all members of the school community, such as faculty, staff, students and any other individual who accesses and uses the institution’s IT resources. A comprehensive network security policy ensures that everyone is aware of the best practices for safeguarding the university’s internal network whether they are on or off campus.

Parallels RAS helps support your institution’s data security and meet compliance regulations through features such as multifactor authentication, Security Assertion Markup Language single sign-on (SAML SSO) authentication, data segregation, granular filtering rules, and client policies that can be applied to specific users and/or groups.

3. Prioritize Secure Virtual Access in BCDR Plans

A business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) plan consider how various events may impact key business functions. Potential disasters include severe weather events, pandemics, cyber threats, human errors and more. Without an established BCDR plan, universities can struggle to minimize damage caused when systems and processes are disrupted or delayed.

Having a solid BDCR plan in place that prioritizes secure virtual access allows university IT teams to have a backup plan if a disruption occurs. Should an unexpected event shut down campus operations and send faculty and students home, having secure virtual access enabled allows faculty and students to use critical applications and data they need to continue their work.

For example, Parallels RAS allows institutions to move distributed workloads across different datacenters in the cloud or physical locations to guarantee access to their application even if, for example, servers are destroyed or rendered unusable. Because Parallels RAS enables all sensitive data to be housed on a centralized sever, lost or stolen end-user devices won’t compromise data integrity.

4. Move Resources to a Multi-cloud Environment

Educational institutions often have complex technology requirements. IT staff must adhere to data management and retention policies, purchase and manage software licenses, and provide access to a variety of user devices. As such, moving to a multi-cloud environment, where an institution uses multiple cloud services for its computing needs (e.g., AWS and Microsoft Azure), can help enhance the performance, security and availability of all data and applications stored within these environments.

With Parallels RAS, administrators gain access to a unified solution that supports all deployment models, including private, public, multi-cloud and hybrid infrastructures, which means educational institutions can manage all types of cloud environments. Administrators can easily limit access based on user, group permissions, devices and locations.

IT administrators can also convert legacy desktop computers into virtual machines using the Parallels RAS desktop replacement features. This prolongs the life of the institution’s existing computers while allowing students and staff to access private cloud resources. Administrators may implement multifactor authentication for extra protection of the IT infrastructure by requiring users to authenticate through two successive steps to access virtual applications and desktops.

5. Invest in a Virtual Learning Environment

A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a type of learning management system (LMS) geared specifically toward educational institutions. It is a collaborative platform that features numerous resources, including the tools required to deliver in-person, virtual or hybrid instruction. Universities should enable access to a VLE through a secure centralized system, such as Parallels RAS. Doing so protects private student personal data from being accessed or compromised.

Throughout the pandemic, companies such as Top Hat, Canvas and Blackboard Learn have provided colleges and universities with web and mobile applications for instruction and classroom management. These easy-to-use and collaborative tools include:

Real-time sharing of slides, screens, audio and video material.
Live chat and discussions that allow students to ask questions and connect with classmates.
Polls and quizzes that introduce new concepts and gauge students’ understanding of the subject matter.
Digital textbooks that expand active learning beyond the classroom.
Customizable assignments, tests and exams that give teachers the option to set due dates, monitor student activity and generate learning insights.

Improve Your University IT Infrastructure with Parallels RAS

Parallels RAS has extensive experience as an application delivery and VDI solution for the educational sector. By centralizing management of the university’s IT infrastructure into a single unified console, Parallels RAS makes it easier to secure and maintain data, resources and tools.

With Parallels RAS, IT administrators use intuitive setup wizards to store the institution’s data in a multi-cloud environment. Then, they can deliver virtual machines to end users over a secure network connection. This simplifies the management of IT infrastructures for single and multi-campus environments. Sensitive information is secured in the private cloud, so nothing is affected or lost if end-user devices are lost, damaged or stolen.

Parallels RAS enables virtual classroom environments that can be delivered to any device regardless of its operating system, including on-demand access to virtual labs. Universities can deliver test environments from any hypervisor or RDS, with the flexibility to return them to their original state after students have completed them. Students receive on-demand access to virtual labs from their personal devices, helping to provide them with the digital tools they need for learning and classwork so they can stay productive from anywhere.

Parallels RAS also leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to pre-launch applications quickly when they’re needed. This allows students and staff to increase their efficiency and productivity because they access whatever they need whenever they need it.

In addition, Parallels RAS provides out-of-the-box load-balancing technology to reduce the risk of downtime and interruptions. If hundreds or thousands of users access the system at the same time, Parallels RAS transfers the network load to a less encumbered server, improving overall system efficiency and agility.

Discover how Parallels RAS can enhance your university IT infrastructure! Download a free, 30-day trial to get started.

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