In addition, the company said student feedback during a virtual lab’s initial pilot process and beyond is vitally important. This extends to helping them when they encounter any difficulties.
“University help desk operations are built mostly Monday through Friday, yet we see key lab usage on weekends,” said Wade. “Our virtual labs compliment existing support systems. Aeronomy has a support system that’s set up at all times for things like password issues or not understanding how something works in the lab. We standardize everything to the same platform to reduce the support on both ends. This lowers support costs for schools.”
Lowering Costs
Aeronomy wants to make it clear that better supporting learners leads to reduced costs for an institution.
“It’s ultimately much better for the university,” said Bethke. “It’s a better alternative to million dollar labs…because a virtual lab is always available to [students], and they can participate virtually on their own at any time.”
The pricing for Aeronomy’s services are aligned with enrollment statistics, so institutions are only paying for exactly what they use.
This can be especially viable on a larger scale, with Aeronomy seeing even bigger befits for consortia and systems of connected institutions that share the same underlying resources to create labs that are used for introductory courses across all of the schools.
Saving Space
Additionally, the creation of virtual labs can lead to the reduction of more than just costs on campuses.
“Space at schools is always a big deal,” noted Wade. “By reducing physical computer labs, they can reallocate that space. It’s not about eliminating them, but instead it’s shrinking them so that schools aren’t wasting resources.”
This also lessens the amount of maintenance in physical labs, where resources are especially wasted during down times on a campus, such as breaks or summer vacation.
A Secure Edge
Finally, Aeronomy explained that their maintenance of their virtual labs can help strengthen an institution’s cyber security. By monitoring outside threats to the virtual labs, and in conjunction with the aforementioned idea about reduction of on-campus labs, IT officials are able to more easily narrow their own focus area in order to best protect an institution and their students’ data.
“I take great pride in helping people find ways to do things more efficiently,” concluded Wade. “We would really like to work with more universities, and help them find ways to deliver improved student learning experiences at a lesser cost.”
To contact Aeronomy, or learn more about their services, visit their website here.
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