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Ranger College transforms digital learning

Cloud-managed services provide the network foundation needed to support new technology initiatives in the classroom

ADTRAN, Inc. [1] created an advanced digital learning environment for Ranger College, a community college in rural Texas, with ProCloud Plus cloud-managed wired and wireless network services.

New learning applications, delivered via the cloud and over Gigabit broadband and with streaming media, are elevating educators’ abilities to create an engaging learning environment and connect with tech-savvy students. By leveraging ADTRAN’s ProCloud Plus managed services, Ranger College is able to eliminate the typical operational and capital costs that often preclude higher education IT institutions from delivering the digital learning programs that prepare students to compete in the data-driven workplace.

Students at Ranger College, like at most colleges and universities across the U.S., come to class with a variety of connected devices, so having a robust Wi-Fi infrastructure is critical to keeping them connected and engaged. While these devices enhance the students’ ability to learn, they also increase the pressure on the IT support infrastructure and team. By outsourcing its Wi-Fi and LAN services through ADTRAN ProCloud Services, the college can now easily support all connectivity needs from the classroom to the administrative offices.

Ranger College now has the confidence to scale new digital learning applications and services as more come online. Ranger College was also able to layer on a number of ADTRAN’s professional services, including initial site surveys, installation, student and staff help desk, alert monitoring and full system management as part of its new cloud strategy. This integrated approach has had an immediate impact on the college’s IT help desk by reducing service calls by over 90% per week.

“It’s challenging for schools to keep up with the demand for mobility and address the limits of traditional network architecture in terms of its ability to handle the growing connectivity demands in classrooms as the way we teach and students learn evolves,” said Michael Beran, IT director, Ranger College. “Prior to ProCloud Plus services, we had a variety of dissimilar, difficult-to-manage access points with a lot of downtime and no way to pinpoint problem areas. ADTRAN eliminates all those issues by providing a managed service with a solid backbone.”

“Education is changing, both in terms of the readily available online resources for teachers, and how tech-savvy students want to learn, and it’s causing real challenges for IT departments that are already strapped for resources,” said Todd Lattanzi, director, cloud services portfolio, ADTRAN. “Enabling these higher education IT teams to leverage a cloud-managed solution provides the critical networking foundation that will allow them to stay ahead of the learning curve and on budget.”