Students at Laney College Remotely Access Computer Labs With Splashtop
Students can use software on lab computers while remoting in from their own devices
Summary
The Career and Technical Education division at Laney College hosts several computer labs that provide students with the high-powered software they use in their academic courses. When COVID-19 shut the campus down, Laney College needed a new way to give students access to these software applications.
Laney College turned to Splashtop to enable students to remotely access lab computers from their own devices, even Chromebooks. Students and instructors have been very pleased with the results thus far.
The Challenge: Accessing Computer Labs From Home When COVID-19 Shut Down the School
The CTE division at Laney College houses departments including graphic arts, digital data controls, architecture, construction management, machine technology, wood technology and more. Each of these departments teaches students on the same software applications currently being used by professionals in their respective fields.
Software that the students are using includes Adobe creative tools like Photoshop, popular architecture applications including AutoCAD and Revit, and other 3D design and modeling tools such as SketchUp, Rhino and SolidWorks.
Many of these applications require powerful desktop computers to function, which is why Laney College provides several computer labs on campus that students can use.
However, when COVID-19 hit and shut down the campus, students had no way to access the lab computers.
“The students need access to this software,” explained Gerald Casey, who works in the IT department at the CTE. “Some of the software applications have student versions that they can run on their computers. That’s great. But some students have computers that aren’t powerful enough to run this software. And then some of the applications simply don’t have student versions. The students have to have access to this software to continue their studies, and that’s where Splashtop comes in.”
Laney College needed to find a solution fast to continue giving students access to the software they needed despite the campus shutdown.
The Solution: Splashtop Gives Students Remote Access to Lab Computers From Their Own Devices
Casey had no time to spare. Students needed access to the lab computers as soon as possible as they were still in the middle of their semester.
“I didn’t even look at VPN because I know them to be far too cumbersome,” Casey said. “We needed to do something very fast. I started Googling, Splashtop came up. I tested it and it worked great. I didn’t even try anybody else.”
In addition to being easy to deploy and scale, Casey also chose Splashtop because of its industry-leading security.
“I was very impressed with the level of security that Splashtop has. That made me not worry,” said Casey.
With Splashtop, students were able to remotely access lab computers from their own laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. Once a student connects into a remote machine, they can take control and use its software as sitting right in front of the remote computer.
Students enjoy a seamless experience while in a remote session with HD quality, sound, 4k streaming and no lag.
There was no need to train the students on how to use Splashtop. It was intuitive and easy to use. Casey was able to get students set up in no time.
Featured Solution
Splashtop for Remote Labs
Results: Instructors Provide a High-Quality Education Despite the Shift to Fully Remote Learning
Students and faculty were impressed by how Splashtop helped Laney College continue delivering a high-quality education despite the sudden shift to being fully remote. They did not expect things to run this smoothly given that many students were using Chromebooks.
“There is a state program that provides students with computers, so we’ve been providing them with Chromebooks,” Casey said, “They can’t run SolidWorks with the Chromebooks. But the Chromebooks provide access to our computer labs where they can run it. The instructors love it. They can’t believe it works so well; they’re shocked, and I don’t think I’m overstating that.”
Laney College is now preparing for the Fall semester with Splashtop.
“I was told they’re orienting a lot of classes around Splashtop because there aren’t going to be in-person classes in the Fall,” said Casey, “We are having socially distant classes so students can complete their certificates and their degrees. This has been a big deal; we wouldn’t have been able to have them do that if it wasn’t for Splashtop.”
— Splashtop is the ideal solution for educational institutions looking for a high-performance, accessible, easy-to-manage and secure remote access tool that students and faculty can use to access on-campus machines. Start your free trial now so you can enhance your students’ remote learning experience.
Details
About Career & Technical Education at Laney College
The CTE at Laney College offers programs that teach students how to use the same software used by professionals in fields such as architecture, engineering, graphic arts, machine technology and more.
Laney College makes those software applications accessible to their students via several computers labs on campus. And now, students are able to remotely access those lab computers with Splashtop.
