How Low-Cost IoT Solutions Can Improve the Student Experience
Modest investments in the Internet of Things can have a significant impact on students' journey through college. Here's how one institution implemented IoT tech to provide extra student supports in key areas.
Implementing the Internet of Things (IoT) on campus doesn't have to be a high-budget affair. By focusing on low-cost solutions and quick wins, the College of Staten Island (CSI) has found a number of ways to assist and support students throughout their academic journey. These include open source and inexpensive solutions such as sensing and location-based services used for shuttle service to the ferry, computer lab availability, and system status updates. Here's how IoT is making a difference at CSI.
Who Are We?
The College of Staten Island is a four-year senior college of the City University of New York situated on 204 acres in the borough of Staten Island. CSI also has a satellite campus at St. George, which is close to the Staten Island Ferry. The approximately 12,300 students attending CSI can experience a rural setting on campus, while at the same time enjoy the many privileges of being close to Manhattan (a 30-minute ferry ride) and other New York City boroughs (accessible by train from Manhattan). As a mostly commuter campus, CSI can be reached by public transportation or by car.
Scenario 1: My Assignment Is Due and Something Is Wrong with the LMS!
Let's put things into perspective through the eyes of Lynda, a 19-year-old female student who lives in Brooklyn, takes public transportation to attend classes at CSI, and then has the additional stress of working part-time.
Lynda just completed an assignment and is getting ready to upload her paper to our learning management system (Blackboard). For some reason, she is not able to log in. What went wrong?
Lynda is pretty good with technology; however, she wants to get some extra help from our IT staff since she is under the gun to submit the assignment. She is cutting it close as she needs to catch a bus to the ferry to get to her job on time. In the past, Lynda would have had to contact the help desk (located on the other side of campus) and wait for assistance. However, thanks to IOT technology, Lynda is able to check the status of CSI-supported systems using her mobile phone (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: System status as seen on the web.
She immediately sees that Blackboard is offline, and is able to confirm that e-mail is working correctly. She directly e-mails her instructor, informing her about her problem and stating that she will submit her assignment in the evening, after work.
We've also made system status information available to students on a real-time display in the library, help desk area and the student center (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: System status real-time display
Implementing this system was fairly straightforward. For the on-campus displays, we leveraged BrightSign digital signage players (very low-cost, about $250) to display content on LCD screens (see Figure 3). When displaying system availability on the web, however, we ran into one challenge: meeting ADA requirements. In order to address this, CSI's programming staff customized the API and developed a system status interface that met ADA Level AA requirements.
Figure 3: System display flowchart and hardware