It’s been a long time since we relied solely on phone calls and voicemail for communication. We’ve since grown into email, instant messages, conferencing, and video calls. Now there are more ways to get ahold of each other than there ever have been, and it takes certain technological know-how for an employee to juggle all these communications and respond appropriately. And if it’s a hassle for an end user to manage all their communications, then you can bet it isn’t easy for an IT department to deal with these systems in an simple and secure manner.
It may seem like a tough call to make, but unified communications are becoming a necessity for higher education institutions that want to encourage a culture of collaboration and innovation. Video conferencing is increasingly becoming a popular option, especially for schools with satellite campuses that are located miles away.
Imagine a situation when a voice call couldn’t quite communicate the concept at hand. Now imagine an easy solution, as the call switches to video and a visual demonstration allows the person on the other end to fully grasp the concept being presented. This really isn’t a radical idea, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that unified communications are improving collaboration and decision-making at campuses across the country. Voicemails can be accessed from email, documents can be shared remotely, and students can watch a lecture from a campus in another state.
This all sounds fantastic, but how do you integrate a diverse set of applications and systems, and truly unify your communications? At N2N, we’ve created the Illuminate Platform, a strategic and adaptable combination of technologies, starting with a flexible, reliable and secure cloud infrastructure platform. Rather than trying to find that one solution that does everything, the Illuminate platform was designed with the understanding that there is no one system that will address all institutional needs.
Illuminate gives you seamless and secure data transfer across all systems, even legacy and strategic programs that still run locally. It works as a central hub, linking everything together and taking data and transforming it into the format that another application needs. Illuminate is like a highway leading between several cities, bypassing the system of existing roads, ensuring smooth data transactions across applications.
At N2N, we pride ourselves on our educational background and expertise. Higher education institutions are not businesses that can be run like any other corporation. Of course, there are business elements to running a college or university, but at N2N we understand that higher education is about more than business, and we pride ourselves on being able to find solutions that integrate both business and academic applications. That way you can focus on providing your students with the best education possible, instead of your IT structure.
If you would like to know more about how our team and the N2N Illuminate platform can help your college or university, contact N2N Services today.
At N2N, our motto is “connect anything to anything,” and we are constantly leading the pack when it comes to higher education systems integration. Providing colleges and universities with a solution that interconnects their disparate data systems has always been our goal, and we’ve developed our Integration Cloud platform, called Illuminate, to do just that. Illuminate takes each data source and integrates them securely and affordably. But we want to keep pushing the boundaries of what our technology can do for higher education. We want to extend this data connectivity with a rich, in-depth, and interactive mobile application.
That’s why we’ve teamed up with Modo Labs. Together, we intend to provide a truly stunning mobile solution that allows students to connect to their financial data, course work, grades, and other information, while at the same time empowering them to interact with their teachers, advisors, tutors, and other campus activities. This innovative new platform is the product of collaboration between our Illuminate date engine and Modo Lab’s Kurogo, a mobile app assembly platform.
So who are Modo Labs, and why is this partnership so transformative for higher
education? Based out of Cambridge, MA, Modo Labs provides a complete mobile solution that empowers ordinary people to create their own applications. These types of mobile capabilities used to only be the domain of mobile developers and expensive consultants. Now, Modo Labs Kurogo Platform gives non-developers an outstanding app assembly system with powerful mobile implementation and development capabilities. The secret is in Kurogo’s combination of data access, pre-built functionality, and ease of use. Today, creating mobile apps for campus is no longer out of reach for non-technical staff or business owners.
And how does this platform fit in with N2N’s Illuminate data engine? Well, the combination of the two allows a massive simplification in the mobile app building process. Illuminate integrates and allows access to the multitude of different data sources in a university system, while Kurogo quickly and easily mobilizes them into a well-developed mobile experience.
Stewart Elliot, Modo Labs CEO said, “We are excited to partner with N2N Services. The combination of the two platforms makes it easier than ever for Universities to provide the comprehensive mobile experience that students expect. Students will be able to easily accomplish even more important tasks on their mobile phones, including the ability to perform direct transactions in virtually any student information system, such as class registration, yet do so as part of an advanced, interactive and rich mobile experience.”
This combination of higher education technology is a major development for colleges and universities around the country. At N2N, we understand the importance of easy-to-use technology in campus life. Today’s students are used to instant access and in-depth mobile apps. Our partnership with Modo Labs provides these institutions with the best of both worlds: secure enterprise data access, and an unsurpassed front-end mobile experience.
If you would like to hear more about our partnership with Modo Labs, and how your college can benefit, contact N2N Services today.
Keeping in touch with students isn?t just about a weekly email update anymore. Social media has provided students with a way to open a dialogue with administration, and give that dialogue an audience. People at the top of the educational system are realizing that students want these open lanes of communication, and they want to be able to voice their concerns and comments over social media where they will be seen and followed by other students or faculty.
As this trend continues, it would be wise to develop a plan for interacting with and helping students over social media if you’ve not already done so. So we?re here today to give you some ideas for using social media constructively, as well as dealing with feedback from students and maintaining a dialogue with them.
Students want to see action from their university on issues they care about. Even if immediate action isn?t possible on an issue, students want to see that they aren?t being ignored, and a good way to do that is by responding and communicating through social media. This doesn?t mean the chancellor needs to respond to every tweet thrown his way, but it does mean that he or she should maintain an active presence on social media, especially Twitter.
Twitter is a platform that allows students to directly message higher ups, and it gives their message a huge online audience, as it’s basically a public blog post, unlike tools that require community registration or “friending.” Failure to respond to a well-reasoned request or concern gives off an impression that administration is ignoring students, or simply doesn?t care. Conversely, a timely response, even if it disagrees with a student?s position, at the very least shows that there is someone on the other end considering their argument, and this goes a long way with a student body who may feel uninvolved in university processes.
Another way to improve communication using social media is by giving departments their own Facebook or Twitter page. This works to the students? benefit because it gives them easy online access to ask questions or get in contact with departmental resources. The CIO-led IT department is especially important because of the huge increase in online services and technology that students now use on a daily basis. One misstep or bad link can end up giving students, and faculty, a huge headache. Being made aware of a problem quickly makes it easier for departments to deal with it, and social media gives students an opportunity for quick notification and resolution.
Quick notification is also invaluable in case of a campus emergency. Colleges are finding that disseminating information on social media is a much quicker way to warn students than email and allows viral propagation, even to those not registered for a fast, targeted service like SMS messaging. This improves safety for students and faculty, and helps build a stronger relationship between students and the university.
If you would like more information on the intersection of education and technology, contact N2N Services today.
Think of?approaching your home or car and seeing your door automatically unlock once it senses your smartwatch or key fob ?- or checking your smartphone to see if the laundry machines in your apartment complex are currently being used. These are some examples of the potential of the Internet of Things.
What is the Internet of Things?
If you’ve not read the Wikipedia article 🙂 the Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of ?smart? devices that are embedded with connectivity and sensors that allow them to collect and transfer data to other connected devices. Common devices that we think about when we contemplate networked “computers” are PCs, notebooks, smartphones and tablets, but there are countless other connected ?smart? devices that are a part of the Internet of Things and more are being created every day. These include things we think of, and things we don’t, but the message is that with today’s technology, almost anything can be “node” in the IoT if enabled by the right technology. I’ve recently installed two “connected” smoke alarms in my house; they are a part of the IoT. ?My smartphone receives alarms and “all-ok” messages in real-time, and has access to historical observations.?The implications are vast.
The Internet of Things supports device-to-device communication between nodes?(think of a “personal area network” where a smart watch communicates with a phone for updates) and also supports device-to-aggregator communications (think of sensors collecting data from coastal buoys and updating a database used in weather prediction). It uses both private networks and public networks (the “Cloud”) to securely carry data between participating nodes. Then,?applications (typically Cloud-based), allow you to access and transfer that data, giving you the flexibility to transform that data into information?anytime and anywhere, including on your campus. So, smart devices can communicate with other smart devices or can collect data, either over restricted networks or as encrypted “calls” over the public Internet.
How can the Internet of Things affect your college?
It Can Improve Energy Efficiency
Many colleges and universities?are burdened by limited fiscal resources, so enormous energy consumption mixed with inefficient energy use can often be taxing, cutting into funds that could be spent teaching students more effectively. Large institutions are are often beginning to leverage “facilities networks” to interconnect and control HVAC systems, but often the deployments are limited and not strategic.
However, the Internet of Things includes a rapidly growing?variety of devices and methods that can help significantly reduce energy costs. Institutions?are looking for ways to implement energy conservation programs that include building ubiquitous automation and accurate energy monitoring devices, allowing schools to pay only for what they need instead of having to cool or heat entire buildings. Pervasive technology enabled by the IoT is moving this from specialized systems to more open and interoperable (and affordable!) environments.
It Can Improve Quality of Education
The Internet of Things can play a major role in the education process, especially in regards to the quality of education that is provided to a student. It can have a pedagogical role (improved data or access to sensors and devices) or support role by expanding range of devices for content delivery and interaction possibilities.
In a support role, we have seen that in the last decade, online courses have allowed students to study and earn degrees on the internet while allowing them to retain the flexibility to fulfill important daily obligations (like taking care of their family or working a full-time job). Ubiquitous access to computing resources and networks, including the “connected supercomputer” you carry in your pocket, enables qualitatively improved tools and access to information. With smart displays (there’s the IoT again!), collaborative workspaces leveraging projected or “cast” content allow richly productive group sessions wherever students gather.?Over time, an enormous amount of data,?will?be collected and analyzed with the help of smart devices and systems, allowing universities to target student performance and to offer and help students find classes that would better suit their interests and learning styles.
It Will Require Attention to Security
The Internet of Things can be a bit overwhelming with possibilities…both good and bad. Ubiquitous connectivity to all kinds of devices is good, but that means that devices and systems have to learn to live in a world that is potentially hostile at each turn. They can’t rely on a “firewall” to protect them from things in the outside world, as they are inthe outside world. If the firewall surrounds everything, then it surely will have bad actors inside any security perimeter. One part of this answer is de-perimeterization. This means that each device and system needs to be “hardened” to not trust, without verification, messages that it gets from another device or system. ?Too many devices and systems in the early Internet of Things are far too trusting about their neighbors. Security must mature quickly for the IoT to reach its potential.
The Internet of Things isn?t the only technology advancement that could help your institution.
The NIC, N2N Service?s cloud based integration platform, is another way your college or university?can use cutting-edge technology to reach greater heights of success and offer students a better educational experience. Leveraging the same advances in Cloud-based systems that support the myriad devices and deep pools of data from the IoT, the NIC is there to help you bring together the administrative and academic?data necessary to support an effective institution.
If you?re interested in learning about how the NIC can benefit your institution, contact N2N Services today.
If you?ve been looking for all-in-one software solutions to streamline operations at your school, you might have encountered the term ?Enterprise Service Bus? (or ?ESB?).
We know that there are a lot of acronyms and potentially confusing terms out there when it comes to technology, and ESB is one of them. So, we thought we?d walk you through what exactly an Enterprise Service Bus is, what purpose it serves, and how it can make a huge difference for your college or university.
The definition of an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
In the simplest terms, an Enterprise Service Bus is an architecture that allows many different applications to run together as a part of one infrastructure. It integrates these different applications, manages the access to them, and presents them to the user in a single interface. An ESB is typically part of an integration suite and can offer many valuable tools that other frameworks do not.
To make this abstract concept a bit easier to understand, think about the word ?bus? for a second. In the tech world, it refers to a transmission path where signals are dropped off and picked up ? kind of like an actual bus! So, you can think of the Enterprise Service Bus as a ?bus? through which all of your institution’s information passes.
The ESB?s Purpose in the N2N Integration Cloud (NIC)
An ESB is a core component of the N2N Integration Cloud (NIC) because it serves as the architecture that allows the NIC to integrate all of a school?s applications in one central hub. It actually provides the interface that allows you to connect your institution’s applications together ? parametrizable with no coding by you required!
Why This Matters For Your College or University
While you can probably immediately think of some benefits of the application integration offered by the NIC, there are a few that might not be so obvious. Here are some ways the NIC can help your college:
It allows your students to use their mobile phones to check grades, view financial aid status, and more (NIC for Mobile).
It cuts down on manual labor needs by eliminating tedious data entry tasks.
It helps keep costs low (the NIC is cloud-based and does not require you to purchase extra hardware).
It provides you with the ability to analyze data more effectively (melding data from multiple applications). That way, you have the resources you need to make good business decisions and give each student a personalized educational experience.
The NIC was specifically designed with higher education in mind, so you can feel confident knowing that it can help you achieve your goals. It?s also quick to deploy, so you can start benefitting from its functionality right away.
So, there you have it ? an explanation of what an Enterprise Service Bus is and why it is an important part of the NIC. If you have questions or are interested in learning more about how the NIC can help your college or university, we?d love to chat ? contact us today!
When you visit our Site, we collect identifiers about you, including your IP address, and use cookies to improve our website performance,
deliver a more personalized experience, and to analyze our traffic. By continuing to browse our site, you accept our Privacy Policy.OkPrivacy Policy
