The pandemic turned the education landscape upside down seemingly overnight, challenging every university to adapt to distance learning in record time. Deciding what gear to roll-out, which features to deploy and how to ensure network readiness were major challenges for administrators and IT departments to navigate. When Chapman University needed a reliable, flexible solution that facilitated reliable communication and collaboration between staff and students, they turned to Poly as their trusted partner.

Chapman moved quickly in the early days of the pandemic to support its nearly 10,000 students and staff with Poly gear, preparing them with the necessary tools to tackle remote learning and administration. The transition to remote learning helped the university create a safe environment, support diverse needs and better prepare for the future. Poly products and services made that possible.

Innovative Features

Poly’s professional-grade video gear, including the Poly Studio lineup of video bars, were selected thanks to innovative features like Presenter Tracking that allowed teachers to move freely around the classroom while instructing instead of being locked in front of their laptops. Advanced audio features like Acoustic Fence and NoiseBlockAI are available on the Poly Trio 8300 and helped ensure remote students on the far end could hear every word from their instructors and classmates.

Multi-Platform

Chapman also had to confront another key challenge: multi-platform support. Poly equipped Chapman University with devices that are fully certified for use on Microsoft Teams and Zoom, including native app experiences for both, which provided the flexibility to move seamlessly between UCaas service providers.

The Chapman team explained that,
“…as time goes on, we, as a university, are always going to reevaluate what the best provider is given current needs. And so, it’s fantastic to see that Poly products can be converted between different platforms without additional investments.”  Hear exactly what their Assistant Vice President of Infrastructure, Phillip Lyle, had to say in his own words in this video.

Ease of Deployment & Management

The Chapman team also appreciated that Poly products are easy to deploy and set up. Getting a new deployment of collaboration devices up and running in a cloud-based management system can be a painstaking process. With Poly Lens software, the unboxing and device on-boarding process is greatly simplified. The Chapman IT team could scan a QR code on the boxes as they were setting up the units and quickly register the devices within the Poly Lens client, streamlining this provisioning process to a nearly out-of-box experience.

Poly Lens software also enabled device management along with powerful, actionable insights about how Poly collaboration endpoints and the workspaces that house them were being utilized across the Chapman network. This potent combination of professional-grade devices with a powerful software backend provides for an adaptable, flexible collaboration toolset capable of evolving as the ever-changing pandemic landscape forces universities to pivot and make quick decisions.

Moving Forward

According to BestColleges.com’s 2021 Online Education Trends Report, which collected data from 1,800 college students and 366 school administrators in the fall of 2020, nearly half of all students surveyed said they were likely to engage in online (49%) or remote (48%) learning even after colleges resume normal operations.

Chapman’s students are no exception. Phillip Lyle, Assistant Vice President of Infrastructure, suggested that, in the future, it’s likely that nearly every class would feature at least one remote user as students and staff decide what learning environment is most appropriate for their safety.

Providing an Equal Seat at the Table

Important considerations must also be made for hybrid teaching models, where students will be split between in-classroom and remote attendance. This scenario often presents more challenges than a 100% remote model, as teachers strive to accommodate the needs of in-class and remote students.

Hybrid education may present challenges, but the Chapman team will be well prepared to meet them. With Poly gear, in the classroom, conference rooms and home offices, Chapman ensures that any student or staff member who needs to participate remotely, now or in the future, can do so easily and have an equitable seat at the table.

These products also help universities meet the needs of students and staff who previously had trouble attending traditional classrooms due to a physical, mental, emotional or cognitive disability. Chapman’s built-in hybrid education solutions create more opportunities, ensuring those affected have appropriate accommodations. When best-in-class collaboration tools are ready at the click of a button, students and staff can worry less about technology and more about a best-in-class education.

For more information about Poly’s solutions for education, contact a Poly representative.

Head to Poly.com to learn more!