Bring it!

So, we've had our BYOD program running for a couple of months now, and I recently felt it was time turn our attention back to it, and it's users.  We firstly needed to catch up and fix a few things we'd promised to do for the students, and secondly we needed an update from them and their teachers on how it's going overall.

In our "setup sessions" (run at the start of the year to get BYO students connected) we alluded to a few more services we'll be putting at their disposal, and that we'll be keeping them informed with some help and documentation.

An example of such a service is the Terminal Server we've recently given the students access to.  The idea here is to allow them to use software and network services they can't get at from their own computer.  For example, some students have a Mac, but some subjects use Windows packages that don't have a Mac alternative.  The Mac users can use the Remote Desktop client for Mac to access those incompatible programs.  Another advantage provided by the Terminal Server is access to a standard Windows print environment.  The students currently access printers from our Papercut installation, they upload a document to a web-interface and it's printed for them.  It works well, but doesn't allow them to access the more advanced printer features provided by the native driver.  This means they can't select double-sided as an option, select different weight or size of paper, or easily print only a selection of pages from a document.  By logging on to the Terminal Server  they get access to all the features supported by the printer.
The Terminal Server is a good solution to these problems, but it's a little more difficult than I'd like.  A serious VDI solution is definitely the best way to go here, but that sort of thing is far too pricey at the moment, sadly.  If the price comes down we'll be very keen to move to something like that though.

When we set our BYOD students up at the beginning of the year we asked them to keep an eye on their e-mail for new developments, and we've made use of that several times now.  Recently we've started sending out a bit more documentation.  How to access the Terminal Server mentioned above was one example, but we've also followed up on our setup sessions with reference documentation on the topics we covered.
We're not content to stop there though, while we've got an audience we figure it's best to offer them some help and tips where we can.  So, given the surprising number of Windows 8 PC's we've seen students using, we emailed them a cheat-sheet of Windows 8 shortcut keys.  Many students have a non-touch Windows 8 computer, which isn't the ideal device for that OS, but it can be much better if you know the keyboard shortcuts.  We've also mailed out little helpers for configuring Internet Explorer to work best on our LAN and a few other little tips too.

I think all of this is very important, so that the students know they're not being left to their own devices (excuse the pun).  We need to convey that they're a welcome guest on our network, and that they can still expect a level of service from the I.T. Department.  And in speaking to teachers and students, they certainly seem happy enough with everything so far.  There's probably not enough access to power for charging, but the feeling was generally positive.  I'd like to get a more solid measurement of that feeling sometime, so we might look into that later in the year.  But for now, all seems well.