Blended learning and teaching: what are the right IT choices?

Universities are a vital part of the UK economy, generating more than £73bn a year in output, so making the right decisions to support a mix of face-to-face and digital learning is more important than ever

UK education technology priorities

Educational institutions are looking for blended learning digital solutions to offset the growing cost of tuition and an increasingly competitive landscape. This landscape includes alternative digital channels and raised user expectations from both students and faculty.

One of the UK Department for Education’s (DfE) goals is to support the education sector by embedding technology in a way that cuts workloads, fosters efficiencies, supports inclusion and ultimately drives improvements in educational outcomes. They have identified the need to solve challenges around slow internet connections, outdated internal networking, implementation priorities, buying decisions, and navigating privacy and security.

The role of IT in education

IT is increasingly crucial to continuing education, and it needs to work with a blend of teaching and learning modalities. Usually, students want both face-to-face discussion and collaboration on projects and the convenience of completing assignments online. For now though, classes once delivered face-to-face are being replaced by online activities and discussions.

Education IT also needs to accommodate peak and trough fluctuations in demand, without costly over-provisioning.

Whether on- or off-premises, in a public or private cloud, education IT must comprehend the full gamut of hybrid cloud possibilities. It must leverage a secure, common operating model to meet individual application and user requirements, while maintaining visibility and control over costs, security, and governance.

Hybrid cloud solutions

Choosing the right blend of cloud solutions is the catalyst for changing and improving learning, teaching, research and administrative services in higher education.

Hybrid cloud success needs a flexible, software-defined approach. And it needs a foundation of intelligence that begins with the server. HPE ProLiant with HPE InfoSight is the ideal intelligent compute foundation for hybrid cloud, delivering strong workload optimisation, security and automation, all available as-a-service.

The advent of consumption-based fast cloud models like HPE GreenLake allow institutions to balance the need for short-term agility with a longer-term plan for increased capacity. It delivers on-demand capacity and planning, combining the agility and economics of a public cloud with the security and performance of on-premises IT.

HPE can deliver the intelligent foundation that educational institutions need and is leading the move to service digitally transformed educational institutions where everything is connected. In the words of HPE President and CEO Antonio Neri, “we remain devoted to delivering technology that will powerfully enable both breakthrough and routine experiences,” and to “delivering for customers in new ways in these trying circumstances.”

Download the eBook to learn more about using hybrid cloud services to deliver responsive, flexible, secure and mobile education.


You might also like: The ultimate guide to blended learning

 


 

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