Dr Upinder Dhar, Vice Chancellor of J K Lakshmipat University (JKLU), Jaipur speaks about digital technologies and wireless campus in the university to Pragya Gupta, Elets News Network (ENN)
Dr Upinder Dhar
Vice Chancellor, JKLU
Digital teaching technologies in education
Digital technologies are transforming the education sector. The purpose of using such technologies is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of delivery mechanism and at the same time involve the learners in the process. With the use of such technologies, teaching/learning has become more informal and geographical limitations have disappeared. Students can now learn at their own convenience and professional education is literally coming out of the four walls of classrooms.
Digital technologies deployed at JKLU
We have taken a conscious decision from day one that this is going to be a high-tech university in terms of technology usage and deployment. To meet this end, all classrooms are equipped with LCD projection systems with remote operated motorized screens. Classrooms also have high-fidelity acoustics and all necessary audio-video facilities. The University has deployed video-conferencing facility from the very first day and the students are immensely benefitted in the form of expert lectures from academia located in different parts of the world. Not to mention, all classrooms are connected with the rest of the world in real time through high speed WiFi Internet access. All academic and administrative processes are automated with the help of ERP software.
Wireless Campus
The campus is fully wireless with high-speed wired connectivity available in the labs and IT centre. The University has invested in WiFi technology to enable seamless access to Internet/Intranet technology without any hassles. At the same time, students can also access learning resources on the go, without being tied to any specific location. Wireless campus improves the process of learning. The major advantage is in the form of mobility of the students as well as facilitators. The students can access the online resources in the most unassuming places with ease and great convenience.
Wireless campus indeed improves the teaching learning process. The major advantage is in the form of mobility of the students as well as facilitators. The can access the online resources in the most unassuming places with ease and great convenience.
IT infrastructure is continuously evolving at JKLU, which has a most scalable and flexible IT policy. More access points are planned to be installed.
WiFi systems Experience
Excellent browsing and downloading experience with a strong encryption and secure infrastructure is a primary requirement. With hundreds of simultaneous users, controller based solutions with load balancing features and seamless roaming are being sought after. This is being done to ensure highest up-time as well as sound traffic management. The final vendor has been chosen after live demonstration, scalability of the solution and commercials.
The WiFi network installed at JKLU campus is totally controller based. All access points are of advanced N-series type with 300 Mbps throughput. All the access points are centrally managed with the help of controller. The campus has around 30 access points covering the entire campus with each access point capable of supporting 90 simultaneous users with load balancing features. All hardware facilities are scalable and capable of smart wireless meshing which can meet the growing needs of the University in the years to come.
Key challenges in making the campus wireless
Key challenge is in terms of speedy obsolescence and security concerns. Companies should develop more secure and robust technologies keeping in mind the specific needs of educational institutes.//
