For many people, the term “college learner” brings up the image of a learner who recently graduated high school, lives on campus and attends school full-time. However, higher education institutions are aware that this is not the case, not for all learners. 

Older, nontraditional learners that live off-campus, have families, work, and attend university part-time or via an online environment, are a growing constituency that is quite important. The NCES states that almost 34% of all college learners are older than 25, and over half attend school part-time. 

Universities and colleges need to reevaluate how the applications, tools and coursework required by every learner are delivered, regardless of device, time and location. 

Providing Learning Options for Learners On & Off-Campus

Virtual desktop infrastructure, in which the application, operating system and data is hosted on an infrastructure of servers, in the cloud, at the data center, or both, and presented to users on-demand, has changed the game for many universities and colleges. By allowing access from learners’ devices and virtualizing some apps, schools can reduce the size and number of computer labs. 

The University of Massachusetts Lowell offers its learners – all 18,000 of them – virtual desktops. This provides access to all applications connected to the college’s network, using whatever device they choose, whether they are at the campus or not. 

For the nontraditional learners mentioned earlier, such as a working mom, driving to the university during the evening to use the computers in the lab is no longer necessary. This completely transforms the learning process into something far more accessible. 

Breaking Down Financial & Security Barriers

The advances made in VDI solutions, services and technologies are helping higher education institutions overcome performance, complexity and cost barriers, enabling them to deliver a personalized learning experience. By leveraging virtualized, server-based GPUs and contemporary desktop software, universities have the performance to offer access to various apps. 

In addition to universal access, VDI can also reduce and simplify the effort and cost of integrating, securing and maintaining software and hardware for users. For instance, data protection, security and updates to the software are centrally applied, and each user receives an updated workspace each time they log on. 

Making Education Universal

When learners are provided with secure, simple, and budget-friendly access even to some of the many performance-intensive apps that they need for their courses, when and where they need it, universities provide more opportunities. They are helping learners to receive a successful education. 

VDI’s flexibility removes various barriers and offers learners the choice to learn where, when, and how they want. Higher education is more accessible than ever when VDI is involved.

Conclusion

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is another way universities can make education more affordable and accessible to learners, especially the nontraditional variety. They are a way to centralize applications and software and make them available to every learner.