Thomas Rotherham College Automates Student Devices

We met with Thomas Rotherham College’s Learning Resources Manager, Emma Hadfield and its Learning Resources Officer, Paul Smith to discuss how and why they implemented the Diplomat™ Smart Locker into the college’s infrastructure.

Customer Profile

A modern Sixth Form College with high levels of academic success, Thomas Rotherham College is an exciting post-16 choice for young people from across Rotherham and the surrounding area. With around 1500 students, the college’s Learning Resources Centre aims to meet the needs of its diverse range of students. The Resource Centre boasts an impressive collection of not just books, magazines, and audio-visual equipment but also modern IT facilities and laptops available for all students to use.

Challenges

Emma – We started with laptops about eight or nine years ago and have manually issued them to our students for years. We started with about six or seven laptops but because it’s the only place students can come to study independently, they wanted more, as they often prefer to use them rather than the PCs. I kept asking for more laptops but trying to manage them got out of hand. We then asked a carpenter to come in and build us this big cupboard to store them in, which was a bit rickety. We then had an electrician come in and put what seemed like hundreds of plug sockets behind it. We used that to manually issue laptops to students and then when they were returned to the desk, we would plug them back in and wait until they had charged again. There were about 60 laptops which meant we had all these wires intertwined everywhere and it was a full-time job for the staff to manage. We needed to be on a rota just to be able to issue laptops!

Paul – At change over time at the end of lessons, students all came back at the same time, which meant we had about 40 laptops which had to be plugged in and left to charge. About ten minutes later students wanted them out again so they never got to a maximum charge. Also, the laptops were really old, so students would bring them back about 20 minutes later for another charge. It was good that students were getting used to borrowing and using the laptops and the service was popular, but the manual loaning was time-consuming and cumbersome.

Solutions

Emma - I had seen automated laptop loan systems in university libraries that I had visited. They seem quite prominent in HE, but we hadn’t yet seen them in colleges. I then came across an article in a library magazine that highlighted a sixth-form college using self-service laptop loans. I then contacted the college directly to get more information. It was this that prompted me to look into automating our service further. I contacted LapSafe® and Jamie, the Account Manager, returned my call straight away and put us on to the team at Chesterfield College who were also using the Diplomat™ Smart Locker. Paul, the IT Manager and I decided to visit Chesterfield College. I wanted to ask the actual college rather than just a LapSafe® salesperson to find out if it works for colleges, and does it help. Following the visit, we decided it looked perfect for what we wanted, so we decided to go ahead and put a case forward for the system to the college financial team. We were so happy when it got approved.

Emma - We decided to downsize from 40 old heavy laptops with old batteries and the wooden cupboard with plug sockets to 24 new Toshiba laptops and the self-service Smart Locker. Our students have ‘One Drive’ available to them to use, so their work is saved there and not on the laptops. All the devices are networked in the self-service lockers, so we can update and clean them all simultaneously. The order was placed with LapSafe® early summer of 2017 and it was easy, to be honest. We were asked questions about what we needed and required, and we planned a date for delivery. The delivery and the installation went lovely and smooth, we were so prepared beforehand. Everything was measured up and we had the electricians on standby to work with LapSafe® when it was installed. I made sure I asked in advance what was required and what was needed so I got it all ready. It was great that we got to choose the colour of the Smart Locker too.

Paul - We did have a few problems on the day of installation, it should have taken half a day, but it ended up taking about a week. This had to do with the software not being compatible with our group policies. However, negotiations with our IT manager on the security and manageability of the PC running LapSafe® took place to resolve the problem. Since then, IT doesn’t have to have much to do with it. Heritage, our LMS provider, was really good with everything too and knew exactly what needed doing as they had successfully worked with LapSafe® many times before.

Conclusion

Emma - We started the new term two to three weeks after it was installed, and we were worried that students wouldn’t understand what needed to be done and wondered what type of poster we should put up to explain what to do. But while we were thinking about it, the students just used their initiative. They are used to using their student library cards for the printer in the LRC and I think they just knew to follow the instructions on the screen and started to use it. They can use the laptops for two hours and only use them within the LRC. The students love it as it means they all have the option to use a good quality laptop without having to own one and it encourages group and independent learning in the LRC. When we open our LRC suggestion box students have mentioned they would like more laptops available.

Paul – The support and security side of it is great. We have it set up so the support team can remote into the Diplomat™ Smart Locker and Matt at LapSafe® has been brilliant. They are always ready to help solve a problem if there is one or answer questions. I always have the ‘Availability Dashboard’ app open on my PC, so it is easy to see what’s charged and what’s available in the Diplomat™ Smart Locker to use. Matt has also mentioned some new things coming up in the future that will be handy for us on the availability side.

Emma - We would definitely recommend it, as it does exactly what we wanted it to do with very little fuss or bother. It got rid of a terrible job that we had to do with manually issuing laptops via the rickety wooden unit behind the desk. We would welcome other colleges to visit us and see how it works. We like to show it off as we are a small library service with a small budget in a sixth-form college, and to get something like this is brilliant for us; it’s a great piece of kit. It is modern and has up-to-date technology that we can offer students. It also frees up a member of staff to have more time to communicate and help students. If you can find the budget for this, you won’t be disappointed.

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