Last year, the IT service department started a project aimed at creating a virtual student workspace that would make BYOD, or bring your own device, possible. The main goal of the project is to provide students with access to VU Amsterdam applications from their own devices. By making these applications available virtually, students will be able to use them on their own devices without having to install them first. This reduces dependency on the availability of computers and the capacity of lecture halls.
The pilot is taking place at the Faculty of Science and is scheduled to run until the end of 2023.
What will the virtual student workspace look like?
The virtual workspace will allow students to access student applications on their own devices via a browser in Windows 10/Windows 11. After launching a remote desktop app, students will be able to use these applications without having to install them first or using a link sent to them by a lecturer.
The virtual apps can be used on any device (including laptops, desktops, MacBooks and Chromebooks) and using any operating system (Windows, MacOS, Linux) as long as there is an internet connection. The virtual desktop can be accessed by students from any location (on campus, at home, or elsewhere), and files are saved to OneDrive. This means students will still be able to immediately access these applications and personal files in the event that they switch devices or use a new one.
The importance of testing the applications
96 applications have currently been inventoried and are expected to be made available in the manner explained above. In an initial testing round, a subset of 43 simple applications was made available to lecturers in a testing environment. The feedback received is currently being processed by the developer.
On 1 June, testing commenced on a second group of applications, and a second round of tests will follow in the period July/August. For the completion of these rounds, lecturers (or students acting on their behalf) have been asked to perform the tests, as the IT service department is not an expert user of most applications. Their feedback on how the applications function is extremely important and will mean that users have live access to a solid set of applications in the near future.
Launch of the applications
We hope to receive plenty of usable and fast feedback from lecturers and acceptance of the finished apps by the Faculty of Science, so as to enable the launch of the first applications by the IT service department in September of 2023.
Contact
The BYOD project is headed by the IT service department. For more in-depth and technical questions about the project, please contact the project team at digital@vu.nl.
The following Faculty of Science employees are involved in the project: Anisha Bandhoe, Pamela de Boer and Yason Andreadis. You can contact them with any questions regarding the pilot at the Faculty of Science.