Dublin school digitizes learning with Cisco-powered network – Cisco Blogs

Dublin’s Institute of Education prepares their private-tuition students to matriculate into a number of leading colleges and universities in Ireland and throughout the world through a customized, challenging curriculum that focuses on excellence, achievement, and innovation across 28 choices of subject study. Founded in 1969, the Institute has a 50-year history that prioritizes high standards, hard work, determination, honesty, and enthusiasm for learning with small class sizes and extracurricular opportunities. The result is a well-rounded, achievement-oriented student body equipped to succeed in competitive higher education pursuits.

When the pandemic forced the Institute to close their 100,000-square-foot campus in the heart of Dublin in spring 2020, they had to shift from their decades-long philosophy centered around high-touch, in-person learning. Where previously, students had unlimited access to teachers and state-of-the-art learning spaces, students and teachers alike needed to adjust to a temporary remote learning model. Top of mind was how the Institute would ensure the best possible support for students in an external environment.

With little time on their side to respond to global lockdown, the Institute quickly pivoted and used Microsoft Teams to deliver classes through the remainder of the 2020 school term. Realizing this was a short-term solution, they began planning for a strategic digital infrastructure transformation that would support them well into the future.

They partnered with PlanNet21 and Cisco to upgrade, speed, and secure their network to reliably livestream and record simultaneous classes across the Institute’s broad curriculum. PlanNet 21 managed the configuration and deployment, using a combination of Cisco wireless, security, and infrastructure switching solutions. The result: the network can now support more than 1,200 concurrent users and the Institute now streams and records 900 hours of classes. To date, they’ve had zero outages.

“This was groundbreaking in terms of education in Ireland,” the Institute’s Principal, Yvonne O’ Toole, explained. “Over the summer [of 2020], we heard about other schools working feverishly to establish solutions to minimize disruption to their students’ education. We were lucky that we adapted when we did to make our inevitable investment so much sooner.”

Learn how Dublin’s Institute of Education adapted in lockdown and emerged with a superior network infrastructure that now supports more effective, more secure, student-driven learning.

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