New $100,000 virtual lab feature gains popularity, 500 users

• Tweet
• 

Students are now able to log into the desktop software of Central Michigan University’s labs through their own computers.

The virtual lab allows students to access personal data and print through their personal machines while in residence halls, apartments and other cities around the country.

It was launched at the beginning of the summer with about 100 students using it. After an overwhelmingly positive survey response, Roger Rehm, vice president of Technology and chief information officer, said they have added 500 students to it and expect to add more.

The new technology was created by Rehm, Stan Pope, director of technology services for the college of business administration, and Gary Wroblewski, coordinator of applications for the college of health professions.

The feature will cost at least $100,000 and was funded by a collaboration of the College of Business Administration, College of Health Profession, and the Office of Technology, Wroblewski said.

The software is available to download for Macintosh, Windows, iPad and Android.

“If you need to do something on a lab computer, you have to get up, leave your dorm or off-campus apartment and go sit at that desktop,” Wroblewski said. “What we’ve done is given you that software for your own computer.”

Rehm announced the arrival of the virtual lab to the CMU Board of Trustees’ Faculty Liaison Committee Wednesday.

“It’s very difficult to get the right kind of materials to students spread all over the country when we’re based on a location system,” Rehm said. “Now, I’ve got a phone on my hip more powerful than our desktops.”

Printing is not set up yet, but Wroblewski hopes to use a kiosk system that will let students print to one location and be able to pick up the paper within 24 hours.

He said the beauty of the new format is that it will save time and energy while uploading information to all the desktops.

“Now we can have tremendous overhaul savings in workforce and hours of updating labs,” Wroblewski said. “In actuality, we save the physical desktops.”

Feedback has been extremely positive, Rehm said. Their accomplishment appeared in an article on EdTech Magazine and recently Rehm has been invited to a national conference on technology.

He is not, however, concerned that the new technology will make computer labs obsolete.

“I don’t see this as replacing the lab, but working as a complementary part to it,” he said.