Now and in days and weeks ahead, as college and university administrators seek to balance the viability and financial health of their institutions with the well-being and safety of students and staff, higher education is facing a historically difficult challenge. A careful review of the facts provided by the Center for Disease Control and public health experts offers a degree of guidance for reopening campuses, but provides few concrete steps given the vast differences in geography, population density, environmental factors, and risk tolerance.
While it’s likely there is a widely variable tolerance for risk among the various members of your on-campus community, it makes sense to consider strategies that maximize the number of people willing to return for the fall. Thinking creatively about ways to build on the foundational steps outlined above can help inspire peace of mind for the greatest number of students, their parents, and staff.
Strategic Partnership with Degree Analytics
Deployed into your existing campus WiFi network by Apogee, the location analytics module from Degree Analytics is a software platform that uses anonymized data and machine learning to log WiFi access by zones you designate. The tool generates visualizations – heat maps – of zone utilization and dwell time and can be used to gauge social distancing compliance on a zone-by-zone basis.
Location Analytics can enable actions that resolve congested areas, such as removing chairs, cordoning off zones, and increasing signage or frequency of communications about social distancing.
Facility and traffic usage learnings can be applied to other spaces, expanding helpful new protocols and communications campus wide.
You can further demonstrate your commitment to innovative solutions to social distancing, inspiring confidence among students, staff and parents.
As higher education’s largest managed services provider, Apogee has unmatched expertise in the deployment and support of WiFi networks and location analytics.