Pilot Summary – OARnet (Ohio)

September 2015

Pilot target constituents: 23 Public community colleges in the state of Ohio

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3. Shared roaming wireless: Federated, authenticated access to wireless networks across all participating Ohio institutions using the Eduroam model

· Challenges encountered and how were they addressed

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The pilot has included 2 community colleges located in rural Appalachia, a historically underserved and economically distressed community area. Adoption of Internet-ready federated services has enabled these institutions to provide their students with services that are the equal of those available at more economically and geographically advantaged institutions.
Non-traditional campus scenarios such as shared campus and remote campuses have been key use cases and are growing in importance. One of the community college shares two of its campuses with 4-year institutions. Federated services make it easier for students and faculty to access services at those shared campus locations without maintaining separate helpdesks at that location. Another community college has a cohort of students attending a remote campus in Europe; the use of federated authentication to services, regardless of location, greatly simplifies the burden of creating and maintaining separate identities for these students.

· Lessons learned and recommendations to others

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Funding – federation involves a lot of moving parts and providing all the parts in an affordable and easy-to-consume model may be a challenge due to the current economic climate for many institutions

Mark Beadles, Chief Information Security Officer
OARnet, a member of the Ohio Technology Consortium
www.oar.net www.oh-tech.org

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