Excellence in Networking 2002 Award Winners

 College of Mount St. Joseph

MERLIN: Media-Rich Learning Through Wireless Thin Client

With more than 80 percent of its nearly 2,300 students living off-campus and all of them needing access to a media-rich learning environment both in class and out, the College of Mount St. Joseph turned to a unique, flexible, and resource-effective combination of three mature off-the-shelf technologies.

MERLIN is a universal student computing program employing a "wireless thin client" that takes advantage of the modest bandwidth demands of Citrix. The program incorporates (1) notebook computers equipped with basic software (Microsoft Office, Web browser, and plug-ins) for all incoming students and most faculty, (2) an 802.11b wireless network that blankets the entire campus, and (3) a Citrix MetaFrame server farm that provides a virtual computer lab through access to specialized and course-specific software (such as SPSS, MS Project, Visual Studio Pro suite), supplemented by Citrix NFuse to provide remote access from home to the same software.

In addition to the widespread user enthusiasm for the program, developers of the Wireless Thin Client solution gauge its success in terms of the benefits to the campus technical and physical infrastructures: portable and universal Web-based access to all major college computing resources, no need for additional computer labs or loss of scarce classroom space, wireless network connectivity to every classroom seat. Because of the configuration whereby high-end applications run on the centralized Citrix servers, the college is able to provide a very powerful computing environment through relatively low-end laptops, keep laptops for three years rather than two, and support course-specific software effectively with minimal staff.

Begun in the summer of 1999, the MERLIN project owes much of its success to comprehensive planning which included support from campus executives, consensus-building, strong training and technical-support components, and ongoing funding. A student technology fee of $800 per year supports continuous upgrades to the wireless network and a three-year replacement cycle for laptops, the Citrix server farm, and other key servers. Widely publicized in national and regional media, MERLIN provides a robust, flexible, and scalable solution to a common challenge in higher education institutions.