Nestled in the mountain town of Cullowhee, Western Carolina University (WCU) is the westernmost school in the University of North Carolina system. From the residence hall to the science lab, the school is extending digital workspace solutions to all corners of the campus and beyond.

WCU was the first campus in the University of North Carolina system to require its students to bring a computer to school, and today its 10,800 students show up with a variety of devices, from desktop and laptop computers to tablets and smartphones. The university needed a way to provide each student with consistent and easy-to-access resources, no matter what kind of device they have or whether they’re on or off campus.

The university chose to do so by implementing a secure cloud-based digital workspace solution from VMware that enables students to use a single sign-on to access all their apps, from Microsoft Office 365 to specialized academic apps. “The fact that we can consistently and conveniently offer all of this software is a huge benefit to our community,” says Mark Ellersick, technology support analyst at WCU.

Apps are distributed with VMware App Volumes, which customizes desktops based on student profiles. When a student finishes a class, their access to apps for that class is withdrawn—saving money for WCU’s IT department. At the same time, VMware Horizon provides non-persistent virtual desktops for students.

These digital workspace solutions and mobility have allowed WCU to expand its distance education programs. “VMware has provided the EUC stack that’s helped us to level the playing field between our on-campus students and those distance education students,” says Patrick McGraw, virtualization and tier-one engineer at WCU. Instead of having to install their own software, distance education students can participate in the same programs as on-campus students, as long as they have an Internet connection.

Students on campus benefit as well. “The great thing about the technology is that students don’t notice it,” Ellersick says. “They walk into a lab, log in, and do their work. When they walk out of that lab and go home, or even to another town or state, they can access that same resource. Now the lab is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

Enterprise-level security at many levels protects university data. For example, students in medical fields and employees of the university health service use non-persistent desktops to access patient information, keeping it in the data center instead of the endpoint. Ellersick cites multifactor authentication as an additional security factor that’s important when the university processes other types of sensitive information, such as credit card transactions.

Moreover, software deployment is now much easier for WCU. Before virtualization, to get school computers ready for a new year the IT team would “re-image computers for hours and hours … two weeks straight, 24 hours a day,” McGraw recalls. “If a faculty member forgot to request a piece of software on lab computers, we would have to re-image the entire classroom, and that would take a week or more.” With App Volumes, new apps are available instantly for an entire class. “The faculty doesn’t lose class periods waiting for applications to get installed. It’s really sped up the process.”

Digital workspace technologies are enhancing the university’s mission of education for all. “We’re excited, as a university and as an IT department, to give students a consistent experience and really level the playing field,” Ellersick says. “We’re breaking down barriers and making resources more accessible. We’re excited that we can bring everything together in a very intuitive and easy-to-use package.”

Watch the video to learn more about how WCU simplifies student access to apps.

The Possibility Report is an ongoing series about how technology is changing our understanding of the world around us. This article is part of LEARN, our discussion on how emerging technologies promise to change the educational experience as we know it, from elementary schools to prisons and everywhere between.