The Technical University (TU) Dortmund campus spans two locations, north and south; over 95% of the workstations are Windows or Apple workstations.

With 6,500 employees and approximately 30,000 students, the need for efficient IT management and secure exam environments was very important because of the high value the university places on user freedom and the promotion of research and education.

Challenge

The university needed to establish a secure, controllable, and flexible exam environment. With varying hardware and software requirements for exams,finding a solution that streamlined management and ensured a consistent, secure testing experience for students posed a significant challenge. Also recognised was a complex licensing issue with other providers in the industry. The university sought a simpler licensing solution that was less reliant on a cloud-based structure - found in Unicon™

TU Dortmund
August-Schmidt Str. 10
44227 Dortmund
Germany

Sector:
Education

Employees:
6,500

Endpoints:
80 eLux® clients

Unicon solution

Christoph Gröpper, the IT-Administrator at TU Dortmund, managed to address these challenges effectively using Unicon.

Unicon is implemented across 80 exam stations, providing a centralized control center for workstations. Unicon enables remote power management, configuration, and session control, ensuring seamless transitions between local and virtual environments.

Christoph Gröpper can start, manage, and monitor all workstations with a single click - the progress indicates when all the virtual workstations are ready to use. That‘s a big advantage from a user perspective when compared to a solution using Windows - where there would be considerably more effort.

Christoph explains, “Unicon is invaluable when I’m managing a room, because I don‘t have to keep running around checking to see if everything is working. I can also see the state of the computers via the Scout console. I mostly use scripts, but the console displays the devices showing green, yellow, or red. Since the thin clients are reasonably named, I can also easily tell which one isn‘t working because it won‘t boot up.”

With Unicon, Christoph has the flexibility to use either just one browser or the entire Citrix® world as needed.

The intuitive interface facilitates easy updates, ensuring the university remains up-to-date with the latest software versions. The ability to monitor the status of workstations remotely eliminates the need for physical presence, which saves considerable time and effort.

If I don‘t want to visit a room in person every time, but want the ability to update, power up, power down, and monitor status in the console from home, Unicon is extremely helpful. It eliminates the need to constantly walk around the site and allows for more efficient management.”
- Christoph Gröpper, IT-Administrator at TU Dortmund

Moreover, the flexibility to restrict access and control peripheral devices such as USB sticks during exams enhanced the security of the testing environment.

Christoph applauds the simple licensing structure with Unicon, stating, “Unicon is clearer and easier to manage than other solutions, with no complicated splits and intakes. A lot of my tasks are easily solved with the intuitive design and interface.”

The value of Unicon extends monetary savings, with the time savings proving invaluable. The ability to streamline updates, manage multiple workstations remotely, and simplify day-to-day operations significantly reduced labor hours.

The user-friendly features enables non-technical staff to operate rooms efficiently, aligning with the university‘s emphasis on user freedom and promoting research and education.

Future possibilities with Unicon

Looking ahead, TU Dortmund University wants to explore opportunities such as integrating writing tablets to further enhance the examination process.

With the goal of reducing paper usage, the adaptability of Unicon offers an innovative solution. Digital tablets support the idea of taking handwritten notes with a digitizer pen during the exam. This was a new requirement that was not easy to implement, but it now works through Unicon.

The current implementation is complete, but there may be an even better solution in the pipeline. The university’s ultimate goal is to potentially eliminate paper altogether. There are still exams where paper slips are distributed and collected, so by successfully using writing tablets, it could help reduce paper usage.

Collaborating with Unicon‘s support, Christoph Gröpper and his team aim to refine the implementation and explore innovative ways to improve the university‘s exam processes.

TU Dortmund‘s success story with Unicon showcases adaptability, efficiency, and user-friendliness. By addressing the university‘s specific challenges, Unicon emerges as a vital tool, not just for exam management but also for promoting a secure, flexible, and streamlined IT environment at the institution.

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