EL CAMINO COLLEGE

El Camino College (ECC) is a 126-acre community college in Torrance, CA, that serves over 32,000 students.  The campus has been undergoing significant bond-funded construction and building upgrades, bringing with it enhancements to core information technologies.

PLANNET has been a technology partner of ECC for many years, having been involved in technology design for several campus building projects and upgrades of several technology systems (network, storage arrays, virtualization environments), as well as completed a data center migration to make way for building renovations.

ECC retained PLANNET to assist with conducting a technology assessment of campus-wide IT services and systems and to analyze and make recommendations to achieve a stable and effective operating environment.

PLANNET’s scope of work included:

• Investigation of existing technology infrastructures and enterprise services.
• Investigation of existing technology master plans and standards.
• Evaluation of the viability of existing technology infrastructure to support ECC’s mission, vision, business, and growth objectives.
• Provided recommendations for planning upgrade, replacement, and migration strategies for technology resources to sustainably support future demands.
• Provided recommendations of methodologies with measurable outcomes to aid in reporting metrics (improvement/success).
• Provided recommendations for methodologies to attain secure student access, including registration, coursework, and social interaction.
• Provided recommendations for methodologies to promote collaboration between faculty and staff using administrative systems both on campus and remotely.
• Evaluation of current web-based technologies and staffing levels.
• Evaluation of course management software used by faculty and levels of utilization both in online teaching and traditional classroom settings.
• Assisted with methodology development to introduce new technologies that evaluate, test, implement, and utilize for future technological change (change management).

PLANNET conducted key stakeholder and technical team interviews and a client satisfaction survey of campus constituents, including students, faculty, and administration.

Findings and recommendations were made utilizing PLANNET’s experience with higher education clients, Community College best practices, Educause data, State Chancellor Office (technology) Guidelines, and interviews and input of industry specialists.   The roadmap was developed based on the gaps between what is available and usable and what is feasible based on the conditions at ECC, funding, and all the other constraints that typically come into play.