Connectivity drives programming at Laurus College with remote learning

“Spectrum Enterprise has been the driving force, the backbone of what we do.”

Nat Keebler, Assistant Director of Infrastructure and Technology, Laurus College

Laurus College has been providing higher education since 2006 to high school graduates as well as many non-traditional students seeking to restart their educational and career paths. Offering highly-concentrated classes in expanding fields like business technology, web design, computer animation and audio/visual production, Laurus College’s enrollment has grown to over 900 students.

For the last ten years, that growth has been fueled by a technology partnership with Spectrum Enterprise, which offers scalable solutions and engineering expertise.

Laurus College operates in five California locations: Atascadero, Chula Vista, Oxnard, Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo; as well as Las Vegas, Nevada. Each location hosts classes, tutoring sessions, training courses and other services designed to facilitate non-traditional learning. Only 14% of Laurus College’s enrollment qualifies as full-time students.

A Dedicated Fiber Internet (DFI) circuit at their San Luis Obispo location gives the school its critical channel to the internet; connectivity is carried forward from there to the other locations with individual Ethernet circuits.

“Having the speed and low latency is great, but just keeping everything up and running is most critical to us,” explains Nat Keebler, Assistant Director of Infrastructure and Technology, Laurus College. “Spectrum Enterprise has been so reliable, and very responsive to us if something ever does come up. The biggest thing for us right now is that downtime is almost non-existent.”

To ensure their staff is equipped to manage student needs and administrative responsibilities, Laurus College leveraged their fiber investment with the installation of an intuitive and immediately popular voice service, Unified Communications with RingCentral.

Says Keebler: “Everyone is ecstatic with it, whether it’s someone like me not having to give out my personal phone number to people who need service help after hours, or just the ability to instant message with GIFs and emojis.”