Smarter
enablesseamless
remote learning
experiences
ROMA TRE UNIVERSITY CUSTOMER STORYFounded in 1992 in Rome, Italy,
Roma Tre University is the city’s
youngest public university. Witha community of over 38,000
students and 1,370 academic
and professional staff members,Roma Tre University offers 54
undergraduate degree programs,
75 master’s degree programs,
16 doctoral schools and five
PhD programs.

Adapting to the ‘newnormal’When COVID-19 swept around theworld at the beginning of 2020,
governments implemented social
distancing measures to slow thespread of the pandemic. Like
many European countries, Italy
introduced local lockdowns that
required most citizens to stayat home.
For educational organizations suchas Roma Tre University, the newstay-at-home orders presented
tough logistical challenges.

Almost overnight, the university
had to switch from face-to-faceteaching to virtual lessons. It
aimed to help its thousands ofstudents and teaching staff tomake the transition with as little
disruption as possible.

“As a future-looking
organization, we had alreadybeen experimenting withdigital learning solutions forseveral years prior to thepandemic, which proved tobe extremely valuable when
COVID-19 struck. Within justone week, we began using
our existing Microsoft Office
365 subscription to allow
staff to teach virtuallywith Microsoft Teams.

”

Paolo Cursi, Human Resources
and Telecommunications Manager,Roma Tre University

RomeItaly

38,000students

HOW LENOVO
THINKSMART HUBSKEEP STUDENTS AND
STAFF CONNECTED
In the wake of stringent COVID-19 lockdowns across Italy, Roma Tre University aimed tocontinue to deliver outstanding teaching for students. Working with Lenovo PlatinumPartner Asystel Italia, the university rapidly deployed comprehensive virtual teachingsolutions based on Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500 for Microsoft Teams. The new solutions
enable staff to stream lessons seamlessly, engage with students virtually, and deliver
high-quality learning experiences from the very start of the new academic year.
While the university’s initial approach enabled
a rapid return to teaching, Roma Tre University
saw significant opportunities to enhance theexperience for students and lecturers alike.
As well as recording classes and making themavailable for students to watch anytime, theorganization wanted to make it as easy as
possible for teaching staff to deliver high-quality
audiovisual and multimedia content.
“In the first phase of our remote learning journey,
our staff often experienced technical difficulties
that got in the way of their teaching,” continues
Cursi. “For example, some of our personnel reliedon commercial off-the-shelf laptops with
low-quality onboard webcams and microphones,
which made it difficult for students to engage
with the content of their lessons. To prepare forthe new academic year in September, we targeteda mature, long-term solution for remote learningthat would solve these challenges.”

Enabling socially distanced
learning

After evaluating a number of potential solutions,Roma Tre University selected Lenovo ThinkSmart
Hub 500 for Microsoft Teams—purpose-built
conference room devices with powerful
remote-management capabilities from
Lenovo ThinkSmart Manager software.
“We were confident that our teaching staff would
be able to return to the university campus in thefall, although we believed that most students would
have to continue to work remotely,” says Cursi.
“We therefore decided to transform our classrooms
and lecture theaters into virtual conferencing
rooms. The goal was to enable high-quality audio,
video and digital presenting tools, and free ourteaching staff from time-consuming setup andtroubleshooting tasks—empowering them to focus
on engaging with students.”

Roma Tre University found that Lenovo
ThinkSmart Hub 500 was a perfect fit for its
specific requirements. As well as offering full
support for the university’s preferred Microsoft
Teams collaboration solution straight out of thebox, the Lenovo devices handle all video captureand streaming services. As a result, there wasno need for the cost and complexity of installing
dedicated video capture hardware into theuniversity’s existing desktop machines.
In addition, ThinkSmart Manager software enables
the university’s lean, 10-person IT team to manage
all Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500 devices remotelyfrom a single point of control—dramaticallyreducing the manual effort involved in ongoing
management and maintenance.
“It was a real epiphany to discover a virtual
conferencing solution that fulfills all our needs,”
comments Cursi. “We had already been using
Lenovo ThinkCentre M Series Tiny Desktops fora number of years, which gave us peace of mind
that the solutions would be high quality and comewith excellent support from Lenovo. With the clock
ticking down to the start of the new academic
year, it was also a race against time to get the newsolution ready for the beginning of theSeptember term.”
Working together with Lenovo and Asystel
Italia, one of Italy’s leading system integrators
and a Lenovo Platinum Partner, Roma Tre
University deployed, configured and tested
Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500 devices in 220 of its
classrooms and lecture halls.
“The collaboration between Lenovo and Asystel
Italia was excellent, and the two companies worked
together to help us meet our deployment deadline
in time for the new academic year,” adds Cursi.
“Asystel Italia was there to assist us from the very
beginning—from sending us a Lenovo ThinkSmart
Hub 500 device to test during the evaluation phaseto advising us on the installation and configurationof our hardware and software later in the project.”Delivering high-quality student
experiences

Today, Roma Tre University has achieved its goalof building smart classrooms across its Romeurban campus. The typical classroom is now
equipped with a Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500,desktop PC, interactive whiteboard, projector,
webcam and ambient microphone. Teachers canconnect their own devices—such as tablets andlaptops—to the Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500, andseamlessly share content with students in theclass and watching remotely.
“Without question, our Lenovo solutions aremaking life much easier for our students and ourteaching staff,” says Cursi. “For our lecturers andacademic staff, we can now provide a teachingenvironment that is more similar to the one they
were used to before COVID-19, which, at the sametime, enables them to prepare and teach theirclasses more effectively. For students, we canensure it’s easy to read, hear and engage withwhat’s being presented—whether they are in theroom or taking part from home.”
Based on the success of its Lenovo ThinkSmartsolutions, Roma Tre University is planninginnovative ways to harness its digital collaboration
capabilities. The organization is currently
preparing to enable Wi-Fi based connectivity
for its Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500 solutions,enabling teaching staff to stream from their own
devices without cables. Looking further ahead, theuniversity is keen to enable its students to connect
to Lenovo ThinkSmart devices to present their own
work, and to allow students from other institutions
to take part in lectures remotely.

“We’re delighted with what we’ve
achieved by working with Lenovo
and Asystel Italia, so much sothat we’ve already recommended
the Lenovo ThinkSmart virtual
conferencing solution to anotheruniversity in Italy,” concludes Cursi.
“Our virtual teaching capabilities
are helping us to deliver outstanding
learning experiences to our students,
and we are confident that theLenovo solutions will continue todeliver great value even after the
COVID-19 crisis is behind us.
Paolo Cursi, Human Resources
and Telecommunications Manager,
Roma Tre University”

ThinkSmart
Hub 500

11.6”
Touchscreen
360°
rotatable
Anti-glare
SmudgeresistantSpecifications:
Processor: 7th Generation Intel® Core i5-7500T Processor with vPro™
Memory: 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 MHz
Built-in storage: 128GB SSD
Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics 630©2021 Lenovo. All rights reserved. These products are available while supplies last.
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