Photo: Aventus
Flexible education with fewer barriers
This is how eduID plays a key role in Aventus’s digital ambitions
Students taking courses at another school or guest lecturers who need temporary access to systems: flexible education requires a smart and future-proof digital infrastructure. At Aventus vocational college, work on this is already well underway. IT architect Paul de Wit explains the key role played by eduID.
Key facts
Who: Paul de Wit
Position: IT architect
Organisation: Aventus
Service: eduID
Challenge: setting up digital systems for flexible education.
Solution: using eduID to reduce digital barriers in terms of access and login.
Paul de Wit
“In an ideal world, technology connects rather than limits. We want people to focus solely on the task at hand. The underlying technology will follow naturally.” This may sound simple, but it isn’t. Especially when you consider that institutions often have to work with more than 20 different digital systems or applications.
But Aventus has big ambitions: this institution has set up a major digitisation programme using eduID to better integrate systems and reduce digital barriers. The way in which people log in to all these systems is a key part of this, made possible by Npuls’ Get Connected incentive scheme.
Flexible collaboration between institutions
Education is increasingly moving towards flexible learning pathways, where students can study at multiple institutions. This has long been the practice at Aventus. De Wit: “The Agricultural Engineering programme is offered at both Aventus and Yuverta in Boxtel. Students are already taking courses or sitting exams at each other’s institutions. Thanks to eduID, it will soon be possible for these students to easily access only the relevant systems, regardless where they come from.”
“In an ideal world, technology brings people together rather than dividing them. We want people to be able to focus solely on the task at hand”
A single point of entry for the entire system
But how does an institution go about making such a transition? Whilst many institutions often start by connecting a single application to eduID, Aventus has chosen to do this for the entire digital landscape in one go.
To this end, Aventus has developed its own keyring provider: a system that links different digital identities. De Wit compares it to a bunch of keys: “Your eduID and your Aventus account are each a key on this bunch. The IdP uses this keyring provider to know which keys belong together. When someone logs in with an eduID, the system automatically looks up the corresponding Aventus account. Based on your role, it determines what you are then permitted to access.” This makes it immediately clear who you are and what you are allowed to do, without having to log in again each time.
Control over data and technology
Aventus’s ambition goes beyond practical benefits alone. De Wit: “We want to better integrate our systems, but we are also taking the first steps towards sovereignty.” In other words: Aventus wants to be less dependent on large commercial tech companies, with a view to continuity and privacy. After all, identities are the crown jewels of an organisation.
This puts the data and technology firmly under Aventus’s own control. With this solution, based on open-source components, a small amount of customisation and the services of SURFConext and eduID, Aventus is taking concrete steps towards managing its own data and technology.
“We want to integrate our systems more effectively, but we are also taking the first steps towards autonomy”
A blueprint for other institutions
The aim is for the current infrastructure to remain unaffected by the transition. That is why the implementation of eduID is being carried out alongside the existing access landscape. De Wit: “We are encountering problems as we go along and documenting the solutions. Ultimately, we want to develop a blueprint that other institutions can also use.”
Paul de Wit regularly speaks with colleagues from other educational institutions and tries to involve them as early as possible. His first piece of advice to institutions wishing to start using eduID themselves: “Ensure that all applications in your landscape can log in via SURFconext. That is the foundation.”
About eduID and Get Connected
With eduID, learners, researchers and external users have a single digital identity to access educational applications at different institutions. This allows them to log in securely and easily everywhere, without needing multiple accounts. Get Connected was an incentive scheme run by Npuls. It supported institutions in connecting to eduID or related services.