Previously, district leaders found a disconnect between the number of resources they had and how to effectively manage access. Regardless of their efforts to provide instructions for how to login, the process was convoluted for students and teachers and unwieldy for IT to manage. To meet their goals of reducing login barriers, and increasing classroom time and productivity across the board, district leaders looked to single sign-on (SSO). Randy Dalton, Executive Director of Technology at Mesa County Valley School District 51, spearheaded a search for a solution to unify their digital resources and provide a centralized access point. When evaluating SSO providers, functionality, ease of use, and user-efficiency were key motivators.
After evaluating several SSO solutions, ClassLink provided the robust set of features that the district needed, including the ability to access school network files (My Files) from any location, and securely deliver class rosters to publishers (Roster Server). Mesa County Valley School District rebranded their Launchpad to D51 ClassLink Portal. The D51 ClassLink Portal is now home to all the district’s digital applications, online resources, and business tools. ClassLink has been easy to configure, deploy, and support.
Today, the D51 ClassLink Portal has over 100 applications connected. Students and teachers have a streamlined sign-on process and a renewed excitement for technology in the classroom.
From a district leadership perspective, insights from ClassLink Analytics allow admins to view and compare usage details for all their 46 campuses. The information in ClassLink Analytics has also helped in new and unexpected ways; from facilitating conversations between curriculum and IT leaders to informing decisions related to renewals and professional development. Empowering their users with the freedom to log in to D51 ClassLink Portal from any device and any location has improved efficiency and incited excitement for learning. So much that application usage nearly doubled YoY, proving that access is an imperative component of learner success.
Education, K-12
Mesa County Valley School District 51 is based in Grand Junction, Colorado, and has a total student enrollment of 22,000 and staff of 3,000 across 46 sites.
Mesa County Valley School District 51 needed a way to organize a growing number of digital resources, manage their devices, and provide easy, flexible access for their 25,000+ users.
The district issued an RFP and evaluated several SSO solutions before ultimately selecting ClassLink as their provider. The ability to connect all their apps through a variety of authentication methods, provide users with any time file access through My Files, and deliver class rosters to providers using Roster Server, has vastly improved efficiencies across the board.
