Coventry University’s logo includes “the Phoenix,” which mirrors the university’s ability to reinvent itself. Coventry University was ranked 50th nationally in The Times and The Sunday Times University rankings 2020, and 6th across the West Midlands, ranking highly across student surveys, teaching, student experience and graduate prospects, and maintaining our status as a high performing institution.
The Challenge
At the university, Moodle, a Learning Management System (LMS), is the core digital interface between the educator and the students. The LMS provides 24/7 access to timetabling, learning forums, learning content (documented and video), and multiple pathways to knowledge and experiences, as well as a route for coursework submissions. This is important, as outside of the classroom this is how a student continuously learns, collaborates, and connects with the university.
Prior to moving to AWS, the university would typically encounter multiple service outages a year. These incidents occurred around peak periods relating to coursework submission activity. This impacted the student experience when working on a deadline.
The Solution
In 2017, Coventry University and its subsidiaries moved Moodle and Mahara portfolio instances to Amazon Web Services (AWS) with Catalyst IT Europe in an effort to improve the scalability, security, and availability of its platforms.
Since moving to AWS, these outages have been eliminated and we now have a platform that we are confident can scale to meet our ambitious growth targets as an organisation, whilst providing an exceptional experience for our students through availability and access to critical-learning services at anytime from anywhere,” said Simon Launder, Deputy Chief Digital Information Officer, Coventry University.
The Result
The university has also increased its security posture through the implementation of the AWS Advanced Shield, which protects its services against DDOS attacks. This was something they had issues with in the past. Overall, users have experienced a faster, more secure, and more reliable system with no significant outages or disruptions since migrating to AWS.
“The move to AWS has provided a stable and manageable platform that not only serves immediate demands but also offers flexibility to accommodate future developments in technology, innovation, and business reinvention,” said Simon.
