A Guide to Choose Right MDM for Education (MDM for K-12)

Digital transformation of classrooms has been on the rise in the last decade but in this COVID-19 situation, it has increased tenfold. The upsurge in the use of mobile devices in day to day lives made mobile adoption in classrooms easier. Deploying technology in classrooms has also been incremental in filling the digital divide, making education more accessible and enabling remote learning. With the ever-increasing student population, embracing ed-tech and digital devices to make learning and teaching easier is a choice of schools and educational institutes not just in developed countries but also in developing countries.

But simply procuring and deploying devices for education is not enough. In order to ensure that the devices are used optimally for education, help to curb the low-attention span of students while ensuring no distractions or security threats to students, an MDM solution is imperative. When schools and educational institutions hunt for an MDM solution, they are overwhelmed with the options available and choosing the right MDM tool for K-12 education becomes a tough decision. Remote provisioning, enabling educational resources, eliminating distractions via entertainment apps, remote support and troubleshooting and support for student-owned devices are must-have features of any MDM for K-12.

Top 5 points to consider when looking for an MDM for K-12

1. An MDM solution is tailor-made for your needs -

• The chosen MDM for K-12 needs to have all the precursors of an MDM where you (the school) get to control the device provisioning, configure the apps to be made available on the devices, enable access control and ensure data privacy and security. 
  
• Choose the MDM that offers a comprehensive solution set for all your specific needs, be it diverse device types, ownership types and management modes.
  
• Ensure to pick an MDM solution for education that is platform-agnostic since you while currently, you might be using only one OS/device type in your schools but you might later want to change that and your MDM, in this case, should support your move.
  
• It is also important to note that several MDM for K-12 might be overloaded with features that you don’t need and never end up using, yet you pay for. Hence, choosing an MDM solution that is cost-effective, where you get everything you need and just that can do the trick.

2. Available on the cloud -

• There is an on-going debate about whether to choose an on-premise solution or a cloud-based MDM solution for K-12. You need to weigh the pros and cons against each other and make the choice, but it is important to understand that the on-premise solutions are complex to implement and require technical expertise which a school or an educational institution might not be willing to invest in.
  
• Cloud-based solutions are easy to implement, need minimal IT support and a great option if your operations need to be remote since these solutions are accessible via a web-based dashboard.

3. One that doesn’t make your IT teams sweat -

• Opting for a tool that has a short learning curve, can be easily dealt with minimum IT help and basically puts the device management on auto-pilot is the one you should choose for.

4. Has group-level management -

• In the classroom or learning environment, everything happens in the groups. K-12 classes itself are grouped together based on the student age or subjects they’ve opted for. Individually provisioning devices, sharing educational material and updates is obviously not the right choice here. 
  
• Go for an MDM solution that has enhanced group settings that enables you to quickly apply settings for an entire class, where you can create subgroups within the groups based on subjects/lessons picked and achieve a lot more in less time.

5. Comes with a great support team -

• Learning is critical and imperative, no matter what happens and then if there are any roadblocks in the device management, especially when the students are learning from home, the MDM solution provider should be easy to reach out to, should have a great support team that’s always available to resolve queries and implementation experts that suggest the best solution to go about device management in schools.
  
• Choosing the right solution for K-12 mobility management is an important decision, use these pointers to make the optimal choice and pave the way for streamlined, unhindered education within the classrooms and beyond.

Source - How to Pick the Right MDM for Education