Merit connects Michigan public schools to power learning

When the pandemic forced an unprecedented pivot, school districts across Michigan doubled down on digital learning. Closing the digital divide in rural and underserved areas was a top priority. When students returned to in-person learning, digital resources transformed classroom learning.

“When students returned to school in person, they brought twice as many devices,” says Jim Moran, services manager at Merit. “There was also a huge increase in teachers’ use of educational video, instead of printed materials.”

Michigan’s public K-12 schools needed faster, more reliable Internet connections to accommodate the bigger traffic loads generated by the extra devices and video. Merit, which assists higher education, K-12 schools, healthcare, government and nonprofit organizations with networking, cybersecurity, and IT, was chosen to lead the upgrade. 

MISEN is ready as Michigan’s school leaders reimagine learning based on the lessons they have taken away from the pandemic. MISEN easily accommodates online resources, learning management systems, student information systems, and achievement assessments—as well as the massive increase in video and devices.

Merit provides more than fast, reliable, affordable Internet to Michigan’s public schools. The network is engineered to support remote learning, video conferencing, virtual labs, and digital libraries; direct peering with cloud providers; and access to Internet2. Support is highly attuned to the needs of Michigan’s public schools.

“The SEN, in collaboration with Merit, is closing the digital divide for all K-12 students in Michigan. The goal is to connect schools with the networking capacity needed to ensure that teachers and students never see bandwidth as a barrier to achieving their goals in the classroom. We have already saved millions of dollars for our kids and classrooms, while providing a vehicle for shared services, affordable internet access, and cybersecurity. We are truly excited about the future benefits we will achieve for K-12 and beyond, as we continue to enhance and expand this world-class network for the State of Michigan,” said Matt Stark, director, MISEN.

With a mission to connect organizations and build community, Merit also operates the Michigan Cyber Range, the nation’s largest unclassified private cybersecurity training cloud. Merit also developed the Michigan Moonshot initiative as a call to action to lessen the digital divide in the state.  And through Merit research, the organization supports internet security research through its Orion network telescope that observes global malware propagation.