Case Study

Overview

Moon Area School District faced significant challenges with their previous inline filtering solution, which demanded extensive administrative time to manage. With almost 4,000 students and a diverse device ecosystem, including iPads for grades K-4 and Windows laptops for grades 5-12, the district grappled with their existing tool’s reporting and policy customization limitations. Seeking a more streamlined and flexible solution that would allow them to adapt to the evolving online landscape, Moon Area School District turned to Lightspeed Filter, a cloud-based web content filtering solution, for its granular internet controls and categorization, robust reporting on Windows and iPads, and the tool’s ability to provide network level filtering for BYOD and IoT.

Opportunity: More efficient and responsive filtering solution to meet district needs

Despite having an inline filtering solution in place, the Moon Area School District informational technology team found itself spending a lot of time mitigating efforts to ensure students were accessing appropriate educational content during school hours. Their inline solution’s limited database hindered its effectiveness, often allowing inappropriate content to be accessed by students, while also over blocking educational materials needed for instruction. The IT team regularly had to submit recategorization requests to their inline provider. These issues consistently impacted staff productivity and disrupted both student learning and protection.

Casey Kaiser, Director of Technology at Moon Area School District, highlighted, “It felt like we were constantly chasing the internet with our old filter’s categorization process, taking a long time to figure out where the blocks were happening. We weren’t able to make any changes ourselves to how websites were being categorized, and we had to wait until they made the correction, which was very frustrating not only for us, but also for our teachers.”

Limited policy management and reporting features also prevented the district from maximizing potential filtering benefits and insights. Without the ability to apply different filtering structures to students and staff, teachers had to rely on a poor performing, improperly filtered guest network to deliver many lessons. The district was also challenged by the inability to filter devices after school hours and on the weekends for students in grades 5-12, a limitation bemoaned by staff and parents alike. And, finally, the existing tool’s very basic reporting capabilities made it difficult to provide insights to principals and the board without manual, time-consuming data gathering and analysis by the IT team.

It felt like we were constantly chasing the internet with our old filter’s categorization process, taking a long time to figure out where the blocks were happening. We weren’t able to make any changes ourselves to how websites were being categorized, and we had to wait until they made the correction, which was very frustrating not only for us, but also for our teachers.

Solution: Greater flexibility and control for a more seamless experience

Moon Area School District needed a solution capable of quick and reliable categorization, flexible policy management, robust reporting, comprehensive off-network filtering, and a feature set to empower administrators to react to the district’s unique recategorization and diverse device needs. Lightspeed Filter stood out during the evaluation process due to its built-in structure with active directory that allows for simplified policy grouping in different structures by students and staff. Additionally, Lightspeed Filter’s automated updates promote system health, resulting in more fluid responses and quicker resolutions for reported issues.

The ability to make judgment calls ourselves with local recategorization is invaluable in ensuring a safe and productive online environment for our students and staff.

“The ability to make judgment calls ourselves with local recategorization is invaluable in ensuring a safe and productive online environment for our students and staff. For example, our staff is allowed to use AI so we can just use staff groups to allow that, and we have the peace of mind that students won’t be able to access generative AI tools, ” noted Kaiser.

Lightspeed Filter’s powerful reporting features enable Moon Area District to easily share insights with other teams, including curriculum, and evaluate educational tools to ensure staff is using approved resources. District, school, and user-focused dashboards and reports provide instant visibility into all student and staff on-device usage, including top websites, apps, blocks, searches, and more, enabling staff to uncover whether students are staying focused and on task.

We don’t have to ‘live in the tool’ to pull reports since it’s straight to use and interpret them. We can easily tell if students or teachers are spending too much time on streaming and if that is impacting our bandwidth. When we get requests to allow or block a website, we can get it done within 5 to 10 minutes, and we know exactly where to go and how to mitigate it. This helped us create a process flow that has turned into one email instead of a call and teachers are happy.

“We don’t have to ‘live in the tool’ to pull reports since it’s straight to use and interpret them. We can easily tell if students or teachers are spending too much time on streaming and if that is impacting our bandwidth. When we get requests to allow or block a website, we can get it done within 5 to 10 minutes, and we know exactly where to go and how to mitigate it. This helped us create a process flow that has turned into one email instead of a call and teachers are happy,” said Kaiser.

Lightspeed Smartshield technology added even further flexibility for Moon Area District, enabling teachers to incorporate other devices in the classroom as necessary for instruction while ensuring both BYOD devices and the district’s network remain protected.

Previously, we had a guest network that didn’t work well so this has opened new doors for teachers who can seamlessly use it for lessons if they want. I can just click on the SmartShield tab on the app to view the dashboard , see rules for that group, and easily keep track of how many devices are accessing it.

Results: Increased efficiency and transparency for a more accountable environment

With the adoption of Lightspeed Filter, Moon Area School District has experienced significant improvements in internet activity management, with a notable reduction in time spent managing filtering policies and website categorization. Teachers have expressed satisfaction with the platform’s transparency, which allows them to focus on educational activities without unnecessary disruptions. Also, the partnership between Lightspeed Filter and Moon Area School District has strengthened with ongoing communication and support.

Auto updates and the ability to promptly address requests have been game-changers. Lightspeed has not only improved our response times but has also created a more transparent and accountable system.

Lightspeed Filter successfully addressed Moon Area School District’s challenges, providing a robust, user-friendly solution that positively impacted both administrators and end-users. The district’s transition to Lightspeed Filter resulted in improved efficiency, streamlined processes, and a more transparent and accountable online environment.