GOALS

Pepperdine University: Like many colleges and universities, fall 2020 presented a new challenge for Pepperdine: creating a flexible learning environment that supported faculty and students to as similar a degree to in-person instruction as possible. To keep the imperative elements of a successful classroom experience—collaboration, engagement and retention—we sought easy to use, reliable and consistent technologies that would support any combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning. Today, these needs still stand as some students and teachers return to class in-person. Thanks to our hyflex solutions, individuals have the autonomy to choose how they want to learn.

CHALLENGES

With students and faculty coming back to campus in mid-August, there were many complexities we had to tackle on a short timeline in order to best support our community. We knew we didn’t want our faculty to feel like they had to re-learn the technology depending on where they taught, which meant we needed a solution that would be turnkey and completely location agnostic. No matter where they were teaching from, they could walk into the room and it was going to feel the same as every other space. We evaluated various scenarios but with the uncertainty of the new academic year, we knew we needed a unified communications platform and professional video product that could support all types of learning environments with simplicity and ease.

USER BENEFITS

Pepperdine required a flexible learning solution we could remain confident in as this deployment was critical to both the university and the success of our students. With the help of our technology partners, we decided to outfit 166 classrooms across five campuses with ClearTech’s EduFLEX solution and Panasonic’s AW-HE38H HD Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras.

The PTZ’s camera control functionality is truly one of the best parts. Since the PTZ’s camera can be controlled through an easy-to-use desktop shortcut, faculty are able to customize their learning environments to best suit their teaching and learning needs. Whether following the instructor or focusing on a whiteboard, online students can participate with their in-person counterparts to create an engaging experience. Another great perk is that the devices are Powered over Ethernet, which provided easy installation, not to mention great cost savings on energy.

Overall, these solutions were the obvious choice, providing reliability, flexibility and versatility to transform our learning environments. Today, these tools provide our various campuses with the autonomy to decide the learning style that works best for their students, whether that be fully remote, in-person or a mix of both. This flexibility has drawn students from across the globe to Pepperdine, and has allowed us to continue our mission of providing engaging, meaningful education to our international student community.  

THE AV/IT TEAM

This project was led by Jared Mukai, senior manager of IT Client Services and Sean Kalaras, manager of AV Technologies at Pepperdine, along with the university’s technology partners: Panasonic Connect and ClearTech.

Date Completed: August 2020

TECH SNAPSHOT

• Panasonic’s AW-HE38H HD Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera
• ClearTech’s EduFLEX solution

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Best in Class of 2022: University of Guelph

Best in Class of 2022: University of Massachusetts Lowell

Best in Class of 2022: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Best in Class of 2022: University of North Carolina Wilmington

Best in Class of 2022: University of Southern California

GOALS

University of Guelph: Christopher Hewitt, manager, classroom technical infrastructure, and Steve Borho, manager, classroom design and planning at University of Guelph believed that because of COVID-19 restrictions, not all students would return to face-to-face learning immediately when the campus reopened. "In the face of this, we felt it would be necessary to implement synchronous online and hybrid teaching technology in our classrooms."

CHALLENGES

The University of Guelph has a BYOD model in our classrooms with no classroom computers. Professors bring in a plethora of different laptops—from economical, consumer-grade laptops to high-end production workstations. Our challenge was to install classroom web conferencing with easy connection. 

Our classrooms were well equipped and well liked by professors, and we did not want to break that good working relationship by radically changing the technology. The web conference functionality needed to be added to the classroom technology package in a way that allowed the rooms to still be used as they were pre-COVID-19.

During the initial COVID-19 pivot we converted some seminar rooms to simple lecture studios using a laptop docking station, an extra monitor, a webcam, and a USB document camera. These were to accommodate professors who did not have a home or office environment conducive to teaching. We leveraged the knowledge gained from this to plan web conference lecture theaters for the fall 2020 semester, which would include a PTZ camera, AV bridge, and a tie into the room wireless mic and sound system. Unfortunately, due to supply delays, we had to reuse our simple lecture studio model and apply it to lecture theaters for the fall semester.

The delayed equipment arrived for winter 2021. At that time, we did further equipment testing, worked with our Instructional Design team, and leveraged the experience gained in the three rounds of equipment installation so far. 

In our final iteration, we focused on two designs: hybrid lecture concentrated on delivering the professor’s content to both in-class and remote students simultaneously; hybrid seminar would allow for synchronous discussions to occur between the in-classroom professor, in-classroom students, and remote students.

USER BENEFITS

Our hybrid lecture theaters use a professor-facing PTZ camera, AV bridge, HDMI-to-USB capture for presentation sources, laptop docking station, monitor on the teaching station, and tie-in to the classroom sound system and AV system. The AV bridge handles the conference video and audio. 

The HDMI-to-USB capture scrapes the presentation going to the projector, allowing any source shown on the screen to be shared in the web conference as the presentation source. Doing it this way allows for easy switching of the presentation source using the classroom touch panel.

The monitor provides the extra display often necessary to view the conference software while using PowerPoint during a web conference. The laptop docking station consolidates the camera, HDMI capture, sound, and displays into one USB connection for the professor’s laptop.

Our hybrid seminar classrooms have the same equipment, adding a student-facing PTZ camera and a full-room microphone system. The mic allows for all students in the classroom to be heard in the web conference, enabling discussions between the professor, in-class, and remote students.

Teaching and learning tasks supported in the hybrid seminar classrooms include lecture/student presentations, individual work, small group work, group presentations, and full-class hybrid discussions. 

The average equipment cost of web conferencing for each room was just under $10k. Installation was completed by our in-house AV personnel, a small team that worked extremely hard. With our touch-panel programming being done in house it allowed us to nimbly make a user interface that was simple and easy to use, such that professors did not have to worry about the technology and could just concentrate on delivering content. A successful installation in 40 classrooms was achieved in six months flat, resulting in a great end user experience.

THE AV/IT TEAM

Christopher Hewitt, manager, classroom technical infrastructure

Steve Borho, manager, classroom design and planning

Joe Mignacca, computer communications analyst

Christopher Young, electronics specialist

Ross Gilles, Frank Ridder, Shelley Vance, Jonathan Van Hoffen, multi-media information technology specialists

COMPLETED: August 2021

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Best in Class of 2022: University of Guelph

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Best in Class of 2022: University of Southern California

GOALS

University of North Carolina Wilmington: This past winter, the University of North Carolina Wilmington performed massive renovations of the Upperman African American Cultural Center, giving it expanded space and new AV solutions to better serve the African American student population on campus. The AV design was led in house by UNCW’s Integrated Educational Technologies team. The team’s vision for the space was a multi-functional system that could facilitate student collaboration and learning, virtual conferencing, and social gatherings.

CHALLENGES

The design presented some unique challenges beyond the normal educational space. Before the expansion, Upperman had a single large-screen display in their main space with an HDMI connection and USB port, and this upfit represented a significant leap forward in available technology in the space. The designer, Richard Blaylock, wanted to make sure the space would have technology it would use, so there were several meetings with Sean Palmer, the center’s director, to inform on recommendations. The system needed to have discrete controls in each of four spaces, while still being one unified system that could be controlled from a central touch panel. 

With the system needs in place, UNCW settled on using a traditional point-to-point video matrix and central DSP. An AV-over-IP system was considered, but for the scope of the project, the fixed-architecture matrix switch better matched the need. 

USER BENEFITS

The space now has four zones, each with a flat panel display and ceiling speakers. These spaces are a video-conferencing room, an art gallery, a library, and “the living room,” which is for events and general student use. When not being actively used, the displays show digital signage, but, using local control points, can be swapped over to wireless collaboration units, wall input plates, or a micro-PC connected to the conferencing system. From the conference room touch panel, any input can be routed to any of the output zones using a simple-selection GUI with robust feedback.

A final function that has been planned for a future installation is a media conversion and playback system. Upperman owns an extensive library of rare media, such as out-of-print records, speeches, news and television broadcasts, and other cultural and historic media. To preserve this, a recording and playback system was designed that would allow Upperman staff to digitize the media, and then for students to use a touch panel interface that would recall and play the media on a designated display in the space.

THE AV/IT TEAM

The AV design was led in house by UNCW’s Integrated Educational Technologies team.

DATE COMPLETED:  December 20, 2021

TECH SNAPSHOT

• Extron Crosspoint matrix switcher
• Extron speakers and amplifiers
• OneLAN digital signage solution
• Mersive Solstice collaboration hubs
• Biamp Tesira AVB DSP

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Best in Class of 2022: University of Guelph

Best in Class of 2022: University of Massachusetts Lowell

Best in Class of 2022: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Best in Class of 2022: University of North Carolina Wilmington

Best in Class of 2022: University of Southern California

GOALS

Indiana University: As part of new construction at Indiana University, the Luddy Center for Artificial Intelligence, classroom 1001 was designed at the directive Indiana University’s President. “They wanted a space to highlight virtual reality and have the students and facility immersed in the experience as if they were wearing VR headsets,” said Joshua Foster, manager, Learning Space Design, UITS Learning Spaces and Technology Services at IU. “They also wanted the room to be completely flexible and have full hybrid capabilities so that any of the 100 students could be heard for Zoom/Teams remote learning and lecture capture.”

CHALLENGES

“The biggest challenge for us was the curved projection image,” Foster said. “This was not something we had done before as it was a unique 21:9 aspect ratio at almost 19’-3” long and 8’-4” high. We engaged several of our manufacturers to iron out the details to create a seamless experience. The other hurdle was the requirement for everything from source to destination to be native 4K including the projector. We have done plenty of 4K displays but 4K projection was new for us.”

USER BENEFITS

“The room operates like our other classrooms so any faculty or staff member can walk into the space and use it in a basic operation mode,” Foster added. “Those who need to use some of its more advanced technical capabilities have an advanced configuration mode where advanced routing and room orientation can occur. There is a specialty high resolution PC that is in the system that users can plug a VR headset into the lectern and use to drive the custom 4K curved projection wall.”

THE AV/IT TEAM

Indiana University, University Information Technology Services/Learning Space Design and Classroom Technology Services 

Julie Johnson, Director of Learning Spaces

Mark Russell, Group Manager, Learning Spaces and Technology Services

Joshua Foster, Manager of Learning Space Design

DATE COMPLETED:  December 20, 2021

TECH SNAPSHOT

• Crestron 4-Series Control
• Crestron NVX
• QSC Q-SYS Audio, Speakers, and Cameras
• Barco 4K Laser Projector
• Planar 100" 4K ERO Displays
• Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling Mic 2
• Extreme Networks x440-G2 Network Switches

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Best in Class of 2022: University of Guelph

Best in Class of 2022: University of Massachusetts Lowell

Best in Class of 2022: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Best in Class of 2022: University of North Carolina Wilmington

Best in Class of 2022: University of Southern California

GOALS

Iowa State University: Katie Baumgarn wears many hats at Iowa State University which span classroom scheduling specialist, Facilities, and Planning & Management. She has overseen room scheduling for the 200+ general university classrooms at Iowa State for 30 years. All that time, she had a dream to create a classroom in the round, a classroom specifically designed to encourage every student in the class to engage face-to-face with one another. When Iowa State University was building its new Student Innovation Center, she found her ideal opportunity. Baumgarn reached out to Mike Pedersen, the newly hired audiovisual experience manager at Iowa State and described her dream. Pedersen loved the idea and immediately had a vision for an audiovisual system to make it a reality. Iowa State ultimately contracted all the audiovisual work in the new building to long-time integration partner, Mechdyne Corporation. Soon, Aaron Peterson was tasked to take Katie’s dream and Mike’s technology vision and make them a reality.

CHALLENGES

The main challenge to overcome in converting the dream to a reality was determining the display locations so every student would have a clear view of the content being presented. The team considered several options, including placing the projection screens in the four corners of the room. Ultimately the idea emerged of a “scoreboard” type layout and the displays were placed to hang from the ceiling in the center of the room. 

“I didn’t like the early ideas with projectors in the corners,” said Pedersen. “Instead, I had a vision for displays hanging from the ceiling above the instructor’s head.” With that rough vision in mind, Mechdyne was concerned about clear viewing angles for everyone in the room. Peterson recalls, “Taking note from many large arenas that were installing massive scoreboards above basketball courts and hockey rinks, specifically being a Minnesotan, and taking reference from Target Center’s new scoreboard, I came up with the idea of smaller displays behind the larger ones, so the front row could look across, past the professor, and onto the inner side of the display ring to get their content.” Having worked with Iowa State on prior projects, Mechdyne also understood that many instructors find it beneficial to be able to show two different sources simultaneously, so they went one step further and instead of single displays, they suggested outer and inner pairs of ceiling mounted displays.

Another huge challenge was COVID-19. The audiovisual installations throughout the innovation center started in January 2020. During the pandemic, Mechdyne worked closely with the Iowa State project team to establish safe working protocols so the installation could continue. It did, however, slow down the overall progress, and even after it was completed, it delayed significant use of the room until spring 2021.

USER BENEFITS

In addition to the unique display configuration, the Student Innovation Center was also the first large-scale AV-over-IP system at Iowa State. The network infrastructure team in the Information Technology Services unit was instrumental in designing and configuring a building wide network solution that could support the extensive AV-over-IP requirements. In the end, due to the number and location of the displays, the AV design for the classroom in the round ended up being a hybrid system with both AV-over-IP and HDBaseT technologies employed. It is a good example of using the right tool for the job, even if that includes a mix and match solution.

The overall solution provides a unique opportunity for instruction where there is much less lecturing and much more discussion, debate and group questioning. The room configuration is well suited for humanities areas such as philosophy, sociology, psychology, political science and even world languages.

Baumgarn saw her dream come true. “Having a classroom in the round is so exciting,” she said. “As we are able to create a unique learning and teaching environment. One that will encourage a connection between the students and instructor like no other space on campus!”

THE AV/IT TEAM

Katie Baumgarn, Classroom Scheduling Specialist, Facilities, Planning & Management, Iowa State

Liz Clark, Project Manager, Facilities, Planning & Management, Iowa State

Mike Pedersen, Audiovisual Experience Manager, Information Technology Services, Iowa State

Mike Vinson, Network Engineer II, Information Technology, Iowa State

Aaron Peterson, Senior Solutions Engineer, Mechdyne Corporation

Jocelyn Boehm, Project Manager, Mechdyne Corporation

Matt Nitchie, Sales Manager, Mechdyne Corporation 

DATE COMPLETED:  July 2020

TECH SNAPSHOT

• 8 Samsung QM65R, 65” LCD Displays
• 8 Samsung QM49R, 49” LCD Displays
• Chief Fusion Mounting Hardware Systems
• 1 Mechdyne Custom Mounting Truss
• 9 Extron NAV E 101, 1G Pro AV over IP Encoder - HDMI
• 2 Extron NAV SD 101, 1G Pro AV over IP Scaling Decoder - HDMI
• 2 Extron DTP HD DA8 4K 230, HDMI to Eight Output DTP DA - 230 feet (70 m)
• 16 Extron DTP HDMI 4K 230 RX, HDMI Twisted Pair Extender, Receiver
• 1 Mersive Solstice Pod
• 1 Denon DN-500BD MKII, Blu-ray, DVD & CD/SD/USB Player
• 1 Epson DC-21, Document Camera
• 1 Biamp TesiraFORTÉ DAN AI, Audio Digital Signal Processor
• 2 Shure QLXD24/B58-H50, Handheld Wireless Microphone Systems
• 2 Shure QLXD14/83-H50, Lavalier Wireless Microphone Systems
• 1 Extron XPA U 1004-70V, Four Channel Amp
• 10 JBL Pro Control 67P/T, Full-Range Satellite Pendant Speakers 
• 3 Vaddio RoboSHOT 12E HDMI, PTZ camera 
• 1 Extron TLP Pro 725T, 7" Tabletop Touchpanel
• 1 Extron IPCP Pro 350, Control Processor
• 1 Middle Atlantic PTRK-2126MDK, Mobile Steel Rack w/ Wood Top; 21RU
• 1 Middle Atlantic RLNK-915R, 15a, 9 Outlet, IP Controlled Power Distribution
• 1 Crestron TSS-10-W-S-LB KIT, 10.1 in. Room Scheduling Touch Screen

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Best in Class of 2022: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Best in Class of 2022: University of North Carolina Wilmington

Best in Class of 2022: University of Southern California

GOALS

University of Nevada, Las Vegas: In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, university provost Dr. Chris Heavy requested a “big, bold plan” that would help both faculty and students navigate a challenging learning environment, while providing lasting value to the university at large. The main goal was to provide a new solution in our classrooms while keeping the existing standards in place. Essentially, we added another flavor of classrooms to our classroom ecosystem. 

     The hybrid classroom design “RebelFlex” provides the equipment needed for both synchronous and asynchronous learning, which allows instructors to leverage enhanced technology in the classroom to teach a face-to-face class, and to students who are joining remotely simultaneously. Instructors can engage both sets of students in real time using Webex or similar technology, as well as capturing the content for remote viewing. Instructors can engage both audiences in a typical lecture scenario or by using active learning techniques, which may include class discussions, live polling, or group work.

CHALLENGES

Yes, there were many challenges. First, we had just a few weeks to come up with a solid design and get the equipment ordered. As part of the design, we needed to select the rooms, provide a site survey, and finalize the equipment needed for the particular rooms selected. As every building is of different age and design, we had many architectural restrictions to consider in product selection. Once the design was approved and equipment was ordered, we then had to schedule the installation around classes that were to be held on campus. All of this was with the ongoing supply and shipping shortages. 

USER BENEFITS

To prepare for the rollout, UNLV converted 73 classrooms into RebelFlex equipped spaces. It was what I like to call the Swiss army knife of classrooms, because while it is a typical classroom, we added lecture capture and web conferencing into the rooms. Now the room has synchronous and asynchronous capabilities; recording capabilities; and live, “in-the-room” capabilities. The room has everything. 

     Students are enrolled into two groups for a RebelFlex class: one group meets in the classroom for each scheduled session, while the other group joins remotely at the same time. Everyone interacts with the instructor and their classmates in real time using Webex or similar technology. The instructor can explore new teaching techniques while teaching both sets of students simultaneously. The students can enroll in the section that fits their learning style and engage in active learning together, in person or remotely.

THE AV/IT TEAM

The project was split into the “What” group, which was responsible for campus needs and ease the transition to a flexible model or provide options; and the “How” group, which was responsible for the design, implementation, and support after install. 

     The Classroom Technology Services and E-Learning Technology departments collaborated on the design, use, and support models of this project. It truly was a team effort. Key players included: Frank Alaimo, senior AV systems specialist and acting manager of CTS; Michael Theil, senior AV/IT control systems specialist; Joseph Chrobak, AV/IT systems specialist; Matthew Broughton, IT technician 6; Rohan Palmer, IT professional 2; Andy Borts, instructional technology support specialist, OIT e-learning technology; CCS Presentation Systems, Las Vegas

COMPLETED: Installation in 36 rooms was completed May 2021, and an additional 37 rooms were completed January 2022.

TECH SNAPSHOT

• An audio DSP for multiple Sennheiser microphones (SpeechLine Digital [lapel] and TeamConnect Ceiling 2)
• Vaddio PTZ camera
• Inogeni Share 2
• Crestron 8x8 AV switcher, processor, and 10-inch touch panel
• Panopto lecture capture
• Webex

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Best in Class of 2022: University of Massachusetts Lowell

Best in Class of 2022: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Best in Class of 2022: University of North Carolina Wilmington

Best in Class of 2022: University of Southern California

GOALS

Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Heritage College: Three years ago, OU HCOM began the design of a new $65 million medical education facility in Athens, Ohio. Among the design drivers for the project, technology played a critical role in supporting overall flexibility of learning environments and connectivity to other campuses and the broader community. The new medical education facility provided an opportunity to re-envision technology to meet the future needs of medical education. The Heritage College had expanded its academic campuses to Cleveland and Dublin, which resulted in an active learning curriculum highly dependent on the use of technology to seamlessly connect three campuses for one learning activity. The Heritage College Technology team focused its efforts on creating a multi-campus, multi-site, hybrid learning environment—connecting students across the State of Ohio and enabling team teaching, collaboration, and optimal faculty/student engagement.

CHALLENGES

One of our greatest challenges with this project was implementing leading-edge technology to control our multi-campus environment: T1V’s ThinkHub Education and ThinkHub Multisite. The Heritage College was the first higher education organization to implement this level of functionality for optimal faculty/student engagement across multiple sites. Additionally, engagement of our faculty in training and understanding the technology proved to be a risk. However, with the help of our technology partners, T1V and ROOT Integrated Systems, we were able to successfully launch the new technology in fall 2021 with no major issues and with an over 80 percent training rate of teaching faculty.

USER BENEFITS

There are many benefits to the design of this new learning environment for the Heritage College. First, the team-teaching approach has significantly improved with the use of ThinkHub Multisite. Faculty located across multiple campuses teaching a learning activity can effectively engage with faculty team members and students at far sites with a touch of the screen. Additionally, the faculty have more flexibility in the delivery of content and interaction with students. With the onset of the pandemic, the use of the new technology has further prepared the Heritage College to provide a hybrid learning experience that is equitable for both classroom-based and remote students. Students are also able to see content, collaborate as a team, and engage with their students using touch-enabled student stations and wireless display. Student content can also be shared with the entire classroom, or the entire learning environment, throughout the classrooms in Athens, Cleveland, and Dublin.

THE AV/IT TEAM

The Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine Office of Medical Education Technology (OMET), along with our partners at T1V, Inc. and ROOT Integrated Systems were responsible for the planning, design, and implementation of this project. The Heritage College OMET Team is led by Jodie Penrod, senior director of technology. 

The following individuals were also part of this project: Eric Clift, assistant director, technology and telehealth operations; Phil Swatzel, senior technology infrastructure engineer; Frank Carano, senior classroom technology specialist;
Jessica Makosky, classroom connectivity manager;
Joe Scowden, learning technologies specialist; Mark Loudin, learning technologies analyst; Cory Lewis, technology support manager (Athens); Janet Dearth, learning technologies analyst; Josh Jones, learning technologies analyst; Mike Wolanin, technology support manager (Cleveland); Dave Eggler, IT support specialist (Cleveland); Chan Chanthapanya, IT support specialist (Cleveland); Rick Burke, technology support manager (Dublin); Paul Becerra, IT support specialist (Dublin); Evan Amerio, IT support specialist (Dublin)

COMPLETED: August 2021

TECH SNAPSHOT

• T1V’s ThinkHub Education and ThinkHub Multisite

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Best in Class of 2022: Pepperdine University

Best in Class of 2022: University of Guelph

Best in Class of 2022: University of Massachusetts Lowell

Best in Class of 2022: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Best in Class of 2022: University of North Carolina Wilmington

Best in Class of 2022: University of Southern California

GOALS

Grand Valley State University: Through our Digital Transformation Strategy, our division will collaborate to enhance and extend GVSU’s academic, research, and collegiate experience through new opportunities, modern services, innovative approaches, and supporting technologies. One of our three areas of focus is accelerating transformation through innovation. That transformation includes establishing the next-generation classroom. The goal was to create pilot active learning classrooms with flexible furniture and advanced technologies supporting remote learning.

CHALLENGES

The biggest obstacle was procurement of equipment. The ongoing pandemic has had a major impact on the supply chain for AV components. I had to make a few modifications to the design simply based on what equipment I could get at the time. The challenge was maintaining the designed functionality. The relationships I have between integrators and manufacturers were important. I was able to substitute demo components until my order was filled. In higher education, timelines are critical. Our classrooms are heavily used during fall and winter semesters, so we have a limited amount of time to complete projects. 

Designing an AV system that can provide equitable remote learning is a challenge in itself. Students connecting remotely need to see and hear what’s going on in the space; and we need to provide video and audio communication not only between faculty and students connecting remotely, but student to student as well. With two-way communication, active echo cancellation (AEC) is critical. Because the classrooms were piloting new technology, I wanted to design them to be easily scalable and maintainable. I therefore chose hardware that didn’t require advanced audio digital signal processor (DSP) programming. 

Additionally, the new furniture in the classroom is portable and can be configured and arranged for different teaching styles, so the technology had to be flexible as well. And so it’s important to have auto-tracking cameras as well as manual PTZ control, and an auto-switching microphone array. 

USER BENEFITS

I wanted the system to be as easy to use as possible and require minimal work from our faculty. There is little time at the beginning of class for faculty to prepare, and they should be focused on instruction and not technology. And so with our upgraded system, when a faculty member walks into the room, the microphone is already on and working, and the auto-tracking camera sets the shot without any user interaction; that includes removing unused playback and recording devices in Windows so the correct camera and microphone are selected automatically and require no additional Zoom or other unified communication platform setting changes. 

Each projector can be turned off and routed individually to meet the specific needs of each faculty member, and allows use of whiteboards behind projector screens. I utilized both display outputs from the PC so faculty can use an extended desktop to increase screen real estate, which is important when using Zoom and other software.

THE AV/IT TEAM

Audrey Reenders-Arens, electronic services engineer

COMPLETED: October 2021

TECH SNAPSHOT

• 1Beyond AutoTracker 3
• 1Beyond PTZ IP-20, document camera
• Epson PowerLite L400U
• Extron Matrix switcher/processor combination, 7-inch touch panel with BYOD connections
• Extron MediaPort USB bridge,
• Extron 8-inch 180W ceiling speakers
• Shure MXA910 microphone array
• Shure ANI22 Dante audio network interface

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Best in Class of 2022: Iowa State University

Best in Class of 2022: Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Heritage College

Best in Class of 2022: Pepperdine University

Best in Class of 2022: University of Guelph

Best in Class of 2022: University of Massachusetts Lowell

Best in Class of 2022: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Best in Class of 2022: University of North Carolina Wilmington

Best in Class of 2022: University of Southern California

GOALS

University of Massachusetts Lowell: Our goal was to create reliable TEAL (Technology Enhanced Active Learning) spaces on campus to promote collaboration between students in a dynamic classroom environment.

CHALLENGES

All the spaces were new building projects, which helped to create a unique room configuration layout and premise wiring. We wanted the classrooms to be software centric and to not have an abundance of hardware and wired infrastructure for switching and distribution. The biggest hurdle was identifying the correct solution—one that relied on wireless connectivity for students; was device agnostic; and provided on-screen, intuitive controls for the instructor. Two solutions were identified and implemented. In the Olsen Sciences building, Sony Vision Exchange was the selected solution, as it provided a better solution for whiteboard sharing and snapshots. 

     In Coburn Hall, primarily social sciences and education, the WolfVision vSolution platform was installed. This allowed for easier iPad and Chromebook integrations. In both spaces, students leverage the university’s wireless infrastructure to connect to the student “pods.” Each pod is connected to a large-format interactive-touch flatscreen. The student pods are clustered around the perimeter of the room and accommodate six students each. The Instructional Technology Services team worked closely with the IT Networking team to open the appropriate ports and configure firewalls for seamless connectivity. One hurdle was to overcome the multicast restrictions of the network. Both the Instructional Technology and Networking teams were able to get creative and provide a workable solution to get these classrooms configured. This turned out to be a very good example of cross collaboration within IT.

USER BENEFITS

These spaces are not your typical classrooms. We strongly suggested training and curriculum modifications for the faculty who teach in these rooms. We offered formal training to groups of folks who were interested in teaching in the spaces. During these training sessions, we not only covered technology features of the rooms, but what type of group learning activities are ideally suited for this type of technology. These rooms were already installed for about a year before the COVID-19 pandemic put a crimp on in-class course delivery. 

     Over the past semester, we have returned to a more normal environment, and activity in these spaces is now at pre-pandemic levels. Faculty need to request being scheduled in these spaces prior to the semester with the registrar’s office. We have streamlined this process with a web request form. Once faculty have used the room for a semester, they are eager to get scheduled in the spaces again. Demand is to a point where we are planning to double the number of TEAL spaces on campus in the next couple of years. The reliability of the equipment, dynamic course delivery options, and ease of use have made these spaces a huge success. Students have no problem connecting to the pods and sharing content because of the easy-to-use and intuitive connection process.

THE AV/IT TEAM

This integration was a true team effort, from installing technology, coordinating installation, engaging the Networking team, evaluating and testing platforms, and training end users—both students and faculty. The team included:
Robert Coppenrath, senior instructional technologist; David Corcoran, instructional technologist; Bill Suppa, manager, instructional technology services; Jon Kleiner, instructional technologist; David Hadley, senior classroom technician; Andy Alfano, principal classroom technician; Tom Robbins, classroom technician; Matt Gordon, senior instructional technologist; Michael Lucas, senior director of instructional technology

COMPLETED: January 2020

TECH SNAPSHOT

• Echo360 video platform
• Sony Vision Exchange
• Viewsonic multi-touch 65-inch and 85-inch interactive flatscreens
• WolfVision vSolution

MORE BEST IN CLASS OF 2022

Best in Class of 2022: University of Southern California

Discovery Education, the innovative edtech company that introduced the first digital service delivering educational content directly to classrooms twenty years ago, is opening a new chapter in its history by launching a cutting-edge iPad app that puts Augmented Reality (AR) at the fingertips of learners and educators worldwide.

AR technology has the potential to expand educators' ability to create immersive, interactive learning experiences that unlock students' natural curiosity. By superimposing virtual images and data on a user's view of the real world, AR supports visualization of complex topics, creates digital "hands-on" learning opportunities, and heightens student engagement with digital content, all while improving students' ability to retain knowledge longer by being a participant in the learning experience. To help educators leverage the power of AR wherever learning takes place, Discovery Education has made the Sandbox AR iPad app available now in the Apple App Store. 

[Moving to The Next Generation of Higher-Education Technology]

Discovery Education's Sandbox AR app empowers students and teachers to create, share, and even inhabit virtual environments. Within Sandbox AR, users can create virtual worlds and populate them with some of the hundreds of unique objects from history, the built world, science and nature, and more. Sandbox AR also gives students new ways to express themselves and demonstrate their learning through a feature that lets learners take photos or record a video walkthrough with their own voice over. Sandbox AR even offers a mode that allows users to scale up and inhabit their own life size virtual environments.

For those new to AR, Sandbox AR includes many pre-built sandboxes exploring diverse subjects such as ancient Egypt, space exploration, Mayan civilization, road construction, and more, with additional sandboxes coming soon. Discovery Education is also making available several free, pre-built lessons educators can use with the app to familiarize themselves with integrating AR into classroom instruction. Sandbox AR is available for download here.

Also New: DE Originals, A New Generation of Streaming Media

In addition to announcing the availability of the Sandbox AR app, Discovery Education is today introducing DE Originals. Produced by Discovery Education's expert curriculum team, DE Originals represent a new generation of streaming media and is exclusively available to subscribers of Discovery Education's K-12 learning platform.

The DE Originals content features many of the company's former educators presenting assorted topics to students in a fun and engaging fashion. Designed to ignite every student's spirit of inquiry, DE Originals spark a desire to solve real-world problems while offering all students a chance to be seen, heard, and valued by their peers.

The more than 100 new DE Originals now available to Discovery Education educators are headlined by the DEmystfied series. The first DE Originals series, DEmystfied, explains complex science concepts through fun, funny, short, digestible, and standards-aligned videos. Combining Discovery Education's signature storytelling style with creative graphics, DEmystfied helps students ask and answer questions about the world around them. Discovery Education users can access DEmystfied here.

As teachers around the U.S. confront classrooms where student absenteeism is at an all-time high due to COVID-19 exposure, the reality of another pandemic-induced year of disruption is sinking in with school and government authorities. To help schools alleviate widespread learning interruption across all grades and communities, Pathway Innovations, Inc., a technology leader in the education and enterprise markets and manufacturer of eGlass lightboards, Pilot digital podiums, and HoverCam document cameras, is reducing the price of eGlass, an illuminated glass writing board and communications tool featuring a built-in camera and adjustable LED lighting. The all-in-one device merges the presenter's face and writing, along with presentation media, into a single picture for in-person or remote collaboration.

The only hardware technology winner in all three categories of Tech & Learning's Awards of Excellence: Best of 2021 (Higher Education, Primary Education, and Secondary Education), eGlass was developed as a tool to eliminate the disengagement that occurs when students are learning at home or in a hybrid school setting. A transparent lightboard with a built-in camera, eGlass frames the teacher's face in the same picture as their glowing-ink writing, then flips the image so the writing appears correctly for students. Projected onto a screen in class or connected to the school's chosen videoconference platforms such as Zoom, eGlass allows teachers to face their students while they write, bolstering Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) by allowing students to see their teacher's facial expressions and nonverbal cues as they teach--a benefit often lost when teachers regularly turn their backs to write. eGlass also assists teachers in providing an equitable learning experience in hybrid teaching environments, simultaneously providing at-home students with the same engaging, one-to-one learning experience that in-class students receive.

Pathway has been working tirelessly to reduce costs since eGlass was launched at the end of last year. Thanks to a series of innovations and new production efficiencies, the company is passing those savings to schools. The company has reduced the price of eGlass by nearly 50 percent, enabling more rapid district-level purchase approvals in the face of the disruption. K-12 schools may now purchase the 35-inch eGlass for as low as $1,299 and the 50-inch eGlass for as low as $1,599 plus shipping through participating dealers.

[Pathway Unveils Transparent Lightboard with Built-in Camera]

Available in 35-inch and 50-inch models, eGlass is easy to set up and use by connecting to a PC, Mac or Chromebook with a single USB cable. It comes with intuitive software that allows almost any digital content to be imported seamlessly into the camera window, enabling the presenter to markup the content with glowing annotations after automatic background removal is applied. As presenters write on its glass, eGlass' integrated camera captures their faces, writing, drawings, and annotations, while displaying media from a computer in any format.

Seamless Integration with Classroom Interactive Displays

eGlass also integrates seamlessly with classroom interactive displays, allowing students and teachers to interact with content from the eGlass itself, or from the interactive display. It offers one-button image capture and video recording features and is compatible with Zoom, Teams and other virtual meeting platforms. LEDs embedded in the unit's frame intensify the physical pen ink with an eye-catching glow that is highly visible on-screen and in-person. With the ability to add meeting notes, training exercises, brainstorming ideas, or engineering diagrams, it is ideal for in-person, remote, or hybrid meetings of all types in both higher education and enterprise applications.

[HoverCam, Zoom Partner to Simplify Remote and Blended Learning]

In addition to lower pricing on eGlass, Pathway is offering an affordably priced bundle that combines eGlass with a 75-inch interactive touch panel for as little as $3,049 through participating resellers. And to provide access to high-quality document cameras, Pathway also announced a lower price point on its HoverCam Spark II USB document camera. Now, schools looking for a low-cost document camera option will be able to purchase Spark II for as low as $199 through participating dealers.

Horizon Hall is aptly named. George Mason University’s new academic building, which opened its doors on the Fairfax Campus in 2021, reminds the community to look forward to the exciting possibilities and innovations ahead.

Part of the Core Campus Project, Horizon Hall is a 218,000-square-foot, six-story structure that ranks as the largest learning-space hub at GMU. The new building houses state-of-the-art active learning classrooms with modular furniture, high-tech conference rooms, multimedia rooms, and the interdisciplinary Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX).

GMU’s stunning Horizon Hall offers much more than the wow factor. It underscores the institution’s mission to keep faculty on the leading edge of innovation and deliver transformative learning experiences that are hands-on, multimodal, and technology rich. To that end, Horizon Hall was carefully constructed to showcase advanced audiovisual (AV) and wireless systems designed to facilitate ideation, collaboration, and student-driven learning.

As a global steward and catalyst for entrepreneurship, GMU also outfitted Horizon Hall with a makerspace, 3D printers, and suite of experiential augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) tools.

Committed to Active Learning

As part of George Mason University’s strategic plan, staff and faculty are committed to designing and utilizing learning spaces that support active learning. GMU locates “active learning” at the intersection of instructional creativity and student engagement: “Active learning strategies increase student learning and develop instructor flexibility with diverse learning environments. Active learning includes any activity or approach that makes students engage the material through meaningful activities that require that they think about what they are doing and why (Bonwell and Eisen, 1991). There are certain active learning strategies, such as collaborative assignments and undergraduate research, that are also high-impact practices because they have been shown to increase rates of retention and student engagement (Kuh).” (Source: George Mason University)

Challenge

With the active learning mandate in sharp focus, Horizon Hall’s spaces were designed to nurture real-time collaboration, enabled by robust yet agile software and hardware “built right to the learning spaces,” explained Crystal Clemons, M.Ed, Director, Classroom & Lab Technologies at George Mason University. “The learning spaces need to intuitively support multiple professors and multiple pedagogies.” 

“We needed all our new technology to accommodate GMU’s mission for active learning,” said Clemons.

The AV design process was led by Convergent Technologies Design Group (CTDG), while Corbett Technology Solutions (CTSI) was the system integrator for the Horizon Hall project. To avoid static systems and keep the focus on active learning, the AV specialists leveraged the advantages of Mersive Solstice technology to enable wireless collaboration in the new building.

By deploying collaboration solutions like Mersive Solstice, GMU is preparing students for rapidly evolving digital and hybrid workplaces, while adopting active-learning pedagogies that foreground teamwork. Integrated within rigorous course designs, the Solstice systems help students hone their metacognitive and creative problem-solving skills as they give individuals and small groups agentive control over their learning processes.

Design Process

From the initial vision programming meetings to Horizon Hall’s ribbon cutting, Convergent Technologies Design Group (CTDG) worked in concert with key stakeholders: the project architect, Perkins&Will; CTSI; and GMU’s AV and IT Leads, including Crystal Clemons. The planning guaranteed that the project had sufficient infrastructure, conduits, back boxes, and pathways for high-impact AV.

As Bill Holaday, Principal of CTDG, recalled, “We first met with GMU more than five years ago to kick off this project on the design side.”

“One of the great things our firm brought to the project was our dynamic working relationship with the Perkins&Will design team over the past two decades on programmatically similar project types,” said Paul Corraine, Founding Principal at CTDG.

Solution

In the active collaboration/active learning classrooms, an adaptable setup was crucial, said Holaday. “The flexibility is there to arrange rooms in different ways to enable more collaboration between students,” he said.

The AV team centered mobile devices in all aspects of the project, “Designing systems that could fully support BYOD (bring your own device),” stated CTDG’s Ajinkya Patil, CTS-I, CTS-D. “That is why the wireless infrastructure needs to be there; the AV devices need to be compatible with this BYOD logic.”

“That’s where Mersive is a great product to use in Horizon Hall’s 28 active learning classrooms, 15 collaboration spaces, 9 conference rooms, and 8 huddle spaces,” Patil said. “Now, almost all of those spaces are wireless-presentation capable.”

Results

In total, 165 Mersive Solstice Pods (SP-8100-E5 Wireless Collaboration Gateway, Enterprise Edition) were specified in Horizon Hall. Connected to displays, Solstice collaboration software integrated on a dedicated hardware platform, ensures seamless collaboration, group work, and active learning, all with secure BYOD access. In addition to the wireless engagement it offers, Solstice builds in native integrations, such as video conferencing, digital signage playback, and centralized monitoring and management.

Due to its many benefits for instructors and students—with a measurable ability to meet course learning objectives—GMU decided to “standardize on Mersive,” Clemons said. She has observed the “great results” since Horizon Hall opened, including the ability to bring remote students into active learning course designs.

Benefits for the Tech Team

Mersive’s Solstice lets multiple students and faculty use their smartphones, tablets, or laptops to connect and share content in real time, via a display over Horizon Hall’s IP network. “The technology's there to accommodate any type of collaboration,” Clemons stated. “And if they need to bring in a professor from another institution, or connect to other students remotely, they have the instant ability to do that.”

Since students can share content wirelessly, AV/IT staff don’t have to worry about whether rooms are stocked with enough dongles, adaptors, or connectors.

“Really Engaging”

The forward-thinking culture of GMU demands learning spaces that are as innovative as they are inclusive. “We wanted the ability to maximize the flexibility and affordances of the technology in Horizon Hall to provide immersive, wireless solutions for group collaboration,” Clemons noted. “In Horizon Hall, we also have peripherals tied right into the spaces: multiple displays, cameras, great audio (in both directions). The students can see, hear, and interact with the highest quality. It’s been really engaging.”

Active Learning: What Does the Data Reveal? 

“Widespread implementation of high-quality active learning can help reduce or eliminate achievement gaps in STEM courses and promote equity in higher education.”

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 2020

“Professors’ use of active learning methods mitigated some of this negative effect [of pandemic-related learning loss].”

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, October 2020

IP Ready

“In Horizon Hall,” Holaday said, “there are no AV rooms or AV racks [in the learning spaces]. All the AV and the IT telecom rooms are centralized. The audio/video distribution is over the network, and that needed next-level coordination.”

The design and solid infrastructure pathways are key to keeping Horizon Hall relevant and scalable for years to come.

“Knowing that technology will change in the next five to ten years,” Holaday explained, “we plan the riser, the backbones, the conduit pathways, the fiber connectivity. We do this because when things do change, it won’t be a big deal. Good infrastructure planning keeps in mind that you might not need this on day one, but we're going to put a conduit there because, in the future, you might just use it. That’s one of the ways we plan ahead.”

Looking to the Horizon

Clemons, who is also pursuing a PhD in Education, specializing in learning technologies design and research, remarked that she “sees future opportunities” for the Solstice system to accommodate blended asynchronous and synchronous modalities. She believes in the value of “combining active learning design and remote instruction within a responsive HyFlex (hybrid-flexible) framework.” HyFlex is a trend that has rapidly accelerated since the pandemic.

Bill Holaday praised Crystal Clemons and the George Mason University team for “pushing the boundaries—they want to do the next right thing, as far as what it takes to plan exceptional learning spaces.”

Mersive prides itself on its ability to deliver effective collaboration solutions today that will also stay relevant long into the future. The company’s deep heritage in education informs its flexible, future-proof sensibility. During his time as a professor, Christopher Jaynes, PhD, Mersive CTO and Founder, discovered that accessibility and usability were essential for the deployment of classroom technologies. That’s why Mersive designed Solstice to work with virtually any device and engage the broadest continuum of user familiarity, from the most tech savvy to tech skeptical contingents.

“It’s well known that active learning is fantastic teaching and learning model for both students and faculty – it increases engagement, achieves measurable success, and can even create communities of learners that go beyond the classroom.” said Jaynes, “Our goal at Mersive has been to facilitate that process with intuitive technology that enhances this collaboration and engagement. Mersive was founded out of the academic community – so we’re passionate about removing the traditional barriers to engaged learning. Cost, complexity, and poor user experience has limited this type of learning to elite rooms. I’m excited to see that we’re able to unlock collaborative and active learning for a larger number of learning spaces.”

Active Learning Scholarship

Kuh, George. “High-Impact Educational Practices: A Brief Overview,” Association of American Colleges & Universities

Bonwell, Charles C. and James A. Eison, Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom, ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1. The George Washington University: Washington, D.C., 1991.

Freeman, Scott et al. “Active Learning Increase Student Performance in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics.” PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol 111, no. 23 (2014): 8410-8415.

MORE INFO

• CORBETT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS (CTSI)
• CONVERGENT TECHNOLOGIES DESIGN GROUP
• GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
• INTEGRAL GROUP
• MERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES
• PERKINS&WILL

Today’s classrooms have numerous AV aids, but still require teachers and students to share the same physical space (with the exception of distance learning) at the same time. Will this be true in the future? Or will the integration of IT-enabled AV into education allow professors to record their lectures once and then deliver them repeatedly using holograms—with students attending from anywhere using virtual reality (VR) avatars?

The Classroom is Not Doomed, But it Will Change

First things first: None of the three AV experts interviewed for this piece expects classrooms and lecture halls to vanish in the future. “Even in today’s technological world, students want face-to-face contact with their instructors,” said Rob Lipps, EVP of Sonic Foundry. “So the notion of the facility-less campus, with all students logging in remotely for lectures, is not going to happen. After all, 15 years ago people predicted that videoconferencing would be the death of in-person meetings and business travel, but it wasn’t. The same is true for advanced AV technology in the future; including AR (augmented reality) and VR.”

Still, everyone we spoke to expects tomorrow’s classrooms to be quite different from today’s—and the change is being spurred on partly by the realities of the world. “We’re seeing a real push from businesses for more collaborative spaces that support teamwork and active learning,” said William O’Donnell, AV network design engineer at William Paterson University. “Employers want students to learn how to work together and to show initiative, with instructors acting as interactive guides rather than talking heads.

“This doesn’t mean that lecture halls will vanish. They’ll still be needed for large enrollment courses like Poli Sci 101. But we will see more emphasis on collaborative spaces—and the AV technology we use will have to support that.”

Where AV Will Fit In

With schools moving their content into the cloud, and students toting more devices, educational AV is poised to be more important than ever before.

“We are going to see ever-more wireless connections and gateways on campus, as students use their own devices to connect directly to their school’s content and resources,” said Michael Lucas, senior director of instructional technology services at University of Massachusetts Lowell. “This means that the network, its access points and scalability, and its security will be more important than ever before.”

As the personal devices used by students become more affordable and capable—be they smartphones, tablets, laptops, or a mix of all three—tomorrow’s schools will have to support their growing access and charging demands. In the same vein, educational institutions will have to ensure that their cloud-based content can be easily accessed on these devices, and that their campuses’ AV equipment and networks can carry this load.

“It’s not just classrooms: I foresee study rooms and other informal spaces being equipped with wireless nodes and 50-inch monitors, where students can throw up their work and look at it on the big screen,” said O’Donnell. “Students will expect to be able to access and use the same level of AV equipment currently reserved today for their teachers.”

The Role of AR and VR

Cutting-edge AV technologies such as AR and VR are already expanding throughout all areas of education. At University of Massachusetts Lowell, “we’re seeing wearable VR suits being used both to teach modelling in art, and to explain concepts in health,” said Lucas. At William Paterson University, “art students are creating 3D sculptures using VR, which are then brought into reality using 3D printers,” said O’Donnell.

Looking ahead, AR and VR offer educators countless opportunities to provide their students with new and engaging learning experiences. But as with today’s educational AV technology, how AR and VR are actually employed will depend on what instructors choose to do with them. “It all pivots on whether teachers are willing to make the effort to move into AR, VR, and other advanced AV technologies to make their courses more compelling,” Lipps said.

Distance Learning in the Future

One area where AR and VR could have a real impact is distance learning—providing remote students with far more immersive and inclusive learning experiences. But again, this will depend on how much educators commit to making this happen; both in terms of their course content and the technology available to distance learners.

“Having a Ferrari-quality distance learning origination site doesn’t matter if the students on the other end are huddled around a 19-inch Dell monitor,” O’Donnell said. “AV-enabled content delivery is only as good as the weakest link in the chain.”

Rob Lipps would like all forms of connected learning to be of consistent end-to-end quality, so that the notion of “distance” becomes irrelevant. “When you think of someone as a ‘distance learning student,’ what you’re really saying is that they are separate from a more local group of students, and that may imply the quality of their educational experience is different. Using IT-enabled AV technology, the classroom of tomorrow could eliminate this distinction entirely, ensuring that everyone receives the same quality of learning, no matter where they are located.”

Technologies on the Chopping Block

Is the computer lab of today doomed? It’s a good question. With students bringing their own devices to campus, it is hard to see how computer labs will remain relevant in the years to come.

“About 75 percent of our students have their own devices, which is why we’ve become so BYOD-focussed at University of Massachusetts Lowell,” Lucas said. “With Chromebooks being so inexpensive, and the space and technology required by computer labs costing so much, it might make sense to offer students access to carts of Chromebooks while closing the labs down!”

Maybe so, but William Paterson’s O’Donnell isn’t ready to make this leap yet. “Colleges such as ours serve students with lower incomes, who rely on access to the technology provided by computer labs,” he said. “This spares them from having to buy laptops and tablets, which may be money they don’t have.”

This said, “I am still surprised to come across VHS/DVD decks in some of our classrooms: Does anyone still use physical media anymore?” he quipped. “In the future, such devices will be gone from classrooms. So will standalone document cameras, because the USB-connected models are so much cheaper, smaller, and useful.”

The Bottom Line

The classroom of the future will be more connected and more IT-enabled/AV-enriched, with innovative technologies such as AR and VR making learning more interesting and fun than ever before.

Yet, there will still be a demand for face-to-face interactions between teachers and students. Savvy AV manufacturers and vendors will shape their offerings to satisfy this need while delivering the “wow” factor that AV excels at.

Future Classroom Trends

• Classrooms will focus more on collaborative active learning rather than talking heads lecturing passive students.
• AV technology will enable emphasis on active learning through multimedia demonstration/learning devices, AR, and VR.
• AR and VR will spread across all areas of education, and make distance learning more engaging and inclusive.
• Students will increasingly use their own devices to connect directly to the school’s cloud-based resources.
• Once a staple of educational institutions, the computer lab will have its core value diminished by this trend and will need other reasons to justify its continued existence.

Nureva will bring its active learning solutions to EDUCAUSE 2018, which will be held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver from October 30 to November 2, 2018. Visitors to Nureva’s booth 165 can experience how Nureva products combine to create an active learning environment that empowers students to work together more effectively and creatively. Nureva will demonstrate the Nureva Wall WM408i system, Span Workspace, and the HDL300 audio conferencing system.

EDUCAUSE is an annual conference that brings together the best thinking in higher education IT from around the world. This year’s conference is expected to attract more than 8,000 higher education IT professionals to share ideas, examine the latest trends, and explore new topics in higher education. Nureva’s products are well suited for higher education institutions that need to redesign or configure classrooms and labs to keep pace with the rise of dynamic, collaborative learning spaces that help prepare students for the workplace. Visitors to Nureva’s booth can directly experience how Nureva’s full solution can support active learning approaches such as project-based learning, agile and design thinking, while easily extending the classroom to remote students.

“Our rapidly growing base of higher education customers have shown great enthusiasm for the transformative potential of our solutions in their active learning spaces,” said Nancy Knowlton, Nureva’s CEO. “We’re excited to showcase our solutions at this year’s EDUCAUSE and further deepen our understanding of how we can help higher education IT professionals accomplish their goals.”

In higher education environments, where the lecture format dominates most classrooms, active learning can be a fun and effective way to deliver information to students who can sometimes have a hard time focusing. When students are engaged in active learning activities like peer teaching, problem solving, and collaborative learning, they are less likely to be focused on their phone. Of course, the feasibility of integrating active learning techniques in higher education depends on factors like class size, classroom technology, instructor bandwidth, and more.

Integrating the right, professional-grade audiovisual tools for your classrooms, meeting spaces, and public areas can have a huge influence on quality of learning, student retention, and graduation outcomes.

The Challenge

Just like any university in a hyper-competitive higher education landscape, attracting and retaining students is a top priority for Loyola Marymount University. Staying at the cutting edge of audiovisual technology in classrooms and common areas in order to foster an environment of active learning is one way LMU is facing the challenge. Spinitar has helped LMU to meet its student attraction and retention goals with ongoing audiovisual projects, technology refreshes, and now, a ground-up AV design-build for its new Playa Vista Campus.

In classrooms, training rooms, and common areas throughout LMU’s three campuses, the challenge was to implement a new style of teaching and learning to supplement the traditional lecture format with more opportunities for active engagement.

LMU did away with outdated equipment and failing components by providing their students, faculty, and staff with an AV system and technology they can rely on five days a week.

The Solution

Since becoming a partner of LMU in 2015, Spinitar has been able to implement the latest AV and IT solutions with full digital capability. It has provided them with long term warranties for support, service, and reliable technology, allowing LMU to keep up with the classroom technology standards that they continue to implement on the campus.

Student Active Learning Classroom

Active learning and technology-based classrooms allow students the opportunity to break in to groups and easily collaborate with their fellow student body. Teachers in these rooms have the ability to showcase the work of their students with the entire classroom and even record lectures and group activities for later playback. In today’s fast-paced learning environment, active learning classrooms are designed to help students engage with one another while sharing and receiving information.

IT Department Staff Training Room

Through active learning training and technology, IT faculty and staff have the ability to break in to group sessions with their fellow colleagues in person and via video and audio conferencing. With a simple press of a button, the trainers are able to showcase group work with LMU’s entire IT department on campus and also in remote locations. With the use of video and audio recording conferencing, educators and staff have the ability to reference past lectures and collaboration efforts for later viewing.

The Results

Spinitar has now done a total of 34 projects with LMU, including classroom refreshes, staff training rooms, and our first ground-up project for the brand new Playa Vista Campus, opening in the Fall of 2018. According to Spinitar account manager, Rob Ogulnick, the consistency that the Spinitar team brings and the efficiency of not having to relearn lessons is a good asset for Matt Frank and the team at LMU. With such a longstanding relationship, Spinitar is able to propose specific projects and approaches based on existing classroom standards, making the whole relationship run much more smoothly.

The What: Spectrum Industries has introduced its newest active learning solution, the TechCenter—a technology driven product that can come in either a single (27.75-inch wide) or double (51-inch wide) unit.

The What Else: There are a number of different display options available for the TechCenter including optional dry erase boards and the ability to hold up to two 70-inch monitors. This new product features a removable rear locking panel that provides full access to an optional 12 RU rack cube that can hold all AV or IT equipment.

The TechCenter provides an optional power module featuring two power outlets and two USB ports to integrate power. Electrical options include the Power Switch, eLogix Timer, or the PowerProdigy to charge multiple devices. The TechCenter is ETL listed to the UL60950-1 standard.

The Bottom Line: With optional casters, the TechCenter can help reconfigure classrooms due to its easy mobility and can stand the test of time due to its powder-coated, heavy-gauge steel frame, according to the company. From the recent expansion of Spectrum’s Expressions Line, new vibrant colors are available for the TechCenter providing thousands of laminate, edgeband, and metal combinations that can fit into any education, corporate, government or medical setting.

Sony is the name that everyone knows, but this company keeps surprising the industry with creative solutions that push the envelope. Mark Bonifacio, Senior Marketing Manager, explains how Sony's diverse portfolio of new technologies is united by one theme: "Creating Solutions Together.” From Sony’s interactive collaboration and active learning solution Vision Exchange to Sound VR technology called Sonic Surf VR, learn how Sony is delivering the next-level of immersive experiences.

The What: The latest version 1.1 of Sony’s flagship interactive collaboration and active learning solution “Vision Exchange” will be showcased for the first time and demonstrated at InfoComm 2018 Booth C2363.

The What Else: The upgrade allows for improved communication through the integration of Skype for Business, which enables distance learning, as well as Personal Note Taker, for smarter note-taking.

Version 1.1 is applicable with the main units PEQ-C100, PEQ-C130 and the Pod PC Software PES-C10. It is planned to be released in June 2018. Customers who previously purchased V1.0 can upgrade to V1.1 at no additional cost during the first year of purchase.

The Bottom Line: Sony’s Software Upgrade Program (SUP) will provide users with an annual subscription to ensure their version always remains up to date with the latest functionality.

In our series of #InfoCommInspo blogs, we're talking with exhibitors about the hottest technologies and trends they're looking to see at InfoComm 2018.

Q&A with Mark Bonifacio, Head of Education Segment, Sony Professional Solutions Americas.

Q: Why InfoComm?

Mark Bonifacio: InfoComm is something we look forward to each year, not only to showcase our newest products and solutions, but to connect with our valued customers and industry leaders and for the opportunity to meet new prospective clients who can benefit from our latest technology. Meeting with people who use our products daily is a good reminder of the affinity and loyalty associated with our brand, as well as the tangible advantages our solutions offer. It also affords us the opportunity to solicit feedback on ways we can continue to improve.

Q: What is the most exciting trend you expect to see at the show?

MB: Collaboration and active learning are trending topics being embraced by Sony and the industry at large. Through solutions like our Vision Exchange, higher ed institutions and corporations are connecting in new ways to foster interactivity, communication and engagement through immersive learning environments and collaborative tools. Another trending topic in the technology community is VR, and we’re showcasing an audio based VR experience called Sonic Surf VR, a spatial audio technology, which creates and delivers immersive experiences and enhances VR scenarios.

Q: How Will your solutions inspire integrators?

MB: Our solutions inspire integrators because Sony is in a unique position, being able to offer products and solutions to outfit a project end-to-end and offer a complete solution. In addition, our staff likes working hand-in-hand with our partners to build custom solutions to their specific projects, addressing pain points and incorporating the feedback and concerns that we receive from our customers.

Q: How will your solutions inspire tech managers?

MB: Tech managers appreciate the expertise Sony brings to the table to create a fully formed solution which addresses the concerns each institution or facility has. Our cutting-edge technology brings the latest trends to market at an affordable price and demonstrates our understanding of the demands of our core customers. Sony has the right solution to meet any application, requirement and budget in the professional display and presentation market.

To learn more, check out Sony Electronics in Booth #C2363 at InfoComm 2018.

There are a lot of different solutions on the market today for enterprise collaboration, active learning, and custom interactive video walls….but there’s only one company with a platform that does them all.

That company is T1V, and at an event on April 26 hosted by HB Communications at Leyard and Planar’s New York City showroom, the firm gave local integrators and end users the opportunity to see firsthand how its ThinkHub suite of software solutions can transform the way institutions work and teach.

Essentially, the company specializes in multi-touch, interactive, BYOD-friendly software that runs from Macintosh hardware and transforms just about any touch-capable display into a collaboration ecosystem. It comes in multiple iterations tailored for its core use cases. These include ThinkHub for BYOD collaboration and videoconferencing in enterprises; ViewHub for presentation; and ThinkHub Connect, a hybrid solution aimed specifically at active learning classrooms—a burgeoning market upon which the company is placing increased emphasis.

“This is software based; that’s really what sets us apart,” said Karen George LeClair, T1V’s business development manager, higher education. “There’s less hardware, fewer points of failure, you’re continuously getting updates and upgrades. So what you purchase today is going to be a better product two years from now, three years from now. There’s a singular user experience across all projects, so it’s an intuitive user experience.”

Complementing ThinkHub and ViewHub is the company’s device-agnostic BYOD application, AirConnect, which is free and can be downloaded and operated by an unlimited number of users. “This is the piece that we feel is different from what anyone else has out there,” LeClair said. “Because through that, you can view the canvas, you can interact with the canvas, send things to the canvas—files, notes, things of that nature.”

According to LeClair, the education-focused ThinkHub Connect has been adopted by several prominent universities—including Texas A&M, Quinnipiac, and the University of Wisconsin—and is favored because of its intuitiveness, scalability, and effectiveness at facilitating group-based learning. “The instructor can walk in, wirelessly connect to the display, and have his or her content up there and be able to present through annotations,” she said. “They can provide feedback through the tablet; they can be walking around the classroom activating group discussion while giving feedback at the same time.”

Another differentiator for the company, LeClair pointed out, is in what it can provide for multiuse spaces in corporations and educational institutions. T1V has long specialized in software for larger-format, “wow-factor” video walls—think touch-interactive timeline walls that display a company or university’s history along with photos and videos. With the company’s software, these walls can double as ThinkHub canvases, allowing for far greater utilization.

Following LeClair’s presentation, attendees were able to try out the T1V software on several different Planar displays throughout the showroom. During this time, Paul Patrick, the company’s vice president of business development, led demonstrations and fielded questions from a group of higher education technology managers.

For those interested in trying the platform, T1V has demo equipment that it can bring onsite, as well as a ThinkHub Connect mobile demo unit that it brings to campuses and corporate facilities.

While doing research and collecting data to develop a collaboration product, the Sony team traveled to more than a dozen universities and corporate clients around the globe, some commons themes emerged. First and foremost, the product needed to have an easy-to-use UX, and it needed to be flexible and scalable.

“I went back to Japan and told everybody that there is a demand out there, and that we think this is going to be a very good solution for three use cases—interactive lecture, active learning, and conferencing,” says Mike Tada, Education Segment, Sony Professional Solutions Americas. “So that’s how we came up with Vision Exchange today.”

Rather than a hardwired video network and multiple AV devices, Sony Vision Exchange facilitates collaboration through one box over an IP network. The way the Vision Exchange works, says Tada, “is we have the main Vision Exchange unit, which is the hub of the whole system. It can be used as a stand-alone small switcher so that you can have various types of sources such as a document camera, laptop, or Blu-ray player coming in—hardwired sources plus wireless sources—and you have a very easy to use on-screen graphical user interface to switch it.”

• This approach was a perfect fit for the University of Manitoba, and the University of Saskatchewan (U of S), clients of Calgary-based integration firm, Matrix Video Communications. “Sony Vision Exchange can expand and mold to however you see fit,” says Kyle Berezowski, CTS, consultant, Equipment Services, ICT Client Services at U of S.

“We looked into Vision Exchange as well as a few other manufacturers that were claiming that they had active learning solutions.” Vision Exchange met U of S client needs and the criteria of the team. “The Sony solution is just very intuitive, very simple and straightforward.” The user interface was a key differentiator that sealed the deal in choosing Sony Vision Exchange, Berezowski says. “You get out there and start swiping, and very quickly a user of any skill level can get out there and start teaching in an active manner.”

Pure Engineering
“What I like about this story is that it’s not the product planner or the managers that brought in some product,” says Tada. “It was pure engineering doing development and figuring out how we can use a really big canvas and create a very simple user interface.” Whether the solution is used for interactive lecture, active learning, a conference room, or a huddle space, “we have one simple user interface that people can easily use,” says Tada.

The simplicity of the Vision Exchange product and execution helped solidify the active learning concept. “Learning the system was very simple, given that there’s one box, and it has the ability to move images from one display to another,” says Jerry Allaire, account manager at Matrix Video Communications’ Winnipeg branch. “The main feature is to be able to bring an image from any of the pods—any of the small working groups—up to the main screen so that the whole class can see it and discuss it.”

Through two case studies, learn more about how Matrix Video Communications’ two university clients chose and implemented Sony’s Vision Exchange.

This is the sixth in a six-part blog series in which I will focus in on the bleeding edge of active learning in higher ed today. Read my first post here: Just Make it Easy to Use!

• “Edwards 45 and 46 have a full slate of classes,” says Melissa Hildebrandt, PMP, project manager, Enterprise Project Management Office, Strategic Program Office of the University of Saskatchewan (U of S). “They are full, from 8:30 in the morning to 10 at night.”
• Hildebrandt and Kyle Berezowski, CTS, consultant, Equipment Services, ICT Client Services of U of S were approached by the Edwards School of Business to revamp Edwards 45 and 46 and replace the two-year-old active learning technology system which comprised several components.
• Although the AV team at U of S had a strong relationship with Sony and several products already installed, that wasn’t enough to take a leap of faith, so they set out to do research. “You’ve got to keep an open mind and see what else may be out there,” so Berezowski and another team member looked at solutions being shown at InfoComm 2017. “We looked into Sony Vision Exchange as well as a few other manufacturers with active learning solutions.” Vision Exchange met U of S client needs and the team’s criteria. “The Sony solution is very intuitive, very simple and straightforward.”

Room 45 has a Sony Vision Exchange connected via IP—over the network. “It was nice and easy to plan for,” says Berezowski. “We just had to make sure that we had adequate power and data at each of the monitor locations.” Two 80-inch interactive monitors are located at the front of the room. One is used as the master station and where the main Vision Exchange appliance is installed. It has four HDMI inputs. Seven 60-inch interactive monitors line the perimeter of the room, each as a student pod. In addition, two Sony IP cameras with USB connectivity connect to a dedicated PC at the master monitor for Web conferencing or lecture capture.

Using the Vision Exchange app, the instructor and students connect using various types of BYODs via Wi-Fi to mirror content to the monitors, annotate, download, and collaborate. The main unit and each pod are able to mirror up to six BYODs. A classroom can have up to 10 pods.

The Hub
“Sony’s Vision Exchange is the hub—it is the key component in the classroom,” says Andrew Buttress, Product Manager at Sony. “Then you integrate the rest of the classroom with projectors, flat-panels and other equipment such as cameras, DVD players and document cameras.”

Vision Exchange is compatible with any manufacturer displays, cameras, or other connected devices. But naturally Sony’s products are an easy match. An IR Touch overlay turns Sony Pro BRAVIA into an interactive multi-touch display. “They work well with many input devices such as finger/stylus and support up to 10 points of contact,” says Buttress. With plug and play simplicity with superb image quality Sony's 3LCD laser light source projectors incorporate a true laser light engine and achieve up to 7,000 lumens of color light output. The recently announced USB 3.0 UVC video compatible PTZ camera joins Sony's SRG PTZ high-definition remotely operated camera line-up. The full HD camera is designed to interface easily with a dedicated computer system using the same USB technology found on most computers.

Through two case studies, learn how the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Manitoba implemented active learning classroom technology solutions.

Just Make it Easy to Use

This is the fifth in a six-part blog series in which I will focus in on the bleeding edge of active learning in higher ed today. Read my first post here: Just Make it Easy to Use!

That’s a simple enough request, right?

• We’ve all heard stories or experienced the reality of an installed technology not being used because it required one click too many, and simply wasn’t intuitive. Expensive equipment goes to waste, AV and IT departments are blamed for “broken” systems, and future AV/IT budget requests are challenged.

Before arriving at their current solution, the staff responsible for installing and integrating active learning classroom (ALC) technologies at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) experienced a steep learning curve. Two years ago, an ALC technology solution was installed on campus. “We built it out of discrete components,” says Melissa Hildebrandt, PMP, project manager, Enterprise Project Management Office, Strategic Program Office of the U of S. “There was nothing wrong with the way that it was put together—it’s just that instructors had a hard time understanding how to use it.” As a result, the team was not certain the system was being used to its full capabilities. “We had BYOD wireless connectivity boxes behind monitors around the perimeter of the room, but these all tied into a central video switcher and the controls are a bit cumbersome for an average user,” she says.

In 2016, Hildebrandt and Kyle Berezowski, CTS, consultant, Equipment Services, ICT Client Services of the U of S began the search for a new ALC technology solution. “The user interface was a critical component,” Hildebrandt says. “The others didn’t have an easy way to run the system.”

Engineers and project managers from Sony Professional Solutions of America and teams from Japan spent more than two years traveling the world, listening to AV and IT departments and educators so they could understand exactly what they needed in active learning classroom and meeting room collaboration systems. They visited five different universities in the United States, as well as others in Europe, China, and Japan. “The number-one request from all of the people we met—whether it was the integrator, the AV manager, or faculty—was that ‘it has to be really easy to use,’” says Mike Tada, Education Marketing Manager, Sony Professional Solutions of America. “No one wants to use an intimidating, overwhelming user interface.”

Learn more from Hildebrandt and Berezowski about their mission to integrate an intuitive, easy-to-use active learning classroom technology solution at the U of S, how they trained staff, and see photos. Plus, hear first-hand accounts about the solution the University of Manitoba installed, and how it’s using its new ALC technology solutions, here.