Page 27 - College Planning & Management, June 2019

Providing Complete Control of Interactive Classrooms
At Utah’s Salt Lake Community College (SLCC), several new
Flex classrooms show how smaller colleges can develop innovative learning environments. Each Flex classroom includes multiple high- definition video projectors that work with special wireless annotation pens to enable digital manipulation and interaction with projected materials. Students and faculty can take notes directly on the pro- jected content, then save the results as new files to take with them.
The school set a policy of only purchasing projectors with bright- ness of 6,500 lumens and higher, citing the need for clear, extra-large images in any lighting environment. Its choice to invest in more expensive laser-based models eliminates the need for bulb replace- ments, and thereby reduces maintenance costs and ensures every projector is ready for every class. The projectors also feature wireless technology that enables faculty and students to stream content from their mobile devices or laptops.
Reaching 1,000 Remote Students at Once
Harvard Business School in Boston is raising the stakes on virtual interactive learning with its transformative HBX Live program. HBX Live adopted leading practices from the media production industry to reach every corner of the globe in real time and deliver a unique education experience that puts each learner at the center of the class.
HBX Live broadcast studio uses a 4.5-meter-by-8.2-meter curved video wall to display the webcam feeds of up to 60 learners, simulat- ing a true classroom-like layout in front of the professor. The studio classroom, leased from local station WGBH, involves four produc- tion staffers to manage videography from six in-studio cameras as well as incoming audio and video from 60 remote laptops.
To further simulate real-time classroom interaction, loud- speakers are concealed within the video wall. If the professor is engaged in conversation with a learner on one end of the video wall, but a learner on the opposite end interjects, there’s a spatial audio cue that signals the interjection—just as if in a classroom.
HBX Live can actually host up to 1,000 viewers with just a 15-second delay. Although many vendors told Harvard Business School that exist- ing technologies couldn’t satisfy their expectations, a New Jersey-based integrator, McCann Systems, was able to use new technologies to create the final custom platform that has been wowing students and faculty alike for the past three years. This proves that with the right technology partners, even the seemingly impossible is possible.
There’s no one-size-fits-all technology system that is ideal for every school, situation, or curriculum, but the variety of inventive products and solution providers, combined with schools’ desire
to create new learning environments, bodes well for the future of higher education. Through audiovisual integration, colleges and universities can increase flexibility for students, faculty, and campus infrastructure usage while improving classroom engagement with interactive lessons and lectures. The only question now is which school will usher in the next great innovation in education. CPM
Brad Grimes is senior director of Communications for AVIXA, the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association. AVIXA repre- sents the $186 billion global commercial AV industry and produces InfoComm trade shows around the world. For more information, visit www.avixa.org/higheredAV.
It’s a technological feat to reach 60 live students simultaneously, but
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