Carleton’s classrooms are looking a little differently right now — many of them are not in use at all because their size, perfect for the average class size of 15-20 students, is just not large enough when we have to be at a 6-foot distance. If you have not been on campus, teaching one of the 60% of classes that are taught remotely, you may be surprised finding this new equipment in many of our classrooms.
Most of the instruction that happens face to face has the need for specialized equipment: Music instruction of a particular instrument, Art instruction using particular equipment, and Chemistry labs were some of the classes taught in a physical space on campus. Nevertheless, we have a number of other classes that took advantage of the redone classroom spaces to help create community for the students who are on campus.
30 classrooms, all the larger ones, now have changed furniture, numbers on the floor or seats to make contact tracing easier and increased technology to allow students in quarantine to join class. When it comes to technology, we had to make some tough choices during the summer of 2020. What kinds of technology make sense, are easy to use, and give faculty and students the needed level of confidence and safety to be together in a space?
After careful research, hampered by few options on the market, ITS decided to go with the Logitech Meetup and also (back)ordered five Vaddio camera/mic kits.
The Logitech cameras, reminiscent of WALL-E, are designed for conference rooms, so adding them to classroom spaces, especially lecture halls, created challenges in use.
The cameras were connected to the local classroom computers to ensure minimum disruption of switching out equipment (faculty were asked not to bring their laptops to these spaces). The cameras came to life when Zoom was started and captured video and sound around the instructor station. The primary purpose of this camera solution was to capture video and audio of the instructor at the front; while the cameras could be turned to focus on the students, this was not an ideal solution to connect students in class with remote students.
In addition, for the larger spaces, microphone bars were installed at the podium and carefully calibrated, so that students in the space had an easier time hearing the instructor while remote students did not have to suffer through feedback.
When the Vaddio kits finally arrived, they were installed in some of the smaller rooms with lower ceilings so that the additional microphones and cameras could pick up students in the room well. The kits contain 2 cameras – one installed at the back of the room and trimmed on the instructor, the other installed at the front of the room and focused on the students in the room. Both cameras, through a touch panel, are easily adjusted. The 4 microphones make it easier for faculty to move (carefully) through the space while also allowing student voices to be picked up.
The question for the future is, how will this kind of technology stay relevant past the pandemic? One relatively easy use is the opportunity for guest speakers to join the class via Zoom. Some students mentioned that they have found it easier to participate in Carleton’s tradition of weekly convocations because the convocations are currently virtual. Discipline-specific guest speakers may also find it easier to invest a couple of hours of their time to interact with students rather than taking a day or more to travel to Carleton for this kind of interaction.
A slightly different use may be for students who cannot come to class for other reasons. The flu, a broken leg, or bad weather may have become less of a hurdle for learning, now that we have this technology available to us.
It begs the question — what to do in the remaining classrooms that don’t have this technology?