Rosanne Wolak setting up a USB-based document camera in one of the Zoom-capable classrooms in Centennial Hall.
The rooms have been outfitted with USB-based document cameras capable of being used to show a professor lecturing, students in their seats or a paper document. Each professor is being issued a wireless lapel microphone that will connect with the system to capture their voice for online access.
Dr. Matt Julius shows his wireless lapel microphone as the USB-based document calendar takes in the classroom.
This fall, professors teaching in Zoom-capable classrooms have the ability to stream their in-person classes live via Zoom and record them for upload into D2L. The technology can also be used with Teams and Skype.
The Zoom-capable classrooms will enable students signed up for in-person classes to stay on track if they need to miss a day due to illness or quarantine this fall.
Dr. Matt Julius, a biology professor, has been testing the classroom technology and created a how-to video to help get his colleagues across campus ready to use the equipment.
Julius and others in the biology department have been working on options for digital lectures for several years in order to allow more time for in-class discussions, questions, lab work and hands-on opportunities.
He is excited to share what they’ve learned with others around campus, so they can experience the same flexibility in their classrooms.
Beyond allowing for more flexibility for class time, professors can use these recorded lectures for their own archival review or pull out the best questions from study sessions and archive them for online review resources for students, he said.
Julius is planning to use his Zoom-capable classroom to offer a hybrid model for his students with lecture content available on the web and classroom time discussions and labs in person.
The Academic Technologies Team is now offering early training sessions for faculty members in addition to training sessions during convocation.
A USB-based document camera and wireless lapel microphone receiver stand ready for fall classes in a Centennial Hall Zoom-capable classroom.
