Reimagining Higher Ed HyFlex Classrooms and Lecture Halls
To be prepared for multiple scenarios, higher education institutions should reimagine classrooms with modern audiovisual equipment and network capabilities. Whether HyFlex professors are teaching alone or to a roomful of students, it is best if they can move around freely. Consider these solutions to give instructors an easier time.
- Lapel mics: Lavalier (clip-on) mics are a game changer for faculty who speak softly — and clip-on mics are essential for teachers who must wear masks. AV technicians can feed the audio directly to videoconferencing software.
- PTZ cameras: Energetic teachers find it hard to remain still in front of a camera or computer. A pan/tilt/zoom camera that automatically follows a roaming educator can support a more natural teaching style.
- Hybrid AV carts: These carts can be placed anywhere in classrooms and lecture halls. They allow AV technicians to position cameras and mics at optimal angles. Carts also make it easy to reposition AV equipment if a student expresses privacy concerns, and they can be quickly disinfected and moved to a new location.
- Interactive displays: It’s quite challenging for educators to engage in-person, asynchronous and synchronous learners at once. Interactive displays allow students at different locations to collaborate on projects using multiple devices — whether it’s smartphones, Chromebooks, tablets or laptops.
- Digital signage: These large displays are not only great for communicating important announcements and schedules, but also serve as a confidence booster for professors who find it difficult to see if tiny faces on Zoom look engaged.
- Lampless projectors: When students must strain their eyes to read dark and blurry PowerPoint presentations, it negatively impacts their learning experience. But simply replacing lightbulbs is not the most efficient solution. As faculty know, traditional projectors take more than a minute to reach maximum brightness. Remove this common pain point with lamp-free projectors, which take about 10 seconds to achieve full brightness and offer better color and saturation.