ITS focused hard on monitoring the performance of our learning space technology, and making constant checks for reliability.
A replacement cycle, which began four years ago, was implemented to update classroom technology and help make the faculty experience more consistent from room to room. Of the 113 classrooms across campus, we’ve improved 89. The final phase of this initial sweep is scheduled for the summer of 2018. Reliability and consistency has improved, though much work remains to bring polish to our classroom tech.
The summer of 2017 brought changes to most of Lathrop Hall. We preserved the reliable functions and added better control, improved our ability to remotely troubleshoot classroom technology, and installed brighter projectors. The first floor of the Ho Science Center underwent a much-needed upgrade replacing just about every technical component to bring 1080p video, brighter projection, faster networking speeds, and more elegant control to these learning spaces. In addition to these upgrades, we installed numerous TVs, broadened our digital signage reach, installed touch screen displays, and performed important maintenance campuswide.
The next journey in our exploration toward improving the classroom experience is to begin working with CIT to sketch out a project to design classroom technology “by faculty, for faculty.” Once a space is identified, we’ll be working with CIT to identify members of the faculty who are interested in contributing design and usability ideas to help define the standards for Colgate’s next generation classrooms. Our goal is to maximize ease of use, reliability, consistency from room to room, and ergonomically flexible spaces to accommodate as many teaching styles as possible, without being obtrusive. Stay tuned for details on this effort through 2017 and into early 2018.