Flex classroom(draft)
Due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, many institutions faced a new dilemma, having to conduct a vast majority of their day-to-day operations, online. Asia Pacific University was unfortunately not exempt from this chain reaction. In the past 13-14 months, students were introduced, familiarised, and initiated to exclusively online-based learning. Over the course of time as a society began to cope with the new SOPs and the rate of infections slowed down, APU began to see a revival of on-campus activities team by team. With these changes, “Hybrid classes” were introduced and this saw(and continues to see) that for a select number of classes, students would have the option to carry out certain classes and lab sessions online or in-person on campus. This has proven itself to be an effective strategy for staff and student life, communications, and activity.
As we continue to set and meet new benchmarks for design excellence, the standard at which the campus was and continues to be built is the same applied to that of physical and digital learning, which is why we bring you, the Flex Classroom. We will first begin by highlighting the elements of hindrance associated with the current hybrid learning regime. First would be an inconvenience; audio feedback and disruption is a frequent disruption to the flow of a large number of lecturers and tutors. Next is our students, the lack of their physical presence limits our educator’s ability to really engage in fashions adequate for impact. Following this is the missing whiteboard feel of a laid-out explanation coupled with students not being able to see a teacher’s body language. To top it off is the challenge it has been to balance interacting with the students in person while letting the online (and sensory deprived) students know they are heard.
In seeking out the remedy for all these issues, the standard this fix would have to acquire was set in the following ways.
(The benefits can either be in a paragraph or bullet point format starting without the need for numbering unlike in a paragraph format)
First, it must be easy to use whilst being able to transform your teaching and learning experience. Second is the need to integrate teams’ teaching and learning tools such as Office 365, One Note, Forms, Assignments, and more. Lastly(I can use lastly or thirdly here, again this could be in bullet form if you’d like a more concise feel here and there) would be technology; there must be intelligent camera tracking, pre-setup PC stations for teachers with proper audio and video systems as well as the use of digital drawing screen/touchscreen.
Next, let us observe what would be in the actual classroom; an interactive touchscreen for notes and highlighting(with accuracy software aids), intelligent camera tracking that will enable the presenter with more motion, a display of the remote students( you might have noticed this lately for sports and entertainment) and a classroom controller which will bring the various software together.
Below one can observe the expected setup of the auditorium or classroom.
There is even already potential for an APFlexAud Setup, we are personally excited about where this is going you might guess by now.
Flex aud would essentially be the best lecture theatre setup one has seen in a while.
This is how a Dual Hybrid-Classroom will be set up.
This is what the FlexClassroom Timeline would be:
It starts with. The room set up as phase 1(from the left of the chart) and later on Foundation School is introduced to it with aim of getting approval by phase 5 and once all training and deployment go well, it would then undergo a User Acceptance Test and then finally be made accessible to the public.