As doors open for the first day of school, students will get a taste of UTA’s classrooms of the future in University Hall Room 108.
The renovated room opened Friday and the college came in below its $785,000 budget, said Institutional Construction Director Bryan Sims. The exact figure is still being gathered, he said.
The redesigned classroom has HD projection capabilities, and features an interactive touch-screen whiteboard instead of a regular dry-erase board. It also seats 250 students, which is about 50 less than the original classroom, Sims said.
University Hall Room 101 features:
- Replaced audio
- The only high definition projection system on campus
- Decreased seat count from about 300 to 250 to improve comfort
- Interactive touch-screen whiteboard replaces dry-erase board
- Tables replaced desks
- New lighting system that can be operated from the instructor’s podium
- Classroom acoustics redone
- Instructors don’t have to talk over presentations while they’re playing (as the instructor speaks, the volume of that presentation will decrease)
- New screen camera allows for zoom feature and annotation through computer
- The classroom docking station allows for any electronic device to connect for presentations
“It needed to be comfortable and it needed to be functional,” Sims said. “That was extremely important to us as the students came in.”
Students previously had desks that were small and cramped, Sims said, but now they have tables with plenty of room and easily accessible swivel seats. Jim Walker, Ford Audio Video project engineer, said they helped UTA create a new lighting and audio system operational from the teacher’s workstation.
Walker said the classroom also has better speakers, better acoustics, and that when teachers or presenters are wearing a microphone, feedback from speakers is not something they’ll have to worry about. He said mostly everything in the classroom can be operated right from the teacher’s workstation.
“Any source can be plugged in here [the workstation],” he said. “The controls for everything on the system are literally right here on the touch panel. Full-flexibility from the podium area hopefully means that set-up and shut-down are much easier and quicker.”
Eric Bolsterli, liberal arts assistant dean, said eight teachers would use the classroom this semester, and the challenge may come with figuring out the new technology. University spokeswoman Kristin Sullivan said there would be training available, if needed.
“As time goes on, more and more professors are going to be tech-savvy,” Bolsterli said. “The ones in their 20s and 30s, they’ve all got iPads, so having this stuff here is great. Those who aren’t as tech-savvy are going to have to get in and start using this stuff.”
There are no immediate plans to renovate other classrooms, Sims said. But officials will make similar renovations to Geoscience Building Room 100 by January.
