By Rebecca V. Frazee and Lisa Stephens of FLEXspace.org, featuring guest contributors from Thomas More University (Tom Segers, Program Manager and Mia De Wilde, Director ICT & Infrastructure), St. Norbert College (Krissy Lukens, Director of Academic Technology, and Scott Ryan, Learning Spaces Technologist), and University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Dr. Steve F.A. Acquah, Digital Media Lab Coordinator and Associate Adjunct Professor of Chemistry).
To browse details, images, floor plans, and more from spaces featured in this column, plus hundreds more, log in to FLEXspace.org and visit the Gallery “HEAV – HEAV – Higher Ed AV Magazine Feature”
This month, as we think about Valentine’s sweethearts and besties, we are delighted to spread the love and feature some of our “BFFs” — Beneficent FLEXspace Friends — to learn more about how they’re approaching BYOD in their campus spaces.
BYOD at St. Norbert College
As you can see in the FLEXspace portal, Krissy Lukens at St. Norbert College (SNC) has contributed a space they call a “Bring-Your-Own-Device lab” (see details in FLEXspace) which allows students to use their personal devices with the opportunity to connect to large monitors. According to a survey, 90% of students at St. Norbert were already attending classes with their own devices, which is why the BYOD (bring your own device) lab was implemented. “This encouraged students to be more comfortable with their own equipment at St. Norbert,” said Krissy.
BYOD Lab in action at SNC
Rebecca: Today, what’s going on around BYOD on your campus? Any new data?
All of our classrooms are designed as BYOD classrooms. Because the college requires all students to bring a laptop, students can use Financial Aid dollars to assist with paying for the device. I don't have new data, but in the article from Inside Higher Ed, December 2016, we were showing 98% arriving on campus with a mobile device. I think it's safe to say that 100% of our students are using their own devices - since it is a requirement. Our library offers loaner laptops when a student's laptop is broken/being fixed. While a Chromebook is not one of our recommended models, we DO have students using Chromebooks as well as some iPads/tablets.
We offer Virtual Desktops for students that are unable to run required software on their personal machines. We've been using Paperspace for these Virtual Machines.
Krissy
Rebecca: What are some key considerations when designing/refreshing spaces to support BYOD?
Krissy:
The need for multiple adaptors! Connecting via HDMI is the default. While there are many different adaptors to take into consideration, what we've found to be most successful is to GIVE every faculty member an adaptor up front. Additional adaptors are kept in stock in our bookstore for purchase.
During the start of every semester, our team does what we call a "Back to School Blitz" where we wear bright green "got wifi" T-shirts and camp out in the academic buildings, roaming the halls at the start of every class period to check in on faculty to make sure they are good-to-go with their classroom set-up for the start of the semester.
We carry extra adaptors to hand out as needed (very few have been used actually, as people are accustomed to bringing their own). This is one example of Radical Customer Service we've tried to put into practice, following the Norbertine principle of Radical Hospitality.
Getting “Radical” with Radical Customer Service
Rebecca: Do you have any lessons learned to share with the FLEXspace community?
If implementing BYOD classrooms, it's important to also implement a computer refresh program that replaces faculty desktops with laptops. We phased in both of these initiatives at the same time. One of the added benefits . . . when COVID hit and we all had to go remote, we were READY - all of our faculty already had a laptop so we weren't scrambling to buy a bunch of laptops.
Some challenges we are continuing to work with:
Wireless projection. We currently offer wireless projection through AppleTV but are continually exploring alternate solutions.
Power – any time there is an opportunity to add power to the floor, do it!
Summer Camps. There is still a need for computers for things like summer programs and camps, so we are continuing to evaluate how to meet these needs.
Krissy
In addition to the success of “Radical Customer Service” supporting BYOD at St. Norbert College, we had the opportunity to check in with other “FLEXspace Friends” at Thomas More University in Belgium.
Thomas More- University of Applied Sciences, implements BYOD in Belgium
In addition to having Mia De Wilde, Director of Information and Computer Technology Services & Infrastructure participate in our recent FLEXspace focus group, Tom Segers, an AV Program Manager at Thomas More University (TMU) generously agreed to share their BYOD stories with us, detailed by Tom below.
BYOD policies for staff and students
Thomas More has a BYOD policy for its employees. An employee can request a laptop from the standard offering, which places the device under the maintenance policy of the institution. These laptops are replaced every 5 years. A limited number of employees buy their own devices for which they can receive a fixed financial allowance.
Students are also expected to bring a device. But for those who require some assistance, there are support models, for example through Financial Aid support for the purchase or long-term loans of laptops.
BYOD spaces are taking over, while specialized computer labs decrease
Thomas More does still have a number of computer classrooms for running very specific software but the classic computer classrooms have already been greatly reduced. The intention is to eventually have only specialized computer labs left. There is still some fear among teachers to phase out all classic computer labs in the context of our digital exams. But digital examination is another story.
Security
To keep all this secure, many projects have been put in place. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has been implemented for all users, both teachers and students. Furthermore, there is of course Geo-blocking, Firewalls, shielded VLANs, offline backups, network monitoring, you get the picture…
Challenges and considerations
Every classroom must support BYOD and HDMI. But in certain cases, we also support wireless screen sharing via either MirrorOp from Barco or ZOOM.
Compatibilities with so many brands: For AV, the biggest challenge is to support a variety of laptop brands in classrooms and meeting rooms. For example, I think of Apple computers that turn on an HDCP signal by default. This often creates problems with class recordings.
Graphics output quality: In recent years the increasingly weak output levels of graphics cards in laptops have been an issue. We suspect that manufacturers do this to meet economicstandards. To solve this technologically, we often have to invest in additional equipment.
Quality assurance testing before the rollout is key
For Thomas More, it is therefore important that a classroom or meeting room is not delivered until it has been tested with different types of devices. Usually, we take a Windows PC with HDMI output but nowadays also with USB-C output. Furthermore, every installation is also tested out with a Mac computer. It’s important to identify issues internally rather than create a challenge for a faculty member “under fire.”
The Hybrid Pro Classroom is an example
To delve a little further into existing typologies: As you yourself used as an example, our showpiece is the Hybrid Pro classroom (see details in FLEXspace, as well as this video about the distance learning setups.). Around this story, we gave a successful presentation at Educause. (More details to be added to FLEXspace so check back there soon!)
Instructor talking to online students in the Hybrid Pro room
One of the reasons we built the Hybrid Pro comes from insights learned with BYOD. Each teacher has their own laptop. So a return to using a fixed teacher PC in the classrooms met with resistance from many teachers. But we noticed during the [COVID] crisis that teachers had a lot of problems connecting their BYOD to videoconferencing equipment because of the USB drivers. Moreover, they also had to learn to work with an extended desktop. This was a bridge too far for many teachers.
Therefore, we chose to solve this with a Room System when people want to go online. The Room System sets up the online meeting but the teachers use their BYOD as a presentation source so they don’t have to set any settings correctly on their laptops. So the room is indeed BYOD but we add some technology to create security of use.
But the great strength of this classroom lies in the workflow to create a lesson hybrid. Everything starts from our LMS (Canvas). A teacher creates a ZOOM meeting and copies the link from the classroom into it. Students will then be able to start the lesson from Canvas. In the classroom itself, the teacher just needs to press the start button on the panel, connect his computer via HDMI and the lesson can start!
Standard BYOD classroom and collaborative spaces
Standard classrooms at Thomas More include a projector, a controller, and an HDMI cable to connect the projector to the BYOD. So these classrooms are mainly used for front-line teaching.
But the school also has numerous collaborative classrooms. These consist of islands where groups of 6 students can work together after a teacher has done a short presentation. Students in these classrooms connect their laptops to the monitor via a wireless connection.
Seven-year plan for cutting over to BYOD
In order to introduce BYOD and phase out the presentation computers in the classrooms, a 7-year plan was drawn up. Indeed, we suspected that we would encounter a lot of opposition to taking away these presentation computers in the classrooms. Teachers consider this a safe harbor. So we took a step-by-step approach to this.
The first step was to ensure that every staff member had the opportunity to get a laptop from the school. We rolled this out gradually for budgetary reasons. Since 2018, we have annually set aside ICTS funds to purchase laptops for teachers with a 5-year replacement plan or to repay laptops purchased privately. By now, all of our teachers have laptops.
Make all classrooms BYOD ready with 1 of the typologies described above.
Phase out presentation computers. It was decided to look at the age of the PCs and replace those near a refresh cycle at the start of an academic year.
Currently, we are in the 5th year of this plan and are getting less opposition than expected.
BYOD Digital Media Lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Last but not least, we reached out to Dr. Steve F.A. Acquah at UMass Amherst who had contributed a great case story about their digital media lab (see details in FLEXspace). The Digital Media Lab is an innovation center at the heart of the UMass Amherst campus featuring 2 Extended Reality rooms, 2 Production Studios, 4 Sound Booths, an instructional media area, and a 3D printing center with around 50 3D Printers. Below, read more details that Steve shared with us about this space.
Digital Media Lab at UMass Amherst
The UMass Amherst Digital Media Lab (DML) fosters a culture of innovation, offering support for projects ranging from 3D printing to designing virtual environments for well-being.
Last semester, staffing was the biggest challenge with evening and weekend shifts. We will move to a Mon – Fri, 9 am – 5 pm schedule to maximize the availability of 3D printing, media circulation, and extended reality staff.
Our services expanded to include poster printing and UMass Create, which allows members of the UMass Amherst community to create and manage their own hosted web spaces using their personal devices. We also have ‘BYOD’ spaces where students and staff can bring their devices and work with some of the audio/video equipment we provide. We also offer workshops where students can receive tips on how to use their devices to improve the quality of their productions such as podcasts.
Example projects:
Smoking Intervention App – We collaborated on a faculty research grant to develop a smoking cessation intervention app for people living with HIV. We utilized our own Android devices to develop the app and evaluate its functionality and interface design. There were many challenges along the way optimizing the size of the app and the impact on the device’s performance and battery life.
The Game Lab – We worked in collaboration to teach a class on video game design. Our programming team helped the students in the class with the development and production of a game. Almost all students from the Game Lab utilized their own laptops for the work. This helped alleviate the pressure of providing computers for the students and allowed them to use their own devices that they were already familiar with. However, it also required more time for a full-time staff member to coordinate with students to install the necessary software on their personal computers.
As we continue to develop our spaces, our focus remains on staying up-to-date with emerging trends to enable our students and faculty to use our media lab and their devices in creative ways.
You can take a virtual walkthrough of the space with this WebGL simulation.
Thank you again to our generous FLEXspace friends for contributing their stories. Feel free to reach out to learn more about their BYOD efforts and other campus learning space stories, and see other BYOD examples in FLEXspace.
LISA STEPHENS, Ph.D. Assistant Dean, Digital & Online Education School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, The University at Buffalo Project Director, FLEXspace.org
Lisa serves as Assistant Dean at the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences leading the Office of Digital & Online Education, and also serves as Senior Strategist for Academic Innovation in the Office of the SUNY Provost. She enjoys an appointment in the UB Department of Communication as an Adjunct Associate Professor. Her SUNY portfolio includes leadership of FLEXspace.org™ and serves as the SUNY Partner Manager for Coursera.
Rebecca teaches in the Learning Design and Technology program at San Diego State University and is the FLEXspace.org Manager. She enjoys experimenting with new technology tools and techniques to support active learning and team collaboration in higher ed and the workplace. Rebecca is a singer and songwriter and has been having fun with asynchronous ‘socially distanced’ recording projects this year. Contact Rebecca at rfrazee@sdsu.edu, and Twitter at @rebeccafrazee.
The Flexible Learning Environments eXchange (FLEXspace.org) is an award-winning community and open digital repository for higher ed that houses a growing collection of user-contributed content “by campuses for campuses,” with detailed examples of formal and informal learning spaces ranging from multimedia studios, maker spaces, computer labs, hybrid/flexible classrooms, and huddle spaces to large exhibit spaces, simulation labs and renovated lecture halls. FLEXspace was launched in 2012 as a collaboration between SUNY, the CSU Cal State University system, and Foothill-DeAnza Community College District and has since grown to include over 5000 members from 1400 campuses around the world, with PennState joining the partnership in 2019. FLEXspace won the Campus Technology Innovators Award in 2016, and the California Higher Education (CHEC) Collaborative Conference Focus on Efficiency Award in 2018.
FLEXspace users include practitioners, experts, and decision-makers in higher education, K-12, libraries, and museums who are focused on campus planning and facilities, learning technology, A/V systems integration, instructional design, teaching, and research. The FLEXspace portal provides a sophisticated suite of features that enables users to document and showcase their own campus learning spaces, share research, best practices, and tools for planning.
