As distance learning services rapidly improve and become more ubiquitous, educators are needing to rely less on technology that is high-touch and support-intensive. This shift has enabled our campus to equip many more classrooms with distance learning capabilities that are more accessible and require less hands-on support. As a result, our campus will phase out the studio operators in CU Boulder's 12 Distance Learning Studios (DLS) after the fall 2022 semester in favor of self-service Classroom Capture services.
With the acceleration of online, hybrid, and remote modalities of teaching, instructors modified their instructional delivery to leverage technology to engage remote students effectively. As a result, technology needs to change to better align with and support how teaching is delivered in the classroom. This is driving the Office of Information Technology (OIT) toward a new service delivery model that better meets the teaching delivery demands of instructors and learning needs of students. This will include transitioning the 12 DLS spaces into Classroom Capture spaces that have the additional capability of recording audience participation. This new service will be called Classroom Capture Plus.
By transforming the Distance Learning Studios into Classroom Capture Plus spaces, instructors will be able to leverage the same familiar capabilities they did previously (presenting and recording content, capturing the audio of student participation, and engaging remote students in the class), in a more self-sufficient manner. This should lead to a more common experience across all classroom capture spaces for both instructors and students and will allow OIT to expand the Classroom Capture service to additional rooms to meet growing demand.
More robust and intuitive user interfaces will be available in the Classroom Capture Plus rooms (including the former Distance Learning Studios) allowing instructors to perform all the tasks necessary to present and record content from both remote participants and audio from classroom participants. (In regular Classroom Capture rooms, audience participation is not recorded.) If instructors are unfamiliar with Classroom Capture technology, or require initial help to learn the systems, several OIT-offered resources can help:
- Classroom Capture video tutorials: get familiar with the setup, linking your videos to Canvas, how to connect to Zoom with our video demonstrations.
- Technology Copilots: assist instructors in hybrid or synchronous remote courses to facilitate students’ participation.
- Classroom Technology Problem Reporting Form: use this to report problems with classroom technology so that your issue is directly submitted to the Learning Spaces Technology team for expedited response.
If you have questions about CU Boulder’s Learning Spaces Technology or would like to schedule a consultation, please contact the IT Service Center at oithelp@colorado.edu or call 303-735-4357.
