Commercial Integrator September 2022 - 45

C llab rati n
TODAY and TOMORROW
Effective distance learning is about content - specifically, content delivery and content comprehension. In other words,
distance learning is about people. Because it's people, after all, who send the content and who consume it.
teaching. For example, proper audio enhancement and voice
lift, as well as proper microphone-placement techniques, have
always been important. It's always been good practice to be
sure you're speaking loud enough - and toward the students
(not the whiteboard). It's also important to consider appropriate
fonts and point sizes on presentation slides, ensuring they
can be easily read by the farthest student in the room.
Without Displacement, Without Fear
When " share screen " became a standard, students were
empowered read the content without feeling displaced and
without fear of exposing their disability to the rest of their colleagues.
Likewise, with streamed content, earbuds and headsets
were a huge boon to people who formerly had struggled
to comprehend a professor's soft voice or accent. Paired with
the previously mentioned closed captioning, true digital equity
could be attained in distance education.
Thankfully, these feature sets were enacted for a long
enough time that there's no going back. Students now expect
multi-modal content delivery. Both colleges and UC platform
manufacturers have figured out how to utilize automation,
plugins and SaaS-to-hardware integrations to create interactive,
accessible and equitable content on the fly, with limited
faculty involvement.
How do manufacturers and integrators capitalize on this
commercialintegrator.com
transformation? The answer is by focusing not on the technology,
but, rather, on the outcome. That entails considering
the following questions: Who is being served? What obstacles
are possibly present that might interfere with teaching and
learning? Can the lectures be recorded? Can remote students
hear and see? Can the presentation slides be uploaded for review?
Is the lighting and projector brightness sufficient to be
picked up by an ePTZ or PTZ camera mounted at the back of
the room? Because rooms are typically designed with seated
viewing angles in mind, is the camera angle sufficient for a
remote student without being skewed? How will the in-room
faculty know the remote student wants to ask a question?
Those questions must be asked, thoughtfully considered and
answered before it's possible to select appropriate technologies.
In conclusion, we learned that effective content delivery
matters. What works is providing solutions for equitable and
accessible learning. What does not work is assuming the
world will, or should, return to former practices. The technology
provided must complement the learning requirements to
ensure that distance education is not simply an informational
transaction. More importantly, it must be a connection to the
needs of the student consumer.
Joe Way, PhD, CTS, is director, learning environments, with
the University of Southern California (USC).
SEPTEMBER 2022 Commercial Integrator 45
MAKSYM YEMELYANOV/STOCK.ADOBE.COM

http://www.commercialintegrator.com

Commercial Integrator September 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Integrator September 2022