Team Information
David Kohnke, kohnked@colorado.edu, IT Senior Director
Stephanie Gillin, stephanie.gillin@colorado.edu, Associate Dean of Admin & Finance
Who
Robert Hale, AV Support Specialist
Tom Klenow, Classroom Technology & AV Manager
Tracy Jennings, Senior Instructor
What
The Leeds Technology Services created a new business process to optimize faculty teaching technology setups at their homes. Leveraging gift funds from the Anschutz foundation, we worked with Leeds’ faculty on a one-on-one basis, improving the quality of course delivery over Zoom. We started with a baseline consult and made recommendations for improved microphones, cameras, green screens and annotation devices depending on the instructional need. We helped faculty optimize their sound quality and video quality for live course delivery, making a significant impact on the student experience during these challenging times. This allowed faculty to focus on what they are excellent at, shaping tomorrow’s leaders, while IT focused on innovation and improving the success of our students through better technology solutions.
Why
We quickly realized that standard laptop microphone and webcam quality was inadequate for remote teaching, especially when you compare it side-by-side to a typical classroom learning experience. We wanted to ensure that every student could hear the instructor’s audio clearly, visually see a high-quality video of their instructor, while allowing faculty to deliver their content using instructional tools they are comfortable with -- like a tablet for annotation or a standard document image camera.
When
We began rolling out this business process almost immediately after we shifted to remote learning in March of 2020. Over the next few months, we had optimized the at-home-teaching setups of over 30 faculty members.