Supporting Hybrid Learning

There has been an exponential growth in adoption of technology to support online learning, and the use of collaboration tools supporting multimodal and hybrid teaching models has rapidly become the norm. 

Hybrid learning modality supports simultaneous teaching for both in-person and remote-participants in classroom environments, and this has triggered a massive change in the way universities approach course design and in how they plan to provide high quality contact time for their students. 

Large numbers of universities, colleges, schools, and other educational institutions are contacting WolfVision and asking broadly similar questions about how to integrate technology to support hybrid learning modality, and importantly how to best maintain a consistent learning experience when preparing to move classes online. This short article addresses some of these questions.

Timetabling at most universities is an extremely complex task and juggling departmental space and technology requirements is also often extremely challenging. Universities now face the added challenge of creating and managing hybrid learning environments. 
Previously universities were restricted to installation of a small number of ‘flagship’ collaborative learning spaces that were not accessible to all, simply because there were not enough of them. The WolfVision solution has been the development of a cost-effective, easy-to-use range of devices with differing specifications but with a universal user inter-face. 
All Cynap devices provide an intuitive and identical user interface, which enables users to move seamlessly between small seminar rooms, large lecture theatres and active learning environments, without encountering any technology challenges, and to easily control these systems without requiring additional support.

Single box multi-functional systems such as Cynap minimize potential points of failure and are suitable for rapid deployment. AV and IT teams can manage Cynap devices remotely, minimizing maintenance, and making them also suitable for multi-campus university installations. Rooms can be switched easily between face-to-face, remote or hybrid modality without requiring extra equipment or reconfiguration, and all rooms provide a consistent user ex-perience regardless of the level of equipment chosen for each individual room.

Microsoft Teams is a powerful tool but sometimes we receive feedback that its standard interface can be confusing in the classroom and can be a challenge to teaching staff. The WolfVision integration on Cynap systems reduces the necessary classroom controls to a minimum, simplifying them and allowing users to focus on the key components used during online and hybrid classes, eg. the video aspects plus the on-screen sharing of dynamic multi-source content, both of which can also be controlled ‘touchlessly’ using WolfVision’s vSolution App if required. For anybody who needs to use chat functionality or wants to share files, these users are mostly logging in using their own laptop and then run Teams simultaneously on both their own device and the Cynap system. 

The ability to send or receive network streams helps to extend a classroom and increase the flexibility of learning spaces. When social  distancing is required or where there is a need to cater for overflow classes, on-screen content is often required to be streamed ‘live’ to one or more locations. 
During the pandemic when classroom capacities are necessarily reduced, the option to stream live to additional rooms is extremely useful, particularly when smaller learning spaces are to be used.

Cynap devices can live stream and record simultaneously, providing valuable flexibility, and functionality is also available to stream out to individual student laptops, smartphones and tablets. This provides benefits in making lesson content readily available to larger audiences, and it also supports students who may have special learning needs which can be met by enabling them to view live teaching activities on their own device.

These are just some of the key questions to consider when considering hybrid learning infrastructure. There are also many other supporting advantages that are important. WolfVision customers enjoy regular free-of-charge firmware updates, helping with future-proofing, and maintaining compatibility with integral parts of the overall system such as web conferencing platforms, screen mirroring protocols etc. and there are no recurring license fees or other charges that can dramatically increase the overall cost of ownership.

Built on Linux, WolfVision Cynap solutions offer enterprise level security, providing a safe and secure wireless presentation and collaboration environment, with flexible control options such as via Room management APIs, touchscreen, remote control, mobile device, keyboard and mouse, or completely touchless operation using WolfVision’s vSolution App.

These are without question, challenging times for us all, both in our personal and professional lives.  We are proud to be involved in so many  projects throughout the world, where WolfVision technology is being used to create effective hybrid working and learning enviroments. 

Contact us now to explore how WolfVision solutions could be used to transform working and learning in your own organisation.