Facility Focus
University of Louisiana Monroe Installs Active Learning Classroom
High-tech environment is first of its kind in the state.
The University of Louisiana Monroe has
partnered with Trox, an education technology solutions
company, to install a state-of-the-art active learning
classroom for its College of Pharmacy. The classroom is the
first of its kind in the state, and it provides opportunities
for more active participation, interaction and collaboration
among teachers and students.
The classroom seats up to 84 students at 14
collaboration tables, each outfitted with integrated
collaboration and AV technology. Each table has a
Wolfvision vSolution Matrix Multi-Screen that lets
students and professors wirelessly share notes, presentations,
activities and other documents from any smartphone,
laptop or tablet. The collaboration tables have displays,
microphones and a Cynap Core wireless presentation
system. The classroom itself is also set up with a camera to
allow remote students to seamlessly follow along.
The idea started when College of Pharmacy Dean
H. Glenn Anderson Jr. heard about the installation
of an active learning classroom at his former place of
employment, Marshall University. He discussed a similar
installation with Marcia Wells, the College of Pharmacy
Technology Manager, and Greg Andrews, the AV Classroom
Coordinator, and they were immediately on board.
“They’ve kinda been on the forefront of technology,”
said Andrews, noting that the College of Pharmacy was
the first at the university to start using distance-learning
technology. “So from my perspective, it wasn’t a hard
decision to make for pharmacy to do that, as well—to be
the ringleader for that.”
For installation, they turned to Trox. This project isn’t
the first partnership between Trox and the university.
Trox has supplied the campus with AV solutions and other
educational technologies for more than 20 years—including
converting the unused library into a new technology center
with a biology lab, smart classrooms and more.
“I’ve been working with ULM probably since 2002,”
said Scott Albarado, Account Executive for Trox. “It’s been a
good long-term relationship. And so far, they keep coming
back to us for help, so we must be doing a good job.”
Because this was the first active learning classroom
in the state, it took some time to plan out the logistics of
how to make it work. Albarado said the most complicated
part was finding a way to simplify the setup and make it
easy to use. “What was where, what display shows on the
teacher’s station to all the student stations, and vice versa…we made it really easy to do exactly what they wanted,” he
said. “And it took us a while to talk through it and figure
out exactly what they wanted, how it would look, but it all
came together in the end.”
After some prep work in the room involving coredrilling
floors for power and data cables, the installation
itself only took about 10 days, Andrews said.
Because of social distancing practices related to the
COVID-19 pandemic, Wells said that they haven’t yet
been able to use the room to its full capacity. Right now,
it’s mainly being used by smaller elective classes. “But
pretty much some aspect of every one of our pharmacy
courses would be using that room,” she said.
As an example, many of the smaller classes in the
College of Pharmacy are disease-specific. Instructors will
give students a case and have them discuss it in groups.
Students can connect their personal laptops via AirPlay or
screen mirroring to the display at each table for group work.
Once the instructor calls time or reconvenes the entire class,
students can share the work they’ve done with the display at
any other table, the teacher’s main display or both.
“It’s a hodgepodge of … ‘if you can think it, we can
show it’-type room. There’s no device that can’t connect,
there’s nothing we can’t show on any table at any given
time,” Andrews said.
Andrews also noted that he’s seen minimal issues
integrating the technology and introducing it to faculty
and students. He called it a “small learning curve,” the
kind of process where “you do it once, and you’ve got it
figured out.”
The active learning classroom installation ties into
the dean’s broader initiative for a team-based learning
environment, Wells said. The pharmacy program relies
heavily on active class participation, collaboration and
group learning, and this pedagogy was another major
driving factor in the decision to pursue the installation.
“Student-centered, technology-rich classrooms are the
future of higher education,” Andrews said. “The University
of Louisiana’s first active learning classroom will give
students more exposure to real-world experiences. Trox’s
expertise in the understanding of how to use technology
to improve learning environments helped us create a
space that fosters better communication and collaboration
between teachers and their students—whether they are
remote, in the classroom or a blend of both.”
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of Spaces4Learning.
About the Author
Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].