PULLMAN – Twelve general use classrooms in Sloan Hall received substantial upgrades before fall semester began.

Meanwhile, new instructional technology was installed in Food Science & Human Nutrition T101, which has been reassigned as a general university classroom.

And, renovation of Fulmer 201 has been scheduled for mid-May 2011. Flooring, seating and instructional equipment will be upgraded in this 118-seat classroom.

Planned and overseen by the Provost’s General University Classroom Committee, the Sloan improvements include new flooring, acoustic ceiling tiles, paint, chair rails, seating in the largest classroom and, most importantly, installation of new instructional technology in all 12 classrooms.

The equipment is similar to the type installed last biennium in classrooms in Todd, Wilson and College halls.

Faculty can teach in any of these rooms knowing that the equipment and operation of the technology will be the same. Those teaching or presenting can play DVDs, display a number of presentation formats and access Web-based resources from the PCs installed in each classroom. The new equipment includes fixed podiums with resident computers, dual image video projectors and high definition (HD) video capabilities, document cameras, audio amplification, Web conferencing equipment and assistive listening devices.

One use of the “Elluminate” Web conferencing software, for example, is to transmit course lectures from one class in Pullman to students at PNNL in Richland.

Liv Haselbach, civil & environmental engineering associate professor, said that before the new equipment and software were installed she did not have the capability of transmitting her lectures live to distance students around the state from any of the Sloan classrooms. Her students typically are seniors or graduate students in sustainable development, and some perform their research in other parts of the state (Puyallup for example) or are employed in private practice.

The new installation allows these students to enroll and participate in lectures from their off-campus locations. The lectures also can be recorded, so if a student at any location is ill, he or she can watch the lectures at a later date. When a guest speaker is scheduled and Haselbach is out of town, she too can connect and watch the lecture or see a recording of it at a later time.

As she gets more familiar with the software, she would like to pre-record lectures for classes in case she is traveling and use the technology to deliver lectures to the Sloan classrooms from a remote location.

The Web conferencing software also has been installed in 10 other university classrooms across the Pullman campus.

With addition of new instructional technology in FSHN T101, the room is available all colleges for scheduling. The 144-seat lecture hall will house course lectures 8 a.m.-2 p.m. After 2 p.m. the room may be scheduled for non-credit-related teleconferencing events by all units, as it has been in the past.

Meanwhile, Academic Media Services has acquired portable video conferencing equipment that can be scheduled for use in any general use classroom. For more information and to schedule use of equipment or training from AMS for credit-related video conferencing needs, contact them at 335-7579 or ams@wsu.edu.

Questions about the Provost’s General University Classroom Committee or future projects can be referred to Deborah Carlson, committee chair, at 335-3344. More information about classrooms is provided on the committee website: http://provost.wsu.edu/classrooms.


Classrooms get facelifts, instructional tech upgrades

Monday, Oct. 4, 2010

By Deborah Carlson, Provost’s General University Classroom Committee