Today learning has no limits and classrooms have no boundaries. A new word HYBRID is becoming trending in the education domain.
What is a hybrid classroom?
When students can attend classes offline while sitting in a lecture classroom and simultaneously other students attending classes online while sitting in any part of the world with access to communicate with teachers present at a lecture theatre, it is known as Hybrid Classroom.
Advantages of Hybrid classrooms?
There are different advantages of hybrid classrooms for both students, teachers, and institutions.
- Ease of access: Students can attend the lecture in their comfort location without wasting their travel time. Moreover, students living in remote parts of any country can attend their lectures, and learn from the experienced faculty of the institutions while saving their financial constraints.
- More participation and attentiveness: With hybrid classrooms, more students can participate and attend the lectures.
- Value addition for universities and institutes: Universities can conduct outreach programs for students illumines, or for research scholars to facilitate ongoing or upcoming events.
What is required to create a Hybrid Classroom?
The two most important components for creating any hybrid classroom are audio and video. With best-in-class microphone audio experience, students sitting online can hear, and with best-in-class video output, students get the best-experienced hybrid classroom. Quality hardware plays a vital role in creating such types of classrooms
- PTZ CAMERA
- CEILING MICROPHONES
- INTERACTIVE FLAT PANEL DISPLAY
- WEB PRESENTER
- SPEAKERS
- MONITORS
- MICROPHONES
PTZ CAMERA :
PTZ stands for pan, tilt, zoom facility camera. The clarity of the camera defines the quality of a hybrid classroom. There are different types of PTZ cameras and you need to choose them as per your requirement. Basic cameras should support min Full HD to 4K resolution and min 10X to 20X optical zoom. You can even choose a PTZ camera as it can track the teacher’s moment on the stage. It moves with the moment of a teacher and zooms at preferred locations. It all depends on your budget for making a hybrid classroom.
Following are the PTZ cameras for hybrid classrooms.
- Option 1
- Option 2
PTZ cameras are designed for recording long videos.
Ceiling microphone:
To make an efficient hybrid classroom, a ceiling microphone with active noise cancellation is a must product to have in a hybrid classroom. It helps teachers to teach without wearing any microphones and it also helps teachers, not to change the batteries of wireless microphones again and again, and roam around the classroom.
Streamer
The new way of broadcasting the lecture is streaming, streaming the lectures to various platforms, such as Facebook, Youtube, and LinkedIn can help universities, colleges, and coaching institutions to reach more students. Steaming can be software and hardware-based. To make the professional hybrid classroom, hardware-based streamers are perfect which start with a click of the button.
Interactive Flat Panel Display:
Speakers
This can be an optional component of the classroom. It depends on the size of the room. If there is a small room with a gathering of 15 to 25 students in a classroom then there is a need for small USB speakers placed near the teacher, but for larger room sizes, wall-mounted speakers are required, a number of wall-mounted speakers depend on the size of
the room.
Monitors
Surveillance monitors are required to install opposite to teacher’s stage, to keep an eye over the students at the remote location and to read the comment of students in case of streaming the lectures. The size of the monitor also depends on the size of the room. 43 to 55-inch monitors are generally perfect for the classroom.
Microphones
Handheld microphones for students sitting in the lecture room at remote locations play a vital role to interact students with teachers. Professional microphones are required with a noise cancelation feature to transfer a clear voice between students and teachers.
Hybrid classrooms consist of many facilities, such as recording the lectures, streaming the lectures, conducting outreach programs, and conferencing. Based on the requirements, the types of professional equipment are required.