Synchronous Classrooms Help Maintain a Campus Connection

While most face-to-face course meetings were suspended back in March, many Rutgers students may recognize a familiar background during the virtual classes. That's because Digital Classroom Services quickly converted several of its learning spaces from lecture halls designed to accommodate hundreds of students to learning studios that help faculty connect with online students from the familiar confines of a classroom. While they were designed to add a synchronous online component to in-person classrooms, our Synchronous Learning Spaces have proven to be a valuable resource in the time of COVID. Faculty who utilize these rooms for remote instruction have access to high-quality cameras and microphones, high speed Internet, large screens on which they can view class content and remote students, and all of the teaching tools they might typically use when conducting face-to-face classes like document cameras, podium computers, and blackboards.

However, beyond helping instructors teach remote classes, Synchronous Learning Spaces are built to help connect classes that are held in rooms with students, instructors, or guest lecturers who are unable to attend. As Rutgers begins to repopulate its campuses and classrooms, DCS is readying more Synchronous Learning Spaces so that class members who are prevented from being on campus due to COVID-related concerns can maintain their connection to the class. We have recently upgraded Tillett Hall rooms 226, 232, and 242 and are completing work on eight additional rooms.

If you are an instructor who is interested in using a DCS classroom to conduct class remotely, visit our Academic Continuity page to learn more and request a room. You can also read about how one class used a Synchronous Learning Space in a Rutgers Magazine piece about remote instruction.