How Utah State University delivers hy-flex learning at scale – Zoom Guided Tour

How Utah State University delivers hy-flex learning at scale

A real-life example of how to simplify your day with Zoom Workplace

Meet Kevin

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Utah State University (USU) bills itself as “A University for All,” with a main campus in Logan, Utah, 29 other campus and satellite locations statewide, and USU’s online campus (USU Online). The university’s hy-flex (hybrid-flexible) model combines virtual learning with in-person lessons at campus and satellite classrooms, making education more accessible to all types of students.

“With our Connect offerings, students can join remotely from anywhere or go to a classroom at any of our 30 locations across the state,” said Kevin Reeve, director of teaching and learning technology at USU.

Read on to learn how USU powers its Connect offerings, making it easy for instructors to deliver lessons and connect with students across the state.

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The key to connected classrooms

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“Currently, we have over 300 courses throughout the semester using Zoom Rooms technology,” Kevin explained. “We’ve installed over 250 Zoom Rooms and will grow to about 300 by the end of the year.”

Kevin wanted the technology for Connect courses to be simple and easy for faculty members to use, so they could focus on student learning and engagement, not how difficult it was to connect their classroom or see other students.

“When we looked at replacing our Cisco telepresence system with Zoom, there was some thought that we might just use the Zoom app on a desktop at the front of the classroom. Then we started learning more about Zoom Rooms hardware technology and the power that it brought,” Kevin said. “One of the reasons was that we’re trying to make the experience as seamless as possible for faculty members.”

Pro tip

Understand faculty needs and the experience they want to get from the technology. “The move to Zoom Rooms was faculty driven. They gave us some guidelines of what they wanted to be able to do, and we took those as guiding principles,” Kevin said.

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Customizable options for rooms of all sizes

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Zoom’s hardware partners, including Crestron, Logitech, Q-Sys, and Neat, provided Kevin and the classroom engineering team with various options for designing each room based on their needs.

Instructors typically conduct lessons from a larger classroom, which has multiple cameras and monitors along with custom audio. “In those origination rooms, we’re using Zoom Rooms technology on a PC, and that gives us the ability to plug in multiple cameras, handle our own audio, and build it out the way it needs to fit the room size and room orientation,” Kevin explained.

In contrast, appliances with a built-in microphone and camera are simple to install in smaller statewide classrooms serving up to 20 students.

“Our costs have dropped, in some instances by as much as 50%, for all the hardware and gear to support a classroom,” Kevin said.

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Automation makes course management easy

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Automation is an important part of delivering Connect courses more smoothly. Kevin’s team used a Zoom Rooms API to allow receiving classrooms to connect once class starts. There’s no need to designate a person in another location to physically push a button to start the course. At the scheduled class time, both the originating classroom with the instructor and all of the receiving classrooms automatically join the meeting — all students have to do is show up at the scheduled class time.

USU also uses Zoom LTI Pro to integrate Zoom meeting links, meeting recordings, and whiteboards right into the University’s learning management system (LMS), Canvas. Instructors don’t have to take the time to upload or attach these resources, and students can easily find them.

Pro tip

USU instructors are set up with a host ID and teacher profile in Canvas. They can travel to another campus and teach in any Zoom Room by inputting their host ID — receiving classrooms will still join automatically as scheduled, and all meeting recordings, transcripts, and whiteboards stay associated with their teacher profile in the LMS.

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AI enhances the classroom experience

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With the university’s previous technology, Connect instructors only had wide-angle shots of classrooms joining remotely. Faculty couldn’t see students who were sitting outside of the camera’s field of view, so they didn’t know if students were joining late or not engaging with the lesson. Students might also feel disconnected from the instructor and their peers.

With Zoom Rooms’ intelligent director feature, AI and multiple cameras are used to determine the best angle of up to 16 individuals in a Zoom Room to display within a meeting. Instructors now have a better view of their whole class and students can build a more personalized connection with faculty, contributing to equity in the learning experience.

“It’s almost like you’ve got a couple of camera operators in the room, and a video director pushing the button to change camera views — except it’s all happening automatically,” Kevin said. “Students feel that they’re more a part of the class because the view isn’t just a wide shot of their classroom, where nobody knows who spoke. Instructors see them up close and personal.”

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