FAMU College of Pharmacy Delivers Real-Time Distance Learning with Videoconferencing Solutions

Remote classes get a live, interactive experience that mimics the traditional classroom.

August 20, 2014 Chrissy Winske Leave a Comment

Florida A&M University started a distance learning program for pharmacy students via a Cisco videoconferencing system and a satellite location in Crestview. Each classroom has a number of technologies that allow the two campuses to have an interactive classroom experience.

LCD displays in the back of each room allow the two classes to see one another.

An Epson 5750 HiDef projector mounted on the ceiling is used to display lecture content on a 119” Dalite screen.

Ceiling-mounted Polycom HDX Ceiling Microphone Arrays with three microphones provide quality audio pickup of the professor and students in the classroom.

FAMU also purchased Shure lapel microphones that professors are required to wear during class.

60” LG displays at the back of each room act as “confidence monitors,” allowing the speaker to see the remote classroom.

Located inside each classroom podium are Shure microphones, a Crestron DMPS-300 room control system, Polycom Sound Structure (mixer) and a UPS.

The wall-mounted Cisco 4X 1080p camera provides a view of the remote classroom so the professor can see the distance students as if they were sitting in the main classroom. Video of each lecture is also recorded and stored for students to review as needed.

“We try to allocate 2Mbps for each inter-site videoconferencing session, to provide enough bandwidth for video — which is the lion’s share of things — plus audio, a smart board, and anything else,” says Mobley. “We already had a huge circuit on the Tallahassee side, so all we had to do was add a 10 megabit-per-second Metro Ethernet circuit to Crestview. A class’s connection is a simple IP data call, across Ethernet, just like on our campus LAN.”

As Senior Computer Support Specialist for FAMU COPPS, Jason Mobley oversees and manages the videoconferencing gear for classes, meetings and other activities. He credits part of FAMU’s success to the distance learning site visits that staff conducted before jumping into the university’s own program.

“The questions our faculty asked about teaching, during our own on-site visits, helped me understand about the technology, and helped the faculty understand about using it,” says Mobley. “Going to a live site meant we learned from fellow users, not just from the vendors.”

“For each room, we got a Cisco TelePresence C40 which acts as the brain and two cameras. There’s a 12X-zoom camera positioned at the back of the room pointing at the podium the professor teachers from, and at the front of each room, a 4X-zoom camera pointing at the students. The cameras connect to the Codec C40, and the Codec connects to the network,” says Mobley. One of the stipulations from university administrators was that every classroom be able to be used to teach “from” and to teach “to,” thus the two cameras.

Other equipment supporting delivery of distance learning includes an HD Epson projector that shows whiteboard, PowerPoint and other digital content. There’s also a 60-inch LG HDTV that shows the professor delivering the lecture and a 42-inch HD LG flat-screen TV in the back of the room that allows the professor to see the remote class. A pair of Polycom HDX Array ceiling microphones hang in each room.

“We like these a lot because each unit has three microphones, and a ‘gating’ feature, so if somebody in the back is creating an unwanted noise, like moving a chair, the unit turns that mike off while it’s happening,” says Mobley. In addition, the university purchased Shure lapel microphones that professors are required to wear during class. Since the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) requires all course lectures be recorded, FAMU also purchased a Cisco TelePresence Content Server for recording. The Cisco TelePresence Management Suite (TMS) allows for the management and administration of the new teleconferencing equipment.

“The distance learning technology team handles all scheduling requests, including for any seminars, meetings or other things beyond the normal class schedule. TMS allows us to look at all the classes in advance for the semester, confirm the rooms and more,” says Mobley. “We can manage every device of our distance learning set up, at all the locations, from one Web-based session. And I have a Cisco TelePresence EX90 “personal telepresence” videoconferencing desktop unit, which lets me ‘join’ classes by video — hiding my video, of course, since I’m not a class participant. This lets us monitor a class or event’s technical activity, we can tweak audio levels or other things if appropriate.” With Mobley or another IT person administering the technology, lecturers don’t have to do anything other than be sure to put on the lapel microphone.

Conveniently, adding HD video for distance learning didn’t require any changes or upgrades to FAMU’s existing network infrastructure, Mobley reports. “We try to allocate 2Mbps for each inter-site videoconferencing session, to provide enough bandwidth for video — which is the lion’s share of things — plus audio, a smart board, and anything else. We already had a huge circuit on the Tallahassee side, so all we had to do was add a 10 megabit-per-second Metro Ethernet circuit to Crestview. A class’s connection is a simple IP data call, across Ethernet, just like on our campus LAN.”

The overall cost for the Crestview campus, including re-doing a historic building into the new Pharmacy school, was on the order of $9.5 million, Mobley estimates. “The classroom technology, including distance learning teleconferencing technology, and including installation and wiring for network and power, along with the smart board technology, was probably somewhere between $600,000 to $700,000 of that.