EdTech tools for supporting remote attendance
Rooms, equipment and other tools available in the College of Education that can help provide remote access to live classes and events.
Tools for Supporting Remote Attendance
Providing remote access to live events and classes helps include people who would otherwise be unable to attend or contribute. This can be done to help keep everyone healthy (e.g. during a pandemic), provide access to people with disabilities, and bring in voices of people who are otherwise unable to attend physically (e.g. guest speakers at a distance).
Access can be as simple as setting up a laptop with Zoom to stream an event, or as complex as setting up multiple screens and cameras to enable active conversation between remote and in-person participants.
See Managing Remote Attendance for more details and strategies.
On this page: Rooms, Equipment, Software
Rooms in Furcolo with equipment for remote attendance
The following rooms in Furcolo Hall have equipment installed that can be helpful for connecting to remote participants. (See Classroom Descriptions for specifics such as number of seats, types of tables, cameras, size of screens.)
Rooms with installed computers for presenting
110 - 20-seat classroom designed for team-based learning and group activities. Equipped with a computer at the presenter station, four wall-mounted screens that can also be used individually by groups (AppleTV.)
201 - 24-seat classroom with movable wing tables. Equipped with a computer at the presenter station and two wall-mounted screens.
Rooms with built in recording (Echo360) and sound systems
101 - 48-seat classroom with movable rectangular tables. Equipped with room-based recording (Echo360), sound system with wireless lavalier microphone, document camera, four wall-mounted screens.
102 - 48-seat classroom with movable rectangular tables. Equipped with room-based recording (Echo360), sound system with wireless lavalier microphone, document camera, four wall-mounted screens.
125 - 200-seat auditorium. Equipped with room-based recording (Echo360), sound system with wireless lavalier microphone, conference microphone (Jabra), web camera, document camera, retractable projection screen, projector, and confidence laptop for monitoring the Zoom feed.
Rooms with projectors and sound systems
W107 - 42-seat classroom with tablet desks. Equipped sound system with wireless lavalier microphone, retractable projection screen, and projector.
Rooms with installed conferencing camera/microphone (OWL)
N125 - 14-seat conference room with large table. Equipped with a conferencing camera/microphone (OWL) and wall-mounted screen.
S113 - 14-seat conference room with large table. Equipped with a conferencing camera/microphone (OWL) and wall-mounted screen.
All other classrooms in Furcolo have at least one screen for displaying bring-your-own devices.
Equipment that can be checked out
The following equipment can be checked out to equip any room for remote participation. For best results, reserve equipment ahead of time--especially if the equipment will be needed for each class. EdTech can provide training.
OWL - conference microphone, speaker, and 360 camera (that automatically focuses on person speaking). Connect via USB to laptop. Good for streaming active meetings or seminar discussions.
Video Conference Cart - portable screen with attached webcam and OWL microphone, speaker, and camera. Good for displaying remote participants to the room while streaming active discussions.
Jabra conference microphone - good for picking up audio of a large group or in a large room. The Jabra in the auditorium can pick up a person speaking at the back of the room.
iPad with tripod mount - tablet with built-in screen, microphone and camera. Good for recording and streaming individuals, or including remote participants in small group discussions.
Laptop - good for setting up a separate device for recording or streaming a class. Can also be used to provide a “confidence monitor” of the remote participant view of the stream. Make sure that you can connect the laptop to the equipment in the room - for best results, schedule a test run with EdTech staff at edtech-ithelp [at] umass [dot] edu (edtech-ithelp[at]umass[dot]edu).
Software to Support Remote Attendance
Zoom - for connecting live remote participants and recording live meetings. Features include screen sharing, live captions, backchannel chat, and recording to cloud or local hard drive.
Echo360 - for recording live events and pre-recording lectures (personal capture). Echo360 platform can be used to host recordings and embed videos in Moodle and Blackboard classes. Videos recorded outside Echo360 (e.g. in Zoom) can be uploaded and hosted in Echo360.
Chat platforms (Zoom, Microsoft Teams) allow live text messages to be exchanged in real-time. Useful for collecting questions, sharing resources, and getting quick input from participants. Use with both in-person and remote attendees to involve both groups in an event.
Collaborative files (Google Apps, Microsoft Teams) allow participants to work together to produce and edit documents. Useful to provide a place for individuals and groups to create and share their work. Can also be used to create a collaborative reference of links and resources for participants to build together and access later.
Online asynchronous discussion platforms (Moodle, Blackboard, Microsoft Teams) allow participants to engage with each other and the instructor at any time. Use instructionally to have participants respond to prompts, ask questions, keep individual journals. and manage project work. Use to build community by maintaining forums that help participants keep in touch and share class logistics, successes, struggles, and funny dog videos (for example).
Check in forms (Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, Qualtrix) provide a quick way to check on student progress and engagement; e.g. collecting questions, asking for responses to readings, or checking in on how students are feeling (See this check-in survey example from “Teaching Remotely in Times of Need” Trust, 2020).