Canada College Builds Wing of Flexible Classrooms
Sheridan College, based in Ontario, Canada, has added a new wing of 20 classrooms, featuring a flexible classroom design, to its Brampton campus. The new classrooms, outfitted with computers, wireless microphones, document cameras, mobile podiums, and projectors, aim to foster a collaborative learning environment.
Sheridan worked with AV systems integrator Advanced on the project. School administrators had specific ideas and objectives for its new classrooms, according to Mark McPherson, vice president at Advanced. "Sheridan wanted to create a flex classroom environment that would provide students and professors the ability to interact and lecture in various ways," said McPherson in a prepared statement from the company."
The school's new wing includes 19 flex classrooms and one "Co-Lab." The flex classrooms feature NEC projectors, Dell computers, AverMedia document cameras, Extron digital processor and power amplifiers, and Shure wireless microphones. Each room also includes a movable podium that supports network connectivity. A ceiling mounted racking system in every room houses the microphone receiver and sound processor.
The wing's Co-Lab features the same audio and video components installed in the flex classrooms, plus six projectors and a podium that allows instructors to "control four video sources simultaneously." Two modes, for classroom and team, support multiple forms of presentation. With classroom mode, instructors can present material on the main projector screen. Team mode, designed for group work, allows content to be projected to six different areas in the classroom.
Sheridan plans to standardize its new flex classroom design for all new classrooms built on its three campuses, according to Advance. The school has installed five new classrooms since the original project.
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Kanoe Namahoe is online editor for 1105 Media's Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].