Blueprint for Interactive Classrooms: Classrooms

The purpose of the BIC project is to design a range of interactive telepresence classrooms, suited to different purposes, but at the same time compatible and complementary. Each classroom facilitates the delivery or reception of courses over a variety of telematics networks, and incorporates a variety of interaction mechanisms (e.g. ISDN videoconferencing, telephone, computer conferencing).

The reader should recall that the five institutions have interactive classrooms and distance learning set-ups that are quite distinct from each other. So, to remind readers, at the beginning of each case study there is a brief description of the key features each partner institution has.

The classrooms are designed to suit the following teaching and learning scenarios:

An automated teaching presentation area, with students at remote sites.

The telepresence classroom at UCD allows the teacher to control the delivery of a class to, and interaction with, students in remote locations. The students may be on their own or in learner groups. More information about the UCDublin BIC classroom.

An automated teaching presentation area, with local and remote students.

Similar to the UCD classroom, the classroom at POLIMI  however has a group of students in the same location as the teacher as well as a remote group. More information about the POLIMI BIC classroom.

An area suited to group presentation and interaction

This interactive classroom, at K.U.Leuven, is designed to facilitate presentation by a group of experts from a location which may vary, to one or more learner groups in remote locations. More information about the KULeuven BIC classroom.

A learning area for a lone learner

This learning area, designed by HUT, caters for a learner who is receiving and interacting with the class on their own, for example at home, in an SME, or in a library. More information about the HUT BIC classroom.

A learning area for a group of learners

The UN2 demonstrator classroom has been designed to accommodate collaborative work between local and distant groups of learners as a priority. It has a maximum capacity of 20 learners. More information about the UN2 BIC classroom.