Academic Technology

The EOU IT Department has a limited supply of laptops for EOU staff faculty to checkout on a temporary basis. Each laptop has a camera and microphone so you are able to conduct Zoom session for hybrid and online courses.

The EOU IT Department has a limited supply of Google ChromeBooks available for currently employed EOU faculty/staff to checkout on a temporary basis. These can be used to whiteboard during a hybrid class through Zoom.

The EOU IT Department has a limited supply of Swivl Robot Units available for currently employed EOU faculty/staff to checkout on a temporary basis. These can be used to broadcast a Zoom session in an area where a camera and microphone aren’t available. For all available hybrid classrooms with a camera & microphone, please visit the EOU Smart Classroom website.

The EOU IT Department has a limited supply of Document Cameras available for currently employed EOU faculty/staff to checkout on a temporary basis. These can be used to show hard copy books, worksheets and documents along with showcasing specific items during a hybrid class through Zoom. For all available classrooms with a document camera, please visit the EOU Smart Classroom website.

Hybrid Classroom Tips

• Some Smart Classrooms are equipped with a webcam and a single room microphone (mic) for hybrid course instruction.
  • The mic is very sensitive and will pick up most of the sound in the room.
  • The webcam is set for a view of the teaching space, and some of the student seats where possible.
  • Both devices are connected directly to the classroom’s computer through USB ports so it is instantly recognized by Zoom.
  • Computer audio output is through the room speakers (where it was available in the past).

Room Mic Best Practices

• Don’t block or cover the mics, that will mute the sound and cause noise.
• Everyone needs to speak slowly and clearly. Single room mic sound is never perfect, and masks muffle and distort the sound of one’s voice. You may need to repeat yourself and be patient when people have trouble understanding. People with soft voices may not be heard well over the mic, especially when wearing masks. Speaking closely to the room mic while observing social distancing may help.
• The classroom must be as quiet as possible, as room acoustics may vary. Any noise, such as snack bags, paper rustling, and side conversations, which humans in the room can “tune out,” can seem so loud over a mic that they easily overpower anyone speaking.
• Encourage people to indicate when they haven’t heard something.
• Remote participants should mute their mics if they are not actively speaking to the class. Room noises from remote locations are just as disruptive as noises in the classroom.
• If anyone in the classroom other than the instructor logs in to the Zoom session, they will need to keep their mics muted at all times to prevent audio feedback from the room mic. Given the variation in stream delays, it is also recommended that they use headphones or earbuds if they want to listen to the audio from the Zoom session, as the echo-like delay over open speakers can be very distracting.

NOTE: Please try and make an extra effort to include remote students. Not being physically in the classroom cuts them off from most of our normal communication pathways, and they often begin to feel left out and disengaged. It can very quickly become extremely frustrating and discouraging for them.

If possible, have one or more students in the classroom help monitor the chat and hand raising functions in Zoom. Encourage everyone in the classroom to pay attention to, and interact with, the remote students.

Try to look into the camera often. This is difficult to do, as we are “wired” to look at faces. Some people even put pictures of a face very close to their camera to make this easier. Or stand in a position so that the camera is near your line of sight to a student in the room. This will also improve any recordings you are making.

EOU faculty now have another option to print instructional documents wirelessly to a new photocopier in Pierce Library. This new service allows EOU faculty to automatically charged print jobs to your student account (to have your college reimburse you when used for your courses) or you can pay for the print jobs directly at the library.