{"id":6011,"date":"2018-04-26T08:41:58","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T15:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/industry\/blog\/more\/how-utah-state-modernizes-teaching-using-surface-studio\/"},"modified":"2019-10-16T02:22:31","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T02:22:31","slug":"how-utah-state-modernizes-teaching-using-surface-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/industry\/microsoft-in-business\/customer-experience\/2018\/04\/26\/how-utah-state-modernizes-teaching-using-surface-studio\/","title":{"rendered":"How Utah State modernizes teaching using Surface Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\nFocus on: Empower Educators, Transform Learning
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It\u2019s early morning, and campus is still quiet. A handful of students walk up Old Main Hill, last night\u2019s sleep still hovering just under their eyes as they make their way to their first class of the day. The last student of the bunch catches the drifting door handle as another student darts inside. He pauses to look over his shoulder at the stretch of mountain peaks lining Utah State\u2019s Logan campus. Might as well be a postcard, he thinks to himself, grinning toward the horizon. Then he turns into the doorway, stepping inside to begin his freshman year at USU.<\/p>\n

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Utah State University (USU) is the largest public residential campus in the state of Utah. The land-grant university offers courses at approximately 30 different centers and regional campuses across the state. USU serves a total of 27,679 undergraduate and graduate students, with 10,075 of them attending USU from a center location. Their commitment to innovative technology ensures USU\u2019s courses are accessible in 28 of Utah\u2019s 29 counties. As a result, USU is recognized as the statewide leader in broadcasting classes with internet video conferencing, transmitting more than 325 courses per week. Finding a digital communication solution for a highly-virtual university community<\/strong>Although video conferencing allowed USU educators to teach and communicate across distance, the platform didn\u2019t have the flexibility of in-person classroom instruction. The traditional teaching styles that most professors and lecturers were accustomed to didn\u2019t translate well to their digital broadcasting platform, impacting overall student engagement. For educators who prefer to write examples on a dry erase board or annotate materials as they taught, their instructions were often too difficult to read or not visible at all for students accessing the course via video.<\/p>\n

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USU educators needed a solution that wouldn\u2019t require professors and lecturers to alter their teaching style, while ensuring every note, annotation, and diagram is legible for all USU students. Ideally, USU would also implement the same digital solution in their 300-400-person lecture courses to increase visibility and engagement for students sitting in the back of large lecture halls.<\/p>\n

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Throughout the digital transformation process, USU emphasized using innovation to empower professors, ultimately allowing them to deliver consistently engaging classroom experiences to every student regardless of location. As such, USU needed a solution that was easily adaptable, with straightforward technology that could be used by educators with a range of technical expertise.<\/p>\n

As Donald \u201cShane\u201d Thomas, Director of Classroom Technology and Media Production, put simply, \u201cUnless you can give educators some technology that makes sense to them, and works for them, they\u2019re not going to use it.\u201d Empowering instructors with Surface Studio\u2019s cutting edge capabilities <\/strong>USU\u2019s forward-thinking Classroom Technology team chose Microsoft\u2019s Surface Studio devices to take their video broadcasting to the next level. Once the devices were implemented, faculty members reported experiencing additional flexibility and versatility during teaching, all the while broadcasting their courses easily to USU\u2019s multiple locations. Touchscreen capability makes the device especially easy to use regardless of technology experience, and the reliable technology ensures all annotations are clear and easy for students to read while viewing broadcasts. Instructors can also tilt the device\u2019s screen to ensure comfort while annotating, easily adjusting the device for varying heights, and use while standing, sitting, or interacting with the screen from any angle.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve given educators a piece of technology that allows them to annotate well,\u201d explains Shane. \u201cSurface Studio is the vehicle, and now we\u2019re also giving them the pathway with the OneNote integration within our learning management system, allowing them to distribute their annotations and other content seamlessly to their students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surface Studio\u2019s integration with both OneNote and Utah State\u2019s current learning management system (LMS) transforms education experiences for the entire USU community. Faculty can load teaching materials into OneNote from their office, and later pull up those same materials on the Surface Studio. Students can then access those same teaching materials from USU\u2019s LMS platform and view real-time annotations, enhancing engagement, comprehension, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cA student can actually bring up their LMS and almost in real-time see the teacher\u2019s annotations. So not only are the annotations being projected up on the classroom screen, but if they have a device, they can see it right there in the device, and that also helps students who are visually impaired,\u201d says Shane.<\/p>\n

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The University implemented 48 devices on their main Logan campus, and another 5 devices across their other USU campuses. In addition, they\u2019ve implemented another eight devices at their Salt Lake City location, and several more devices at their Brigham City and USU Eastern campuses. Designing an effective, individualized strategy to drive a successful adoption<\/strong>To prepare for the implementation, Shane and his team developed an adoption strategy that addressed educators\u2019 specific needs and individual comfort levels. Shane\u2019s team regularly emailed all faculty members before each academic semester with any changes or updates made in the classrooms, and they used this same strategy to introduce the Surface Studio devices. They supplemented the email campaign with instructional videos and helpful documents, in addition to offering faculty trainings one-on-one or by department. Shane\u2019s team also offered to meet faculty members in their office or classroom to go over the technology and devices in person. This hands-on approach allowed educators to interact with the solution ahead of time and ask questions before the semester began.<\/p>\n

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Utah State is currently focusing the Surface Studio devices on larger venue courses, and prioritizing faculty members who use the annotation and writing features regularly, such as mathematics, architecture, statistics, and art classes. The solution has already transformed USU\u2019s uniquely spread-out university community, enabling them to maintain student experiences across locations, educators, and venues.<\/p>\n

Exploring more digital solutions to enhance learning in the future<\/strong>Even with Surface Studio devices on USU\u2019s campus, the university is still looking toward the future, keeping an eye out for innovation opportunities to further advance classroom experiences. According to Shane, all future technology updates will be planned around the Surface Studio integration to ensure consistency across classrooms and standardized learning and teaching experiences. \u201cAnytime we need to update the technology in a new classroom, the Surface Studio is the centerpiece,\u201d Shane says. \u201cWe are going to design our classroom technology around the Surface Studios.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utah State is also currently in the process of planning an Office 365 adoption. Although the solution hasn\u2019t been fully implemented yet, according to Shane, USU faculty members and students are already excited and eager to explore the features and capabilities they\u2019ll be able to leverage in the future.<\/p>\n

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