As mentioned, at UCLA we are currently working to expand our “extended classroom” instructional model, where a portion of students are local and the rest remote (other UCs).

Besides allowing us to continue to offer less commonly taught languages here in Los Angeles, this also allows remote students access to courses they may not have normally.

While our ultimate goal is to create a portable instructor’s kit that can be used anywhere, we’re going through a lot of testing currently on the right equipment. As most people know, the devil in in the audio.

We are currently utilizing a mobile cart mounted solution to facilitate this in our spaces. The carts offer maximum flexibility, and don't’ require us to involve other departments (facilities) if we want to make a change to the set up.

I’ve created a spreadsheet with the specs of our last cart, please note that any of the equipment may be swapped out for anything else.  

As I mentioned we are currently still testing microphones; the Jabra set listed is nice due to the wireless feature, but doesn’t work as well with groups over 6-8 people. Sennheiser has a new set called Teamconnect wireless; however this set retails for over $3500.  As expensive as that is, a set of those would still be cheaper than hardwiring a space, and we look forward to testing them in the near future.

As we look to refurbish one of our learning spaces, we are strongly leaning towards deploying a fleet of these, with the capability to mirror images across all devices.

Thomas Garbelotti | Instructional Technology Coordinator
UCLA Center for Digital Humanities
(310) 206-0056