ALL the plans had been made to hold amemorable SCHOMS 2020 conferencein Edinburgh in May to mark our 20thanniversary.

However, the year has turned out tobe memorable for very different reasons.

We could not have foreseen the extentto which the Covid19 pandemic wasgoing to change our daily lives.

2020 was shaping up well for us afterISE in February (see page 3). We hadplanned a series of follow-ups and aprogramme of face-to-face sponsorengagement as well as the conferenceitself. But everything came to a halt.

It’s extremely doubtful that we will beable to set a new date for theconference this year. We are looking atour options but it’s likely that we willdefer it for 12 months, holding it in thesame place, same time next year.

Our workplaces would have taken adim view of the conference beingchanged to sometime in the comingmonths. By this time next year, we hope that socialdistancing and travel requirements will have returned tosome form of normality.

It is important in these difficult times, though, to sticktogether as a community and continue to share ideas.

To that end we are going to have a short onlineconference on Thursday 9 July which will include ourAGM and an update on future plans as well as memberpresentations.

We will be looking for your views on how SCHOMS

can support the community and therewill be a survey shortly to get yourthoughts. Your input will proveinvaluable in making sure our plannedactivity delivers on your needs.

We hope to run a series of shortconferences during the next year withthemes relevant to the evolvinglandscape culminating in our face-to-face conference around May 2021.

However we recognise that sponsorsand suppliers cannot be as easilyaccommodated in a virtual conferenceand the suppliers’ exhibition at the annualconference is fundamental to our financialstanding. We are having discussions withthem to see how we can work moreclosely over the coming months. Nothaving the conference this year has hadan impact on our finances but we havereserves and we continue to monitor ouroutgoings. We are confident SCHOMS isin a strong position to continue to operateto and deliver to our members.

We also continue to keep in touch with our partnersboth at home and abroad (see pages 2 and 4) to prepareto face the new future together.

In the meantime, look back through this issue to thatdistant SCHOMS19 world in Bournemouth when socialdistancing was an unknown phrase and no secondthought was given to travelling.

With your help and support, we will continue toreconnect and rebuild in both established and innovativeways. Stay safe.

connectionsexpertise creativity enhancement technology community support no12 summer 2020

SCHOMS on theinternational stage

Huge challengesof an AI future

VR and AR isgetting real

www.schoms.ac.uk

Log in for SCHOMS2020

Chair Mark Dunlopon a memorableyear for the wrongreasons and ontaking this year’sconference online

Short online conference announced for Thursday 9 July which willinclude AGM, an update on future plans and member presentations

international schoms www.schoms.ac.uk

Lessons from American experience

CCUMC has close to 700 membersacross the US, incorporating about180 institutions and 30 corporations.Its mission is to provide soundleadership and a forum forinformation exchange.

The conference – open to bothdelegates and sponsors to provide abalanced perspective on deliveringtechnical solutions in higher education– included a range of presentations,workshops and concurrent sessionswith titles including:4Accessibility and the role of the

Media Centre4Immersive synchronous lecture

halls4Running a real-world proof of

concept4Overcoming faculty disincentives4Using data to socialise strategy

technology decisions In her keynote address, Helen

Rothberg, Professor and Strategy,quoted, ‘everything I know aboutleadership I learnt as a bartender’.

She identified technology as theharbinger of change, the stability andthe disruption in what we can do andhow we do it. Sometimes we were the

usher of change, sometimes theimplementer, sometimes the receiver.

“As the interpreters of this strangetechnological language you arewelcomed and dreaded in equalmeasure,” she said.

Similar to the SCHOMS facilitatedsponsor/delegate workshop, CCUMCran a chaotic yet fun and engagingDesign Thinking activity.

Educational attendees were dividedinto groups and asked to compile listsof likes and wishes about theirrelationships with vendors andmanufacturers – who were invited todo the same about the institutions.Both groups then picked out the mostvaluable and important.

The most important ‘like’ was a desirefrom both parties to build partnershipsrather than just a relationship with asalesperson or customer.

Other wishlist items included theability to purchase extended warranties,price and aftersales support.

Notable among the range ofprofessional development workshopswas ‘Adapting and Thriving, a HESurvival Guide’ which consideredguiding change, mentoring, buildingrelationships and professionalevolution. It was an interestingreflective exercise.

There were tours of not only MaristCollege learning and teachingfacilities but also neighboring collegesincluding the prestigious VassarCollege, the Culinary Institute ofAmerica and Bard College.

The tours highlighted the issues and

similarities experienced in both UK andUS higher education where there is stilla disconnect between the environmentstudents want to ‘learn’ in and College‘teaching’ provision

There is a need for morecollaborative learning spaces, but thisrequires a culture change.

It was not only a privilege and avaluable experience to attend theconference but highlighted theimportance of building partnershipsand the evolution and development oftechnology focussed landscapes we allface in higher education to supportstudents on their pedagogical journey.

Vice-chair Caroline Pepper represented SCHOMS at theConsortium of College and University Media Centers(CCUMC) annual conference in New York last October. Theconference – ‘Techsploration on the Hudson’ – was hostedby Marist College, a comprehensive, independent institution

on the banks of the historic Hudson River. “Its green campus provided anexcellent backdrop to engage with sponsors and delegates from highereducation institutions around the US,” Caroline said. “It also provided theopportunity to raise the international profile of SCHOMS and engage with theCCUMC Executive Board to discuss collaboration and increased engagementbetween organisations.” Here she writes about her visit.

Marist College is grounded in theliberal arts and home to numerousCentres of Excellence in New Yorkstate.

In his welcome address, ThomasWermut, Vice President ofAcademic Affairs and Dean ofFaculty, provided a fascinatinginsight into the history of thecollege and region.

The college was born when theMarist Brothers came to NewYork's Hudson River Valley justover a century ago to train youngmen to continue the brothers'vocation as great educators.

It is close to the home of FranklinD. Roosevelt national historic sitewhich includes a library andmuseum, and various historicmansions along the river includingthe Vanderbilt estate at Hyde Park.

The conferencehighlighted the importanceof building partnershipsand the evolution anddevelopment of technologyfocussed landscapes

“

“

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international schomsTwitter: @SCHOMSinfo

SCHOMS features inISE headline session

SCHOMSprovided thesponsorship for57 members from41 HE institutions

to visit ISE – the last to be held inAmsterdam – in February.

The SCHOMS delegation explored1,300 exhibitors across 15 hallsshowcasing AV creative solutions andintegration experiences.

They also attended a range ofpresentations including; 4designing for today’s technology

solution 4active verses passive learning,

and 4creating the classroom of the

future. A SCHOMS, EUNIS and AVIXA

partnership – the Higher Education AVConference – launched the event,focussing on how AV technology canimpact people’s experiences.

A diverse range of speakersincluded Dom Pates of SCHOMSmember City University.

In his session ‘The HolographicAcademic: a speculative learningdesign workshop’, Dom – Senior

3

4Integrated Systems Europe(ISE) is the largest AV systemsintegration show in the world.4It began in Geneva in 2004

with around 3,500 attendees. 4This year - its swansong in

the historic and iconic city ofAmsterdam - it attracted 52,000attendees. 4In 2021, ISE will relocate to

the Fira de Barcelona exhibitioncomplex

Educational Technologist in LearningEnhancement and Development –challenged delegates to come up withtheir own design uses for thetechnology in higher education.

“This provided the opportunity tobalance blue sky thinking with thetechnical challenges ofimplementation, which is where Iasked the thorny question of how wetimetable such an activity,” saidSCHOMS attendee Caroline Pepper.

Other topics included the AV andaccessibility challenges posed by thenew guidance for universities, whichwill require time and resource toensure compliance.

A separate presentation from theNorwegian University of Science andTechnology about learning and teachingin a distributed environment showcasedinnovation and collaboration frommultiple stakeholder perspectives.

“ISE is always a fantastic event tonetwork with colleagues, partners andour valued sponsors who havebecome great friends,” said Caroline.

“This year the SCHOMS executivemet with Sarah Joyce, Chief GlobalOfficer and David Labuskes CEO of

AVIXA to further strengthen ourpartnership. “

At the same time, ISE provided itsusual paradox of rhetoric, she added.“On the one hand, it promoted theAVIXA Women's Council paneldiscussion to support and empowerwomen who work in technology andAV industries. On the other, visitors tothe stand were attracted by a poledancing female robot!”

The dedicated SCHOMS loungeprovided respite from the vast expanseand visual audio chaos of the halls.

“In light of the current Covidchallenges we need to carefullyconsider options for ISE Barcelona2021,” said Caroline.

ISE is always a fantastic event to network with colleagues, partners and our valuedsponsors – this year we met with AVIXA to further strengthen our partnership“ “

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international schoms www.schoms.ac.uk

Networks open up new doors

AV/IT inclusion helps to transform project planningA ‘CHANGE of mythology’ about project planning wasrequired on a major university development in NewZealand, according to Emerson Pratt – and that meantbringing together a geek, a dentist and a builder.

As newly-appointed ICT Manager for the Dental School atthe University of Otago – the southern hemisphere’s largestdental school and practice – he decided to change thestructure of a traditional project office.

The key part was to get away fromthe idea that construction ranprojects, he said.

“Our building team is amazing atbuilding but has no idea about IT, noidea about AV and certainly no ideaabout being a dentist.”

Emerson said the process had tochange because, while buildingsmight meet physical needs, they

might not meet user needs. “They are designed by buildersfor the cheapest price and while you consider your users,you don’t really know your users – they’re not part of theproject. You know them from about 40 hours of meetingsyou may have had at the start of the project but you weren’tliving and breathing with them.”

So Emerson brought AV/IT, customers and builderstogether in the same project planning office. ”I like to callthe team the Geek, the Dentist and the Builder,” he said.

Each project manager had their specialty and usergroups. “For example, I had an X-ray team made up ofdentists and most importantly, our students and our dentalnurses. The day-to-day dental nurse perspective wascompletely different to that of the dentists and academics.”

Having the project officers under the same roof was key,Emerson said. “You got to hear the little details that you don’tget in meetings. We certainly gained a better understandingof our users and what they wanted.”

AETM scholarship winner Kevin Knox told SCHOMS19how he delivered a 42-room refresh programme byintroducing a major management process around thePedagogy Space and Technology (PST) model (Radcliffe2008).

He said he knew the future of infrastructure was all aboutnetwork-centric models so he built relationships with thenetwork manager and investigated AV standards.

“I had a look at where we were, conducted focus group

SCHOMS19 welcomed two members from our Asia/Pacific region sister organisation AETM – VicePresident Emerson Pratt, ICT Manager for the Dental School at the University of Otago in NewZealand, and Kevin Knox, Learning Systems Manager at Australian National University. As well asproviding an update on AETM activites, Emerson spoke on how he changed the structure of atraditional project office when it came to planning for a major development at his institution. Kevin

gained the opportunity to speak to SCHOMS members after being awarded an AETM scholarship for his presentation totheir annual conference. He shared the methods he used to bring network-centric IT change to his university.

AETM have 55 HE members acrossAustralia, New Zealand and theAsia Pacific region, includingSamoa, Singapore and Japan, VicePresident Emerson Pratt toldSCHOMS19.

They had also welcomed 12 non-university members – “a couple ofmuseums and some of the biggerhigh schools in Australia.”

All types of issues were discussedby members on the AETM websiteforums, which it was hoped wouldbe opened up to include SCHOMSmembers as well.

Emerson explained how AETMoperated its own awards – forWoman in AV and Young AVProfessional (in the first five yearsof their career) .

He added that AETM ranscholarships to SCHOMS andCCUMC and had also producedtheir own audio visual guidelines,which were free to download.

meetings with academics andstudents, asked them all what wasgoing well, what could be improvedand to provide one aspirationalcomponent with pedagogy, space andtechnology.

“I collated it all and created aformal SWOT analysis document.”

But most important was theexecution of the strategy, Kevin said.“Without people, the strategy does notevolve.

“I did a skills gaps analysis andpresented it to Chief Information Officer,saying I would harness IT infrastructures

including helpdesk, VM servers and theIT environment. I was given money totake on people for 12 months andprove I could change this around.”

Kevin described his strategy asnetwork-centric and client-focussed,with an emphasis on being responsiveto calls. It included customer feedbacksoftware integrated withinServiceNow and Cloud-based.

He said as a result of his strategy,he had inherited another 40 roomswhich were going to be put on thenetwork.

schoms19 recap

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Twitter: @SCHOMSinfo

Tech future poses ‘huge’ challenges

ACCORDING to an OU annual reportthese are the latest examples oflearning innovations:4‘playful learning’ – a higher

education version of the primary school development; 4learning with robots; 4‘decolourising learning’ –

having an inclusive curriculum; 4drone-based learning; 4learning through wonder; 4action learning; 4playspace learning.

Workplaces of the future are going to betransformed by automated artificialintelligence (AI) technologies as peopleincreasingly interact with ever-smartermachines, Professor Debbie Holley toldSCHOMS19. And delegates were given ataste of things to come when they weresplit into groups and asked to use greenscreen technology. It was all part of a‘Tech Futures’ workshop devised byDebbie – Professor of Learning Innovationat Bournemouth University – pictured (farright) with her team of managers,academics and technologists.

HIGHER education is facing huge change in terms of what it prepares studentsfor, Professor Debbie Tolley told SCHOMS members.

“Sixty five per cent of UK children who started primary school last Septemberwill work on jobs that aren’t known to us at the moment. At the same time, 73%of undergraduates come from ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds and we’ve got a farmore diverse workplace.

“Technology is changing with the Cloud, mobile, social media, AI, CRNsystems, big data – 90% of the data in the world was created in 2018.

“These technologies and human-machine interaction are going to change theskills required of human workers. The challenge for educators is to shift our ownattitudes and practices and to work with students to create new ways of working.”

With mobile phones, internet and smart phones, students can learn any place,any time, Debbie said. “We have to engage our students. We need to have awhole range of technologies to help them become digital makers. That’s whatour employers really want.”

DELEGATES were tasked withthinking about emerging technologytrends in their workshop groupsand to create a one-minute elevatorpitch using Bandicam software, awebcam, a pop-up green screenand a laptop or PC.

Dave Fevyer, Innovation andTechnology Manager atBournemouth University, explained:“We got chroma key green screen technology because wewant to see how academics might use it to create shortvideos.

“There’s already been work going on around lecturecapture and the flipped classroom. We’ve also seen howit could be a major part of content delivery to the studentthrough video In blended learning and distance learning.

Dave added that Panopto and other tools like VLEsachieved a certain degree of engagement and could havethe lecturer visible as well as heard, but didn’t look overly

natural. “While you can get awaywith it if students are viewing on adesktop, it becomes more difficultwhen they’re viewing on mobilephones,” he said

“Often there’s a desire not tohave the lecturer filmed because itimpedes on the screen and forceseverything down to a small box.

“As an alternative, you can placethe lecturer inside the content. There are still certainlimitations on space but it does open up more of thatmobile view and make it more effective.”

He said it increased engagement for the student becauseit gave a more professional look – “like the sort of contentthey would be consuming in other areas of life.”

But one of the difficulties was that not every member ofstaff might have the time or the motivation to learn how touse the webcams and laptops that they had set up withpop-up green screens.

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schoms19 recap www.schoms.ac.uk

Simply get straight to the point

DELEGATES were asked to imaginethey were writing a report that wasdue out and about which they had togive a talk in a couple of days.

“You’re thinking ‘am I saying what Ineed to say?’ What to do is role-playa 30-second summary,” Jon advised.

“Grab someone and say ‘force meto verbally summarise this report toyou in 30 seconds’.

“Don’t choose people to do this whoreport to you. They’ll be flattering,obsequious. You want somebodywho’s going to be tough on you.

“Sounds simple, obvious and basicbut it’s the most important bit in thetraining today.”

Unlike an elevator pitch – “that’sdone by cheesey salespeople in acheesey voice, lasts five seconds andit’s aimed at getting a meeting in yourdiary afterwards” – the summary is 30seconds, meant to inform not teaseand aims to avoid a dull meeting.

“Two things happen when yousummarise verbally. The first is – youwill talk normally. Simple languagecomes out when people talk.

“When people write, weirdlanguage comes out like ‘We mustfacilitate the implementation of theenhancement of greater cross-divisional collaboration amongst ourkey stakeholders’. But when we talkwe say ‘we need to talk to get ourpeople to work together better’.

“The second thing that happens –you’re forced to get to the point.

“If I’m listening to your summary andyou say: ‘Jon, step back to five yearsago when we rolled out a new

system’. I’ll say ‘Stop. I don’t want ahistory lesson. Get to the point’.

“So you say ‘we’ve got four optionsgoing forward.’ I’ll say ‘Stop. This isnot an Agatha Christie novel. I don’twant you to describe four suspects,sow a few red herrings, kill two offhalfway and give me the final answeron the back page. Get to the point.’

“So then you say ‘OK, I want£10,000 to spend on system XYZ tohelp us work together better’.

“Good start. But it’s five seconds not30. We’ve been left with too manyunanswered questions.

“So I bug you with questions. Whysystem XYZ, not system ABC, what’sthe do-nothing, how long would ittake, what are the risks.’

“When it comes to the risks, usesimple language. If you have to,explain that the person who wrote thesoftware fell under a bus yesterdayand will be off for three months, iflonger the project overruns.’

“Then I’ll say ‘how long will it take’.You produce a Gannt chart, preparedin Powerpoint, university logo topright, arrows from left to rightsweeping gracefully in corporate blue.

“I say ‘I don’t care about yourGannt chart, that’s what you know, it’snot what you need, put the chart awayand answer the question. How long?’

“And you say ‘six months’ and I say‘that’s it, didn’t need the Gannt chartfor that, did you’.

“After I bug you with questions for10 minutes you end up with 30seconds of pure gold. And you shovethat pure gold right at the top of thereport, first three or four paragraphs.

“It’s even better for your talks. Comeout with your 30-second summary atthe start.

“Let’s say you’ve been allowed 20minutes to present and 10 minutes forquestions and answers. In those 20minutes, they expect Gannt charts theydon’t want to see, be reminded ofbackground they already know, be toldobjectives that are usually obvious.

“Give them the 30-second summary,maybe 60, enough so they candecide whatever next is of interest tothem and then shut up. How long doesthe meeting last? Five minutes.

“After five minutes, they love youridea and you’re out the door. Or theyhate your idea and you’re out thedoor. I can’t promise they’ll like it butthey’ll suss it out a lot quicker.

“When you start your meetings withthis 30-second summary, you lookprofessional, forward-thinking,focussed. Your meetings are muchshorter. The people you’re chatting to,your bosses, they love you for it. This30-second summary gives delegateschoice. You don’t show your Ganntchart unless they ask to see it.

“The best way to improve a writtenreport is to talk about it. It sounds verycounter intuitive but it really works.”

In his own inimitable style, Jon Moon – a leading authority on document clarity –gave delegates tips on how to convey reports and talks in a way that othersinstantly grasp and which hit the right notes. Jon, director of Clarity and Impact,explained: “Apparently, people act on facts. So, to persuade, we simply drownthem with facts. . . tables, analysis, graphs. No. Discover how to get to the nubof your message. Result: you save time – yours and others. And you influenceand impress.”

When you start your meetings with a 30-second summary, you look professional,forward-thinking, focussed. Your meetings are shorter. People will love you for it“ “

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schoms19 recapTwitter: @SCHOMSinfo

The bad news – most talks are dreadful. “With bosses we worry about what colour blue, what size font, they

interrupt, they find typing errors, hijack and humiliate. “With lunch and learns, we tell ‘em what we’re going to tell ‘em, tell ‘em,

tell em’ what we told ‘em.”The good news – most talks are dreadful.

“Tthe bar is really low,” said Jon..”If you do a half-decent talk, you’ll shine. “When I started talking at conferences, I was nervous because I thought of

the other presenters were going to be la crème de la crème. No. Most ofthem are poor. And the worse they are, the happier I am.”

“WE turn up to talks, we see peopleput a load of stuff on screen and wethink ‘oh god’. Then we’re giving atalk and we go ‘let’s put a load ofstuff on screen’. Try and do the exactopposite of what others do”.

He described ‘lunch and learn’ asa tougher talk because the audienceis not going to interrupt.

“It’s a case of ‘entertain me’. Alsoyou’ve got eight things to say andyou agonise over a theme to takeyou from one to the next.”

His ‘get out of jail card’ was lists.“If you’ve got to give a talk onAV/IT, announce it as ‘The five

myths of AV/IT’ or ‘Six things youdon’t know about AV/IT’ or ‘Av/ITin five numbers’. Hang what youwant to say on that construct.

You can mix up long and short,the serious and jokes. You don’thave to do wordy links.

But he advised against saying ‘the14 things you don’t know aboutAV/IT’. “They’ll think ‘we’re going tobe here all day’. Go with seventhings you don’t know and if it goeswell, come up with the other seven.”using it in talks to bosses. “Don’t say‘cost overruns in five numbers’.They’ll think you’re taking the rise.”

“MOST talks at lunch and learn, training events, staff updates start with ‘tell‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em; tell ‘em; tell ‘em what you’ve told ‘em.’ It’sa well-known way of boring people stupid in the first 30 seconds.”

Jon replayed the routine. “First, Pat of the presenting team will talk throughthe objectives behind the survey, what we hope to achieve and how we’vereshaped those objectives in the light of feedback from key stakeholders.Then Chris will look at the methods, the questions we asked, and Les willlook at the findings segmented between corporate retail, regulated and non-regulated, I will then return to look at lessons, themes and next steps’. At thatpoint, everyone is thinking ‘kill me now’.

“I prefer a different construct. What is your capture? What do you say inthe first 30 seconds to make people go ‘whoa, got my attention’.

“If I need to cover objectives, I will do it as a casual aside or put a twiston them. About an hour in, I’ll say ‘thanks for your question, you’ve mademe realise, you thought today was about this, this and this, but what Ihaven’t made clear, it’s about that, that and that.’”

PEOPLE spend too long worryingabout their slides and not enoughtime thinking about what they aregoing to say, according to Jon.

“You don’t have to havesomething on the screen every timeyou do or say something. It’senough just to do it or say it.

“Some people tell me ‘if I don’thave slides, that creates a problem.I have no slides to hand out’. I say‘no, that solves a problem, youshould never hand out your slides’.

“You can’t do something thatserves two masters. You’ve got todo slides that work as slides and ahandout that works as a handout.

“If you give them a decenthandout, they won’t care about theslides. We really over complicatewith the bad habits we’ve got into.”

Jon clarified that he was notagainst slides, he was against script-on-screen and cliched photos - suchas a teamwork message illustratedby a picture of a rowing eight.

He felt a colleague gave a betterexample at a lunch and learn onsales. “He clicked to reveal ascreen-filling photograph of anAmazonian frog and said ‘Sales,it’s like kissing frogs, you’ve got tokiss a lot of frogs to find a prince’.Not a bad opening.”

START with a pause for six or sevenseconds. “I’ll sometimes get a felttip pen, go to a flipchart and justpretend I’m trying it out,” said Jon.

“When you present, you’renervous, because the audience arethe emperors and you’re the jester.

“When you go to the front andpause, you grab a bit of controlback. It’s my space, my time, myzone, I’ll start when I’m ready.

“It also stopped me from doingwhat I used to do as soon as I hitthe lectern, I’d start vomiting it out.”

‘Good slides won’t savea bad talk and bad slidesrarely ruin a good talk’

A tip for nerves

‘The good news and bad news about talks’

‘Think about everything you hate and don’t do it’

‘How to bore people stupid in the first 30 seconds’

Gary Keene (right) - Manager Audio VisualOperations, Google - runs a team of designers, projectmanagers and UX-ers who focus on conference space.Google has 20,000 meeting rooms, all videoconferencing enabled, with an average of 50 newrooms being added every week. In his talk ‘AV atspeed and scale’, Gary spoke on how Googlemanages the design, deployment and support issuesthat arise from having a fleet of that size.

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schoms19 recap www.schoms.ac.uk

GOOGLE has about 100,000 full-timeemployees, about 150 offices in over40 countries and is growing 20% yearon year, according to Gary Keene.

“Our video conference use isgrowing 35% year on year and we’retypically opening about 50 new VCrooms in any given week.”

This was all run by a core team ofabout 60 full-time staff – a mix ofproject managers, product managers,designers, UX designers and UXresearchers – with a simple AV aim:

“To deliver technology that makesGoogle uniquely productive.”

Gary’s real estate partners had anequally simple goal. “To make spacesthat make Google uniquely productive.

“Having that clarity of vision whenyou’re working at this scale and speedis absolutely critical.

“These numbers reflect a decisionmade about seven years ago to go all-in on video conferencing as our mainmeans of real-time collaboration.

“Our culture and business goals arevery closely aligned. We’re a fast-moving, very flat organisation. We’reproblem solvers, have a strongengineering bias and we’re deeplycollaborative.”

Gary said design was an intuitive,replicable, equitable room experience.

Regardless of what was being designed,his team thought in terms of rooms.4Intuitive “is all about your

experience as a participant or as apresenter and should be as simple aspossible.”4Replicable, “if we’re working to

scale, we want to have a product thatwe can roll out multiple times with aslittle running as possible.” 4Equitable “is ensuring that the

experience for all, regardless of gender,racial background and physical ability,is as good as it can or should be.”

Google had 11 products in itscatalogue for different types of roomsand standardised costs for 95% ofwhat it offered.

“If you’re a real estate constructionmanager working with us and you’resetting up a new building or campus,you know what our costs are. Youdon’t need to call us into endlessmeetings to work out budgets.

“On the deployment side, we useone vendor for purchasing, installation

and project coordination of all of ourconference rooms. On some of ourmore specialised spaces, we workwith a small range of vendors.

“About three years ago we wereworking with roughly 40 AVintegrators, we just couldn’t manage it.The variation in delivery and costs wasjust an ongoing pain.

“Any new hardware coming in hasto be tested through a series ofgateways with agreed success criteriaand any new room type has to be builtto these scales as well.

“For performance and availabilityreasons, we have a number of productsthat are manufactured to our owndesigns. If you want to move a productthrough this process, you go to aproduct manager.

“Our 11 products are dividedamong five product managers. Theproduct manager drives the systemand is responsible to the customer forthe performance.

“From an AV perspective, we knowit’s slightly unusual, but if you look atwhat we do as an organisation –software and increasingly hardwareprovision – all we’ve done is take theexisting Google way of managingproducts through their life cycle andapply it to anything.”

Moving swiftlyon in videoconferencing

Any new hardware coming in has to be tested through a series of gateways withagreed success criteria and any new room type has to be built to these scales as well“ “

Having clarity of visionwhen you’re working atthis scale and speed isabsolutely critical

““

“IF a business owner within Googlewants another meeting room, thetypical response would be ‘it will take10-12 weeks and cost £7,000.’ That’stoo expensive and too slow. Werecognise the speed with which ourorganisation is growing and changingand we’re trying to get ahead of that.

“The first iteration of the solution isProject Gap - interchangeable panelsthat come in a box, all the same sizewith the exception of the door. It allowsyou to build your meeting room. It sitson the floor, its weight keeps it in place.

“It has two screens in front of asimple wooden frame and above theconference unit. The frames, monitor,speaker and camera are built andcommissioned off site, they’re storedinternally and picked up when they’reneeded. The boxes fit into lifts.

“We’ve even gone to the lengths ofcolour coding the cables. One of ourdesign goals was to have this simpleenough for a facilities team to install.

“Our goal was to deploy within 24hours. It’s been tremendously helpful

for our business customers because wecan supply extra facilities on demand.

“It’s also been a challenge becausethe space is spun up for a period oftime and then disappears. Things likeremaining conventions, wayfindings,signage, asset management, all needto be readdressed.

“Our first run at this came in at thecost of 107% of a typical room but themove and change (MAC) cost wassignificantly lower. Our iterations nowcost less than 90% so it’s cheaper thanputting a conventional room into place.The MAC cost is less than £3,000.”

A SINGLE rack build delivered on sitethe day it is needed. “The lecterns areall the same – it doesn’t matter ifyou’re a presenter in Bangalore,Bangkok or Seattle, it’s uniform.”

Gary said a theatre design consultantlooks at the visitor experience “as faras defining the number of speakersneeded. We have standard layouts,but the number is dependent on roomconfiguration, screen size andprojector. The local vendor is just

asked to do a ‘hang and bang’ job.” There are two projectors on the

ceiling and a series of ceiling speakersthat can be fitted into predefinedpoints. Two projection screens also fitinto predefined points on a wall.

“We keep it as simple as possible.You know what you’re going to getand we make sure it’s delivered ontime and to spec.”

THESE spaces, used mainly forcustomer-facing events, typically seataround 200 people.

“On-site technicians work full-time torun the conferences,” said Gary. “Thelecture theatre is all self-service.

“Again, a theatre consultant makessure we’re thinking through the wholevisitor experience. We’re oftenworking in spaces handed over to usso the ability to fit more complexsystems becomes more challenging.

“The infrastructure standards arevery similar. The only variation tendsto be the size of the video wall andrepeater screens. Everything else is runto common standard.”

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schoms19 recapTwitter: @SCHOMSinfo

Six things Google has learnedChoose the right problem – “We deliver a collaborative

premium. Our customers need to be able to say ‘ourbusiness would suffer without this’. We also demonstrateefficient total cost of ownership. Each year, we have a goalto reduce cost of ownership by 10%. We can’t drop theservice level agreement (SLA) to customers, though. Wecan ask if they want a lower SLA. Typically, they say no.So a significant part of what we do is ask how we canreduce our processes to reach the 10% reduction.”

Useability is everything – “It’s absolutely critical thatcustomers can walk in and go straight into a meeting. Inour conference rooms, it’s one touch to start a meeting. It’sthe same set-up if you’re dialling in from a laptop or phone.Bringing in more complexity breaks the flow of the meetingor makes it more difficult to join. We keep taking things outuntil customers say it’s critical to have it. Our facilities arequite basic, all conference rooms have whiteboards.Customers like the idea, the user interface is simple. Theability to capture and share on a phone is easy too.”

Define your standards – “To work at scale and in anenvironment that has many different stakeholders, IT

networks and so on, it’s critically important to say ‘this iswhat we require’. So we defined all of our room, designand installation standards. We have an SLA withdimension data. We’ve written a complex specificationdefining exactly what we expect of our installation and weagree a cost that’s based on the time to carry it out.”

Disciplined change – “Change management is so critical.Our structured lifecycle management often stops ‘a case ofthe enthusiasms’ when a senior customer says ‘I’ve seen thisand I want it NOW’. It allows us to deflate that balloon andwalk them transparently through the process. If their ideaswork, fantastic. If they don’t, we’re not deploying. It doesn’tbecome an argument around budgets or preferences.”

Don’t QA, design – “We have a six-monthly strategyworkshop with our stakeholders about design variation. It’san opportunity to see if their goals or incentives havechanged, so we can discuss and adapt. If you go hardafter your integrators to manage costs, they’re going to cutcorners in ways that end up hurting you.”

Think long term – “Five years ago we would have saidwe were in the AV business, but now it’s all about creatingproductive spaces with productive technology. You have tobe aware that your core competencies will change.”

Examples from the Google catalogueConference room

Lecture theatre

Top-end auditoria

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VR and AR:it’s getting real

EVIDENCE showed that learningbenefits in a number of ways fromthe use of VR and AR, JoanneHudson told delegates.

In the key area of employability itgave students the opportunity toengage with populations,environments and work experiencesthat they wouldn’t do normally.

“Getting students out intoplacements is not the easiest thing todo, especially in sport exercise andscience.”

It presented students with newcognitive challenges that theycouldn’t experience in other ways,she added.

“It also enables perception change– that you can’t always get fromtraditional teaching methods – andcan help to enhance inclusivity.”

She valued the freedom VR andAR gave students the opportunity tomake mistakes and be creative.“Students are under so muchpressure to achieve, trying things outand making mistakes is not part ofour culture.”

However, Joanne warned: “It’sreally important if you’re going tohave any kind of innovations thatyou can convince academics that it’sa worthwhile investment of theirtime.”

In what she described as a ‘pedagogical romp’, JoanneHudson (right), Associate Professor and PortfolioDirector in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences atSwansea, highlighted the use of Virtual Reality (VR) andAugmented Reality (AR) across a range of disciplines inUK universities – from psychology and engineering topublic health and sport and exercise sciences. Heroverview came out of research presented to theUniversity of Swansea’s Inaugural Conference ofConversion of Augmented Reality in Higher Education.

AS a psychologist and sports exercisescientist, Joanne was interested in howsimulation could be used to changethe student learning experience aroundolder age and physical activity.

“Part of my role is to preparepeople physically, academically andpsychologically for going into careersworking with the ageing population,”she said. “Age stereotypes preventpeople from being active. We needto break down barriers. We tried tosee if virtual reality in the classroomwould change students’ stereotypesabout older people.”

It revolved around a basic appwhich enabled students to experiencehow they would look and feel whenolder. “We kitted up the students andrestricted their movement andbreathing while they did basic taskslike weighing things and movingaround a kitchen. We tried tosimulate social isolation.

“In terms of future application andchanging their thinking, it was quiteuseful. It gave a huge insight into anold person’s life.”

Joanne said the students thought thelearning experience was easy andhigh quality, relevant and it helpedthem to build empathy.

They felt it had relevance forpotentially future careers, they couldtake it into exercise or medicalcontexts, going on to bephysiotherapists or in medicaltraining.

“An important aspect of learning iscreating memorable experiences andbeing able to identify with somebodyin a way you can’t from reading atextbook or watching a video,”Joanne said.

“We’re beginning to see evidencethat we can use virtual reality andaugmented reality to prepare studentsfor the workplace.

“In this case, it really helped toenhance engagement, which iscritical in higher education. It mightbe helpful in other contexts wherewe’re trying to break downstereotypes such as homelessness.There might be wider application inother academic disciplines.”

An important aspect of learning is creating memorable experiences and being ableto identify with somebody in a way you can’t from a textbook or watching a video“ “

‘Life in old age’ app helps to buildempathy and break down stereotypes

VIRTUAL reality was introduced in mechanical engineeringcourses at the University of Swansea to see what differenceit would make to the learning experience.

“We haven’t seen a lot of VR being used in highereducation yet,” said Will Harrison. “We wanted to giveopportunities for lecturers to see if it would be morebeneficial to our students, if we could get more hands-on.”

Will and Peter tasked 200 Year Two mechanicalengineering students with using VR to design a human-powered taxi – it had to be light yet strong with thoughtgiven to features like the drive chain, steering and brakes.

“We’d noticed that they’d go straight to the CAD consolebut CAD was pretty limited in what it could do with thescale. The idea of bringing VR in was to address some of

the problems with scale and creativity,” Peter told delegates. “VR raises physical questions. When you bring the model

into VR, you can put a seat inside and realise you mightbang your head or discover that the drive chain issomewhere harmful.”

One group learned this for themselves. “They did a CADdesign, brought it into the virtual environment, sat down init and said ‘it feels like sitting in a coffin,’” Peter said.

The group did a complete redesign using VR. “In theirfinal report they detailed exactly how it was going to bemade – technical drawings, materials, the whole works.”

Will and Peter told how the students found the GravitySketches 3D design software used with VR to be quiteintuitive. “After they learned what the software can do, theycome back with designs in their heads and started to putthem together. Confidence grew as they picked it up.”

A weekly VR café has now been introduced at theuniversity – attended by two senior VR/AV technicians –offering students from all modules the chance get a feel forvirtual reality and what it might be able to do.

Will and Peter acknowledged that there were ethicalconsiderations to using VR. “Are people happy to use it?You need to make them aware they might feel sick usingthis technology.

“We also have to ask what we expect the students toachieve. This boosts creativity but they’re very driven bymarking criteria.”

schoms19 recapTwitter: @SCHOMSinfo

Engineering a boost in creativity

IN the first year of using VR, Peter and Will said they“basically begged and borrowed equipment.”

“It was a bit of a mixture of kits. We had controllersand headsets but it was all wired. We used the Vives likelighthouses and had tower computers as well. Some guysused Vives, some used Oculus. There were cableseverywhere. We just had to make do with what we had.”

Setting it up in a non-dedicated room took about anhour. The course leaders were running three-hour parallelsessions with nine groups of six in a large room.

“The set-up is pretty slick now. In the past two yearswe’ve gone from the towers to laptops with mixed realityheadsets. In year two, about 17 Asus gaming laptopscame in. They were pretty powerful and could be

deployed in less than 30 minutes. We got additionalsupport from a VR guru plus mixed reality headsets, so wedon’t need the towers or the cameras around. It’s easierand definitely works.”

Civil engineering and aerospace students use GoogleCardboard headsets and newer tech is coming along inthe wake of Oculus Quest.

“GravitySketch gave us licences for students to use their3D design software as well, so they can hire or borrow itfrom the library or take it home.

“Next year, we will have a dedicated space with all thekit already there. We can just go in there and teach. Itwill be much easier than having to cart gear acrosscampus to a different building.”

Course leaders Peter Dorrington and Will Harrisondescribed how they used VR to boost creativity in amechanical engineering undergraduate course. Acollaboration with the University of Bath and University ofSouth Wales, they described it as “a step away from theCAD station: a hands-on and immersive approach.”

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How VR students have become better equipped

Will Harrison (left) and Peter Dorrington.

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support services. They give strategic direction to support and promote excellence in teaching andlearning practice.

Registered address: First House, 1 Sutton Street, Birmingham B1 1PE Tel. 0121 415 6803 email info@schoms.ac.uk www.schoms.ac.uk Twitter: @SCHOMSinfo

Out of theordinaryGOOD news about how institutions were improving theeveryday experience for students were shared by membersat SCHOMS19.

The developments were revealed during an informal chatsession introduced to highlight what unsung differences arebeing made.

The round-table discussions were the brainchild of newSCHOMS chair Mark Dunlop. “Conference presents a greatopportunity to talk about things you’ve seen that you like,”he said. “It could be a new cafeteria, a new formal space.You don’t have to be involved with it and doesn’t have to beabout technology.”

4Creating collaborative spaceMark himself revealed how an IT suite was created at the

University of Dundee by merging and ‘stripping back’ three60-seater rooms, replacing all the infrastructure withcollaborative desks, PCs, a screen and switchers.

“If you’re teaching it could be used for exams orcollaboration, it’s a little bit of not quite anything but itsolved a lot of problems and moved us forward.”

4Lower costs and fewer complaintsPeppe Cataldo explained how moving services in-house

and setting up furniture storage during building workachieved cost savings and cut complaints at the University ofReading.

“We used to work with external suppliers and we askedfor a quote but it was very high, even just to use oldequipment in the old buildings. So we began to teach ourcolleagues how to build our cabinets and equipment.”

4Lecture theatre transformationSamantha Goodall told how academics at the University

of Kent could now use a lecture theatre with touch paneland wireless technology that introduced options on thenumber and nature of inputs.

“It’s great for people with a second language, people

with dyslexia, people who need a little extra time to view.We’ve also taken all of the whiteboards away, people arereally engaging with the technology we’ve put at the front.”4Simple comforts in the corridorsAdrian Brett spoke of how corridors and spaces that

hadn’t been used at Anglia Ruskin University had becomepopular ‘warm-up and cool-down’ areas with studentsfollowing a colourful repainting and furnishing programme.

“Estates painted the walls all different colours, put softfurnishings in, lots of different tables, bean bags in corners.No technology, just plug-in and wifi.”4Come on in, the atrium’s lovelyCarolyn Wood described how the University of Brighton

introduced a ‘beach hut’ look of timber cabins and palm treesin its Checkland Building atrium to create a brighter studyingand relaxing area.

“We reused old bits of furniture and tables to make someof the walls of the huts. We even collected and made thebench tops from little stirrer sticks.”4Learning stays on the moveMike Goodwin told how large touch screens on high

adjustable trolleys had been introduced at University of WalesTrinity St David, to offer short-term help in setting up rooms.

“The advantage is that we can move them effectively fromone building to another. We can just put them in the backof a van and go off to the next building. As soon as IT canget the network up and running we’re ready to teach.”4Less in more in breakout areasNick Pratt said that Cranfield University had discovered

‘less is more’ by turning old offices into busy student break-out areas without modern technology – just ‘old school’tables, chairs, whiteboards and flipcharts.

“It taught us a lesson. You don’t have to flood areas withtechnology. Just see what students want and academicsneed. I don’t think we engage with people enough.Sometimes less is more.”

RIGHT: Up against the wall. . .members line up to tell colleaguesabout improvements to the studentexperience at their institutions.

schoms19 recap www.schoms.ac.uk