Classroom Technology

Classroom Equipment

Walkthrough Video

All Classrooms

Every classroom on campus has been equipped with:

• A classroom desktop computer
• A USB Webcam (and occasionally, additional microphone system) for streaming or recording your class
• An HDMI input to display your own device
• A projector
• Speakers
• An Extron control panel to start and control the projector and speakers
• A physical media player (VHS/DVD player)

We recommend using the classroom desktop computer if you're going to stream or record your class. It has a microphone that CIT has tested as able to clearly capture audio from the room. If you'd like to use an additional device, consider joining the Google Meet or Zoom call on those devices as well and simply muting yourself on the secondary device. For medium- to large-sized classrooms, there may also be additional microphone systems that will better pick up sounds around a larger room. Sound from the computer (including audio from the Google Meet or Zoom call) will come out of the classroom speakers. The desktop computer is usually on a cart to enable repositioning to point towards the speaker, whiteboard or classroom participants.

Classrooms with In-Room Voice Amplification

About 10 rooms on campus currently have an in-room microphone amplification system. We have tested many solutions for simultaneously sending your voice to a Google Meet or Zoom call as well as in-room amplification systems. We are very happy with the Samson XPD2 wearable microphone and receiver. If you think that would be useful to you or you plan on teaching in one of those spaces, reach out and we can get you a set.

This microphone is worn around the head and is very comfortable over long periods of time, with or without a face mask. It is connected to a belt pack which wirelessly transmits to a USB receiver. This receiver acts as the microphone for your Google Meet or Zoom call. Additionally, the USB receiver has a 3.5mm output jack that you can connect to the room's Extron system to send your audio out to the speakers.

Contact CIT if you believe this solution may work for you 

Video Call Software

After getting comfortable with the hardware that each classroom will be equipped with, you will want to schedule a recurring Google Meet or Zoom call. CIT strongly recommends Google Meet; We find that it works better for most people in most situations. Contact CIT if you'd like more assistance getting started with that.

Once you've made a scheduled event, you can then distribute that link to your students via Moodle or other means. We recommend posting the link to your scheduled event as a Resource in your Moodle class. You may also want to consider using the Moodle Announcements forum to email information your students.

Recording Class

You will likely want to create recordings of your class time this fall, in case a student is unable to make the scheduled meeting time. Both Google Meet and Zoom have built-in recording capabilities.

With Google Meet, recordings are saved as video files right to the event organizer's Google Drive.

With Zoom, you have the option to save your video recordings to the local computer or to the Cloud Recordings section in your Zoom profile. Zoom Cloud Recordings tend to be lower quality, but offer the trade-off of optional transcripts. We recommend you enable these audio transcriptions before your first Zoom meeting. We also recommend that you upload and share these videos via your 1Hope Account's Google Drive.

With both options, you don't necessarily have to have another participant in the call in order to begin recording. The easiest way to create a recording of your class is to create a new call in the tool of your choice, then simply begin recording, even if nobody else is in the call with you.

See more options for recording your screen 

Closed Captioning

Captions enhance comprehension of material for all participants in class. We highly recommend you enable them for your call.

With Google Meet, real-time captions are automatically available to every participant in the call.

With Zoom, built-in Live Transcription captioning is now available as an option in your profile settings. Enable the "Closed Captions" and "Enable live transcription service to show transcript on the side panel in-meeting" options. This will change the "Closed Caption" button on the bottom bar to say "Live Transcription" during a call, and must be pressed by the host at the start of every meeting. 

If you use Zoom's Cloud Recordings, we also recommend you enable audio transcriptions in your Zoom profile settings before your first Zoom meeting. This transcript can be downloaded as a special text file. When the video is uploaded to Google Drive, you will have the option to also upload that captions file to display alongside your video.

No matter which method you use to create your video, when it's uploaded to Google Drive, you have the option to also upload a captions file to display alongside your video.

Learn more about faculty and staff resources for captioning from Disability and Accessibility Resources