Campus-Wide Standards & Development

CHALLENGE

Shenandoah University is experiencing a dynamic period of growth led by an expansion of the health sciences programs including: Pharmacy, Nursing, Physical Therapy, Physician’s Assistant, and Occupational Therapy. This expansion necessitated a reconsideration of issues of enterprise technology standardization, integration, and support. Unlike commercial enterprises, universities often evolve in silos where different departments, schools, and colleges develop their own unique technology solutions and support plans based upon their specific needs and resources.

SOLUTION

Working with an integration design team and in-house specialists , Shenandoah University developed a standard room build for different sized classrooms based around AMX DVX-3150 switcher. Additionally, the control interfaces were standardized using the AMX MST-701 touch panel to provide a uniform experience, regardless of room or college. The touch panels, designed by end users, for end users, resulted in a more simple interface removing the abundance of buttons, sliders, and options. A short series of binary questions (two choices, pick one) easily guides the user through no more than 4 questions to start class. Standardizing the user interface for the touch panels was an important aspect to improving the student and faculty’s classroom technology experience and streamlining the faculty development process for room controls. Increasingly faculty members no longer have to interact with the touch panels at all due to the development of practices that allow support staff to use mobile wireless devices to remotely administer the rooms.

IMPACT

"The ability for staff to support classroom technology virtually has produced efficiencies in response time and reduced the number of personnel required. Extending the power and productivity of the support staff is critical to expansion of Shenandoah University in a technology rich, multi-campus environment."

– Richard Pierce, Associate Professor