I. Department/Unit requesting funds: Specific class and/or lab initiative(s) when applicable: Contact person for this request (incl. phone #): Request for Technology Fee Funds A separate request should be made for each initiative. College of Computing Campus Standard Classroom Technology for CCB 102 Merrick Furst, Randy Carpenter (4-9046) Chris Hamlin (5-0042) Please indicate priority per department when applicable: Number of Please indicate priority per college or unit: Number of 9 II. How many students will be impacted if your request is funded (estimated): Number of Students per Year Graduate 450 Undergraduate 1,700 Total 2,150 III. Please provide narrative justification for your intended use of the technology fee funds. Include narrative on how the education or research of the students will be enhanced. Please refer to the attached proposal. IV. List of Equipment Number Purchase Purchased Price (each) Total ($) Please refer to the attached proposal. Total 62,400 8/04
Campus Standard Classroom Technology for CCB 102 Merrick Furst, Associate Dean - College of Computing (merrick.furst@cc.gatech.edu) Randy Carpenter, Associate Director College of Computing (randy.carpenter@cc.gatech.edu) 4-9046. Chris Hamlin, Technical Project Director - OIT (chris.hamlin@oit.gatech.edu) 5-0042. I. GENERAL OVERVIEW Scope This plan provides a recommendation for the implementation of an electronic presentation system for classroom 102 of the College of Computing Building (CCB). This technology will be used to enable effective presentation and electronic capture of courses offered by the College and other units utilizing the classroom. The collaboration between the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the College of Computing (CoC) will ensure that the system is easy to use, scalable, supportable, and compatible with other campus classroom systems. This will also ensure that non-coc users of the room will benefit as well. Support for the room will be provided by OIT, as with the other standardized technology classrooms around campus. The College s Computing and Networking Services group will also be available for front-line assistance as necessary. Rationale The Georgia Tech Strategic Plan commits the faculty, staff and resources of the Institute to achieving a position of leadership in higher learning through a combination of traditional academic excellence and the appropriate infusion of new educational technologies. This position requires a commitment to long-term centralized investment in the intellectual assets necessary to bring this about (i.e., professional staff support, and upgraded facilities). This plan outlines a proposal for an infrastructure upgrade portion of this commitment. Goal To continue the provision of facilities and technologies that will support student learning by enhancing the academic faculty s ability to develop and present technologically enhanced methods of instruction. II. EXISTING ENVIRONMENT CCB Room 102 has the capacity to seat approximately 50 students at mobile tables and chairs. The classroom was used as an early prototype electronic classroom for the campus, initially funded by the CoC, OIT and the Board of Regents. It has since received modest technology refreshes funded by Technology Fee Grants. However, the electronic presentation, computer infrastructure, and course capture equipment predates by many years the campus standards developed and supported by OIT s Academic and Research Technologies (ART) unit. As a result, it is decidedly different from other campus classrooms and is considered by faculty and students to be difficult to use. Renewal of the classroom technology based on the OIT campus standard would provide for improved student participation and faculty use of multimedia presentation and capture tools. The room is an integral resource for the ongoing development of the CoC eclass project (formerly known as Classroom 2000) which was the Institute s first integrated electronic course capture initiative.
This work continues, including collaboration with the Arbutus Project in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). The room plays host to approximately 900 students for 3 hours per week for a semester total of over 40,000 student hours. Many departmental seminars and visiting lectures are also offered in Room 102. These seminars often include presentations from visiting faculty, potential new faculty, and other highly respected international researchers. Additionally, the room is used well in to the evening for recitation and help sessions, student meetings and TA work sessions. All CoC students and faculty are provided access to the room after hours via BuzzCard. III. PROPOSED SOLUTION It is recommended that an electronic presentation system be installed that is consistent with the campus standards and that ensures a flexible and user friendly environment. The main concept of the design focuses on an infrastructure and cable backbone that includes but is not limited to: one multi input connection panel, one multi button control panel, an audio mixer and amplifier, and a pair of ceiling mounted speakers for program audio and voice reinforcement. The backbone scheme makes possible the input and selection control of multiple A/V sources from a single location. (Examples include: computers, VCRs, document cameras, etc.) Two, high-lumen ceiling mounted projectors will be installed to replace two existing, older projectors to bring the room up to campus projection standards and to maintain the ability to project a dual image at the front of the room. This arrangement will continue to allow faculty to simultaneously present different modes of electronic media (e.g. a video of a digital video special effects algorithm alongside a PowerPoint slide show explaining the algorithm). Existing motorized projection screens were previously installed with supplemental funds from a successful FY 04 CCB 101 classroom technology fee proposal. The new design will incorporate a user interface to ensure ease of use of these motorized screens. A custom designed lectern will be used to house the basic source equipment as well as an electronic annotation tablet and touch panel controller. Common source equipment will include two computers with DVD capabilities and network connections to campus resources and a HiFi VCR and a document camera. The touch panel would act as the master controller for the room s A/V, including the basic functions of the source equipment. The electronic annotation tablet will allow presenters to both annotate items such as PowerPoint slides and to provide electronic whiteboard capabilities. Two mid-sized multi-sync flat panels will be installed for the presenter to be able to view what is being projected. The lectern would also include data, power, video and audio jacks for laptop connections and additional external audio and video connections for integration with other computer sources (e.g. external Windows, Apple Macintosh or Sun computers supporting specialized courses). Additionally, a speech reinforcement system will be installed to match the standards being established in other classrooms on campus and will also enable electronic capture of the course lecturer. CoC eclass research equipment, whose primary function is novel electronic capture of classroom interactions, will be kept entirely separate from the production OIT classroom technology. This will assure total compatibility with the hundreds of other classrooms OIT supports on the main campus and at Technology Square. However, eclass will be able to connect to this infrastructure via external inputs and outputs (e.g. to lectern program audio or lecturer audio, to the lectern video switch as external sources, and to the electronic annotation tablet output).
IV. Specifics Input plate module The input plate includes a universal interface to support all standard computer video signal types IBM, MAC, Sun, etc. The universal interface accepts direct connection of a PC using a standard HD15 connector and other computer video signal types through the use of Extron adaptor cables and kits. In general, the input plate supports the following: 1. Computer input to universal interface with stereo audio. 2. Computer input via RGBH+V connectors with optional stereo audio. 3. VCR input with stereo audio. 4. Composite video (Aux. Video) with stereo audio. 5. S-video input with optional stereo audio. 6. Two Control device inputs. 7. Network connectivity via RJ-45 This allows faculty to easily connect any desired source equipment to the room system. Control selection module A programmable thirty-two-button control module will be provided for selection of inputs, system power on/off, volume control, and screen control. The inputs that can be selected are computer input 1 or 2, VCR input, auxiliary composite video, and S-video. Speaker System The audio output of the system will be provided through ceiling mounted speakers. Projection System The visual output will be provided through two high resolution, high brightness LCD projectors. They will be ceiling mounted at the front of the room. V. Benefits The instructor and any supplemental material they may wish to present should be the main focus for the student. Be it a syllabus projected via a document viewer, a power PowerPoint presentation, a demonstration projected via a camera, a computer visualization, or a video presentation, the material needs to be easily seen by each and every student in the lecture. Often times this necessitates the utilization of two or more simultaneous sources of supplemental information with smooth transition between them. It must be possible for this to be accomplished in a highly reliable, easy to use, flexible, and consistent fashion that enables pedagogy instead of interfering with it.
VI. Funding/Resource Requirements Qty Description Unit Price Ex Price Projection 2 Motorized Projection Screen w/lvc (provided by CoC) $2,000.00 $4,000.00 2 2600 Lumen LCD Projector $5,000.00 $10,000.00 2 Universal Projector Mount $200.00 $400.00 Room Infrastructure 1 AMX control system $3,000.00 $3,000.00 1 Extron RGB-404 interface $800.00 $800.00 1 Custom connection panel $200.00 $200.00 1 Middle Atlantic equipment rack 70" rack w/front and rear doors $900.00 $900.00 1 Lot misc Installation hardware (cable and connectors) $3,000.00 $3,000.00 1 Intelligent writable surface $7,000.00 $7,000.00 1 Installation $3,000.00 $3,000.00 1 Electrical and Networking $1,500.00 $1,500.00 Program Audio 2 KSI L/R Stereo Speaker $250.00 $500.00 1 Crown D-75 stereo amplifier $450.00 $450.00 1 Whirlwind Mix 8s stereo mixer $350.00 $350.00 Speech Reinforcement 1 TOA speech amplifier with modules $700.00 $700.00 1 Shure DFR 11 EQ electronic equalizer $500.00 $500.00 6 Speech System ceiling speaker $250.00 $1,500.00 1 Sony UHF Wireless microphone system $2,500.00 $2,500.00 Smart Podium 1 Custom Multimedia lectern with light and locking doors $2,500.00 $2,500.00 1 AMX touch panel and podium control components $6,000.00 $6,000.00 1 Panasonic S-VHS VCR $500.00 $500.00 1 Video processor $150.00 $150.00 2 Dual Display Podium Computer with DVD $1,500.00 $3,000.00 1 Extron Podium computer interface $800.00 $800.00 1 Extron Laptop interface $600.00 $600.00 1 Document Camera $1,100.00 $1,100.00 1 Extron Document Camera Interface $300.00 $300.00 2 LCD Flat panel display $300.00 $600.00 2 Monitor Arm mount $250.00 $500.00 1 Electronic Annotation System $2,000.00 $2,000.00 1 Extron Cable Cubby connection interface $800.00 $800.00 1 Extron CrossPoint 84HVA 8x4 RGBHV router $3,000.00 $3,000.00 1 Extron matrix 50 8x4 composite video router $2,000.00 $2,000.00 1 Middle Atlantic 14 space equipment rack and shelves $500.00 $500.00 1 Umbilical cable and misc podium cabling $1,000.00 $1,000.00 1 Assembly, delivery and testing $750.00 $750.00 Project Total $66,400.00 Less equipment already provided by COC $4,000.00 Technology Fee Proposal Total $62,400.00