The University of Tilburg aims to be a modern and innovative university. This finds expression in, among other things, The Cube, which was opened in June 2018. This new building on the university campus exudes innovation and focuses on promoting collaboration between visitors. The technology is both easy to use and manageable.
An important objective of the university is to promote interaction between lecturers and students. Education is no longer one-dimensional. Project-based work is increasingly often carried out. A noteworthy example for promoting two-dimensional education in The Cube is the collaborative learning classroom. This space has been designed in such a way that it is much easier for students to work with lecturers but also with one another. Screens are available not only for lecturers to aid their presentations, but also for students who have access to a screen per table group. Time is no longer wasted through connecting and disconnecting cables, as everything is wireless. In the role of moderator, the lecturer can also show the content of the table groups on the large screen. This can be useful when students carry out, for example, tasks per table group which are then discussed with everyone at the end of the lecture.
These days it is essential for universities to be able to record lectures. Although attending lectures in person remains the norm, thanks to live video recordings it is no longer necessary to completely follow the entire contents of a lecture. This also makes it possible to offer lectures on demand so that students can view them again at a later date; this is certainly useful when preparing for important exams!
The recording of lectures has been greatly simplified in The Cube, both for the end user and the IT department. For example, the lecturer no longer has to find all sorts of equipment and press countless buttons when starting a lecture. This happens almost automatically using workflows.
For the IT department it is important that the management remains easy to oversee. Because while campuses expand, this is not necessarily the case for the number of FTEs who have to manage the technology. This is done by centralising everything as much as possible, so that the management can be carried out remotely. This applies for example to the recording equipment, which is kept in a separate room. Those resources can be allocated to a specific lecture hall. For example, from 10:00 until 11:00 to lecture hall A and from 11:00 until 12:00 to lecture hall B. The microphones and cameras in the lecture halls are connected directly to the room in which the recording equipment is kept; the sound and images are made available via the network. This makes the entire recording process much more efficient, as recordings are of course not made throughout the day in all the lecture halls. What’s more, it keeps the costs down as it is not necessary to buy expensive equipment for each separate lecture hall.
If you would like to know more about the innovative technology being used at The Cube, take a look at the following video.