Classroom Committee Meeting 20170402

Classroom Committee Meeting, Sunday, April 2, 2017, 6:30 PM

Chair nomination

Alex had to leave after 15 minutes, so we held the election for chair first.

Alex Rhodes ran for chair; his platform is to adopt Moodle for our on-line training platform.

Bill Gee ran for another term as chair; his platform is to continue to make general classroom improvements.

The committee voted to nominate Bill Gee for chair.

Discussion

Tablets

We are still working toward putting tablets outside of the classrooms to identify the current class or event in that room, plus a few scattered around The Space to show the schedule. We have prototype software which is usable and are awaiting the creation of the mounting frames, then running network cable and doing the final installation.

Interactive Classroom Floor

We need to redo the floor in the Interactive Classroom. John Gorman is investigating an interlocking floating floor concept, but the room may be too large for that system. If we decide to go with a chemical coating, we will hire a professional to do it to minimize both the effective downtime (done during a weekday when demand for the room is low) and the amount of dust or fumes generated. No money will be spent toward this effort until after a new lease is signed.

Monitors in Interactive Classroom

We want to get bigger screens for the Interactive Classroom because they may be difficult to read beyond the front half of the room. For reference, the current monitors in the Interactive Classroom are 60" diagonal; the one in the Purple Classroom is 50" and the one in Creative Arts is 40". The person who loaned us the fancy TV in the Conference Room took it back; discussion ensued over whether that room is the domain of the committee. The consensus is that that was the case. So we will get one larger monitor for the Interactive Classroom. The existing monitor will either be mounted in the Conference Room or installed in the Purple Classroom freeing up that one for the Conference Room.

Lecture Hall Usage

A statistical study by Chris Marlow revealed that the Purple Classroom is reserved more than the Lecture Hall. The discussion which followed explored the reasons why that may be the case. We want to improve usage of the Lecture Hall and the biggest impediment is apparently the difficulty in using laptop computers there. Hence, we will be buying some 18" wide folding tables which can be set out when they are needed.

Standard Classroom Arrangements

Alex Rhodes and David Kessinger independently came to me well before the meeting suggesting that we define a "standard arrangement" for each of the classrooms. A single layout may not be appropriate for all uses, so we are likely to adopt two or three common arrangements for each room and ask that they be left in one of those configurations. Expect further surveys or polling in the near future to determine these plans.

Soundproofing for the Lecture Hall

Soundproofing is still needed in the Lecture Hall. The original intent is not to try to make the old panels acceptable to the inspector, but to buy commercial ones which come fire rated, following the lead of Digital Media doing the same for their room. With Draco gone, we will investigate what is available and act on our own.

Power Strips

We have deployed power strips in the classrooms. While we cannot expect people to put them away after use, we should provide a storage place should they be so motivated.

Opencast

Draco had been spearheading the effort to deploy Opencast in the Lecture Hall. He has not been around since late last year and the several pieces of that equipment has been disconnected when we installed the new projector; it is all on the shelf below the projector. We are looking for someone else to finish this project. Mark Havens is back, but his time is extremely limited as he is occupied full-time working on his doctorate degree at UTA.