Classroom and Lecture Space Capabilities and Capacities

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the expectation is that MBL courses will require the ability to accommodate distance learning. The MBL’s Information Technology (IT) Department is developing solutions to provide distance learning capabilities in most meeting rooms used by courses at the MBL.

The MBL’s supported video conferencing, live streaming, and recording options include two main platforms:

• Zoom for interactive distance learning; and
• Panopto for non-interactive live streams and recording.

The Zoom and Panopto platforms are compatible, allowing content recorded with Zoom to be automatically uploaded to Panopto for on-demand viewing.

Additionally, the MBL provides each course with a Microsoft Teams account which is a communications platform, similar to Slack, that can be used for chat, sharing files, and as a video conferencing tool.

The MBL has three main categories for audio-visual support throughout lecture and classroom spaces. These categories include:

• Fully integrated rooms with cameras, microphones, and speakers integrated as part of the multimedia system to allow for interactive audio/video calls;
• Partially integrated rooms with some audio-visual elements, but not all; and
• Ad hoc rooms with no integrated equipment for audio-visual participation

To assist courses with audio-visual support for their distance learning instruction, the MBL will rent each course a laptop preloaded with the Zoom, Panopto, and Teams clients with a course user ID to allow access to the MBL Zoom and Panopto portals via an MBL account.

 Click here to download the layouts of each of the spaces listed below.