16 AV Installations from 2018 That AV Integration Firms Can Learn From

At Rutgers University, students rely on the school’s transportation system to shuffle them to classes among its four locations across New Brunswick, N.J. By the university’s estimate, 78 percent of students attend classes on two different campuses during the same day.

This constant campus swapping causes too much traffic, burdens buses, and limits the courses students can schedule to accommodate travel time. To address this problem, Rutgers took an innovative approach.

“We decided to move ideas instead of people,” says Paul Hammond, Rutgers’ associate vice chancellor for technology and instruction. “But, these synchronous classes won’t eliminate professors or double the class sizes.”

The intent is to provide students with the convenience of taking a class at another campus without the need to travel.Rutgers was challenged with implementing an HD broadcast solution that delivered the same experience and quality of instruction at both locations.

The university decided to spend about $3 million to upgrade Wright Auditorium on the Busch Campus and a lecture hall in Loree Hall on the Cook/Douglass Campus.

It picked 10 large lecture courses ranging from 120 to 275 students and divided them in two, with half of the students assigned to each location. The professors would then alternate between their assigned classrooms, so the students on each campus enjoyed the same access.