Users, UX, & Technology: Going hi-tech with your

classroom AV system

Bohyun Kim

Blog: http://bohyunkim.net/blog Twitter: @bohyunkim

Associate Director for Library Applications and Knowledge Systems,

Health Sciences and Human Services Library, University of Maryland, Baltimore

Code4Lib Maryland, DC, Virginia - Regional Meeting, Aug. 11-12 2015.

Classrooms at HS/HSL

LL05

Equipped with: • Student PCs• 1 Projector Screen• 1 Teacher PC• The Teacher screen is projected to the Projector

screen.• Synchroneyes, which broadcasts a teacher station

screen image to student PCs and lock them down. http://smarttech.com/us/Resources/Training/Archive+Products/SynchronEyes+7+software

Ideas for the New AV Setup

• Multiple screens• Project not only the screen of a PC or a laptop but

that of other mobile devices.• Broadcasting & recording classes• Supporting hybrid classes with the audience in

this room and another site with full participation from both locations

• Camera and Mic• Speakers

Renovation• 5 Different screens in the room• 2 Cameras front and back• 1 Wireless mic & 2 Speakers• Touchpad control panel • A variety of dongles to hook up many different

mobile devices• Height-adjustable instructor desk• A/V rack in the closet• Flexible system that users can assign any input

(outputs from the AV rack with 1 video card with 4 different outputs) to multiple different display screens.

New LL05

Teacher Station

We (= IT) thought this was a very flexible,

powerful, and awesome system!

until

we had instructors test it.

Issue 1.The mouse wire and the keyboard wire

were too short.

Solution: Replace with the wireless

keyboard/mouse.

Issue 2.The monitor on the

teacher station would go to sleep mode and

wouldn’t wake up.

Solution: Mark the power touch button.

Issue 3.The teacher station PC would go to sleep and won’t wake up with the

wireless keyboard/mouse.

Solution: Disable the sleep

/log-off mode.

Issue 4.The arrangement of screens didn’t make

sense.

Solution: Make it similar to the extended screen setup of users.

Issue 5.Too many screens &

Tiny Mouse Pointer in the Sea of Screens

Solution: Powershell script for a keyboard

shortcut to retrieve the mouse pointer.

http://superuser.com/questions/384099/is-there-a-win7-shortcut-to-position-mouse-in-center-of-primary-screen

Original Touch Panel

Issue 6.How Do I Turn On and Turn Off the

System?

Solution: Change ‘Power’ to ‘Shutdown’ on the control panel.

Issue 7.“Too complicated, can I

go back to the old school way?”

Solution: ‘Computer only’ display forces all screens to mirror the

teacher screen.

• Option to make the new classroom function just like the old one.

• High technology features unused.• But better than the room avoided!• Also works well with Synchroneyes that has

difficult with handling the extended display.

WIN + p

Issue 8.Presets did not fit

the use cases.

Solution: More presets for important use

cases & name them accordingly.

Issue 9.Terms on the control

panel are not intuitive.

Solution: Rename them.

Put labels on the physical devices.

Tech Instruction with User Feedback

No Instruction is the worst!

Hard to Remember• Preset 1

oRear LCD, Projector, Lectern - PC output 4

o Front Left, Front Right - PC output 3 • Preset 2

oRear LCD - PC output 1 o Projector - PC output 4 o Lectern - PC output 4 o Front Left- PC output 2 o Front Right - PC output 3

Could be better

Not so good

Much better!

Lessons Learned• When you, your IT staff, your IT vendor all think

the new setup is pretty good, you may need a reality check with non-IT folks.

• People do not want to deal with technology for its own sake. Technology should be in the background to get non-technology things done, teaching in this case.

• Confusing terms are confusing. Make them intuitive.

• Going back to the old simple setup is better than no one using the new setup.

• Revise how-to instructions based upon the user feedback.

• Your IT staff and users all need training, more than once!

Customized troubleshooting Instruction for staff++

Thank you!

Questions?