Barco has re-launched its Virtual Classroom (with weConnect) system and, at the same time, announced its first install at the IESE Business School in Barcelona. The newest use case of the weConnect, cloud-based SaaS solution makes remote, higher education more interactive and engaging. Barco says the Virtual Classroom allows Business Schools, Universities and Corporate Learning centers to deliver a personalized learning experience not only to students within the walls of a classroom, but to students across the globe.
weConnect is expanding its active learning with the launch of the Virtual Classroom, next to existing use cases like premium huddle spaces, lecture halls, connected classrooms and collaboration rooms. Offered as a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), the subscription-based business model offers customers the flexibility to expand easily and to control their expenses in balance with their actual needs. This enables new opportunities for weConnect customers to adapt and expand their learning offering but also to become more cost efficient in addressing the ever growing needs and the continuously changing requirements for lifelong learning.
In a Virtual Classroom teachers engage and interact as if in a traditional classroom setting, while students can be anywhere in the world. Teachers share video files, host live chats, share interactive learning activities, and incorporate instant feedback from the students. This recreates the face-to-face learning experience that students can have in on campus sessions, with integrated interactivity features like interactive polls and quizzes, silent questions and collaborative whiteboards delivered via a user friendly browser interface.
At the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Barco installed the first scalable virtual classroom. This Virtual Classroom is designed to host up to 80 people to connect in synchronous sessions from anywhere in the world, in high quality and with an audio-visual production similar to a broadcast production.
IESE is planning to use the new technology in the majority of its programs as a reinforcement of face-to-face teaching at its five campuses. Thousands of people will experience the new classroom in the coming year, benefiting from this innovation in executive education.
Details on weConnect are here.