In the wake of the first successful projects in Belgium, Barco’s collaborative
learning solutions are now finding their way to the Netherlands. From this month
onwards, students at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (UAS) will be
collaborating more closely than ever, thanks to Barco’s weConnect – a collaborative
learning solution for higher education. “This really is the future of education,’ says
Harry Heldoorn, Account Manager Education at Fidato, the AV expert that introduced
Rotterdam University to Barco’s education platform.

“We have to change our teaching methods to meet the needs of today’s tech-savvy
students and the modern didactic methods of learning. As they are used to relying
on media and mobile devices in their free time, students want to enjoy the comfort,
freedom and flexibility of their devices in the classroom too,’ says Herdey
Ronowidjojo from Rotterdam University. “Moreover, we believe that participation
and interactivity help enrich the learning experience — hence our European tender
for interactive classroom technology.’ Fidato, one of the university’s trusted AV
suppliers, won the tender. They invited Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences to
a showcase of Barco’s education solutions.

“We discovered Barco’s dedicated offering for education at ISE2016. Impressed, we
immediately invited several of our customers to learn more about the solution,’
Heldoorn recalls. “Everyone agreed that the system is really ease to use, for
teachers as well as students. Even more, intensive in-house testing also convinced
us of its ability to be smoothly integrated into any network environment. This really
is the future of education: students enjoy the interaction and teachers are eager to
offer a more interactive, more collaborative learning experience – while remaining
in charge of what goes on in the lecture room.’

Barco’s weConnect is an infrastructure-light, cloud-operated system based on
Barco’s expertise in visualization, wireless sharing (ClickShare) and connectivity. It
allows teachers and students to bring their own devices – a Windows PC, a Mac or
Chromebook, iOS or Android devices – to the classroom and wirelessly present their
information on the classroom display, via an app. Using the simple, intuitive
browser interface, the teacher can preview the content before it is shown on the
wall. The system also allows students and teachers to work in groups, access any
content, annotate it and store it locally on their devices or share notes with the
class. Support for polls, real-time feedback and silent questions enable all students
to be active learners during class — a feature that Rotterdam University of Applied
Sciences greatly appreciates.

“We’ve seen solutions similar to the Barco platform before, but Barco’s offering is
really dedicated to education and includes a standardized workflow,’ says
Ronowidjojo. From November onwards, students in Rotterdam will be able to use
Barco’s weConnect in one of its lecture halls. Fidato also installed a trial set-up at
the Dutch HAN Universities of Applied Sciences in Arnhem and Nijmegen and the
University of Twente.