Most BU departments slow down over the summer, but that is the best time to upgrade teaching and learning spaces around campus. This past summer, the University Registrar (OUR), and Campus Planning & Operations (CPO), and Information Services & Technology (IS&T) were busy completing two projects in eight rooms managed by OUR. First, seven rooms in the Photonics Center were fully upgraded including new technology, furniture, and lighting. The rooms included PHO-206, a heavily used large auditorium, another smaller auditorium, three case rooms, and two general purpose classrooms. The second project in COM-101, another heavily used auditorium, focused on a new technology upgrade. Work will resume there over the upcoming winter break to build a teaching wall with white boards and to install a new podium.

All of these instructional spaces are now equipped with full digital AV/IT presentation systems that support the HDMI standard. They can display images from multiple source options including installed components and personal devices such as your laptop, smartphone or tablet (adapters may be needed). The integrated sources include a Blu-Ray player (that can also play DVDs) and a classroom computer with either an annotation or standard monitor, both offering USB device connections on the monitor. The classroom computers are also loaded with ‘classroom capture’ software that is capable of recording your audio and content in smaller rooms. Larger rooms offer full lecture capture of video, audio and content. New, state-of-the-art ceiling mounted laser projectors will run for over 20,000 hours while providing crisp and bright images

Want to see these rooms for yourself? Visit the Classrooms web site at www.bu.edu/classrooms. Soon we will also have 360 degree images for these spaces as we do for other OUR rooms. IS&T adds this feature to give you the opportunity to take a virtual tour of each space. Use the Find a Classroom feature to search for a particular classroom or browse by building. You will also see details including what technology is available and learn more about the physical attributes of each room.


If you have questions or would like more information on classroom technology, or support and training, please contact IS&T’s Learning & Event Technology Services (LETS) group by sending an email to classrooms@bu.edu or calling 617-353-3227.