In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic spurred a headlong rush into hybrid learning, as colleges and universities added AV-enabled distance learning facilities to their campuses to keep at-home students in class and on track. Three years later, with the pandemic in the rearview mirror, the widespread resumption of in-person, on-campus learning has raised a fundamental question for the educational and AV industries alike: Where do hybrid classrooms and other AV-enabled spaces fit these days?

The sudden, unexpected need to support hybrid learning on a mass scale understandably hit schools and colleges hard. For example, the University of Rhode Island (URI) in Kingston, RI, had a "twofold problem to make this happen, as we didn't have the technology in our classrooms and we didn't have a viable lecture capture/streaming solution that would work campus wide,” said Jeffrey Levesque, URI's lead information technologist.

A "triage" approach is how they solved the problem. "Our classrooms all received a hardware hybrid solution depending on how heavily used the classroom was,” Levesque explained. “All of our classrooms got an upgrade to a Spectrum Industries Freedom One eLift Lectern in the room from a black AV rack on the wall and a dedicated in-room computer.”

Things were somewhat better at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. According to Erin Maher-Moran, JHU’s IT manager—classroom technology, schools at JHU had already begun to adopt Zoom by the time COVID-19 started shutting doors. As a result, the JHU faculty was already familiar with this sort of technology and finished the semester remotely.

Still, JHU needed more hybrid facilities, so Maher-Moran’s team was "tasked with setting up any room that had a social distance capacity of six or more with the ability to teach in person and remote students,” she said. “Solutions varied depending on the size of the room. Some had cameras and mics installed. Some had a Zoom cart added. We also set up 30 ‘studio’ spaces with Zoom carts that instructors could use to record lectures in advance.”

'Butts In Seats'

Where does hybrid learning fit today? That's the big question for educators and the Pro AV industry alike—and on this point, opinions vary.

Jason Young, national sales manager of professional display solutions for Sony Electronics, believes there is a future for hybrid AV learning. “From my perspective, hybrid learning will be a constant offering from universities going forward,” he said. “While it may not [need] to address COVID restrictions any longer, schools have found many benefits of offering synchronous and asynchronous classes. Hybrid offers the ability for students to attend classes from other locations, if schedules for in-person classes do not permit them to participate. It also allows universities to offer more sessions of classes, even if physical space is limited.”