In addition to the large video wall displaying remote participants, there is also a screen installed in each pod. This way, remote and onsite participants are perfectly able to engage in in-depth discussion and quality group work.

The hybrid classroom technology creates a real-time collaborative environment that’s designed for sharing ideas, while active participation is encouraged with polls and quizzes.

Pryor states: 'Students can raise their hands or participate in real-time polling as if they’re in a face-to-face classroom.'

Tara Shawver (Chair, Kearney & Company Department of Accounting) adds 'As a professor, the technology that's most important to me is one that increases student interest in my course. So using the collaboration modes in the classroom allows my students to talk out problems. It builds teambuilding, critical thinking. It allows us to explore topics more deeply.'

Robert Pryor concurs: ´The great thing is, four or five faculty members are using the room and they’re all using it a little differently,´ Pryor says. ´They have the flexibility to be creative and deliver their content in a unique way to the students.´

And what are the students saying? They are just as content with the solution. Hannah Marvin, (Accounting & Finance major) shares her experience:

´It was really seamless when we went virtual with this room because you didn't miss a beat. You saw your professor. You saw your PowerPoints and you saw everybody else and then the breakout rooms on top of it. You really had a normal class setting and then when we jumped back into going in-class, it was like nothing changed. ´