MARQUETTE — Northern Michigan University (NMU) held a grand opening today for their new virtual classroom, Studio 102.

 

 

It is a space for online media production.

The studio will allow staff to record content to be shown for online courses.

Instructors can write or draw on the lightboard with liquid chalk, while being able to look through the glass to make it seems like they are making “eye contact” with their students.

“Northern really took a bit of a risk in creating this kind of facility, there aren’t many of them like it in the United States. This puts Northern a bit ahead of some of the others in terms of creating content” said Director of Broadcast and Audio Visual Services, Eric Smith.

“Most universities have some sort of online programming, some of it’s pretty ordinary. So we wanted to make sure to set ourselves apart and media will kind-of separate the winners from the losers in online education” said Vice President of Extended Learning and Community Engagement, Steve VandenAvond. “And we also want to make sure that our current online students have an experience that is similar to the experience that they would get on campus.”

The room offers quality sound and lighting for recording purposes.

As well as a software that flips the text for students so that it reads the correct way when they are watching an online video.

Studio 102 is located in the lower level of the NMU Learning Resource Center.