Chelmsford College is a Further Education College based in Essex. Split over two campuses, their 500 members of staff provide a wide variety of courses to over 2,000 students. These courses include business, construction, hair and beauty, ICT and digital, sport, and public services, among others. They are available to students aged 16 to 19, adults studying vocational qualifications and students with learning disabilities. Prior to contacting Sharp UK, Tim Grimwood, IT and Media Support Manager at Chelmsford College was looking for fit for purpose, modern and standardised classroom technology to aid learning. Additionally, their IT team also needed 3rd line IT Support for escalation of tickets where required.
The challenge
- Standardisation and engagement.
- No IT issue escalation process and limited additional expertise.
- Futureproofing and facilitating blended learning.
- Revitalisation and space utilisation.
With the modernisation of teaching environments high on the priority list, the first challenge the college wanted to address was ensuring learning content was visible to all students in classrooms.
Tim Grimwood said: “With the way the rooms are laid out, students aren’t all facing the front of the room, so may not immediately be able to see the main screen. We therefore needed a solution that would enable all students to see lesson content at all times. We also wanted technology to be modern, future-proof, and standardised across the college.”
Secondly, the college’s IT team excelled at the day-to-day maintenance of the IT infrastructure and support tickets, but they were looking for additional high-level technical expertise to support them. Tim said, “We needed to be able to escalate the more technical issues that we weren’t able to resolve ourselves.”
Tim continued: “With the huge increase in hybrid working and blended learning over the past couple of years, we also wanted to future-proof our teaching spaces by facilitating blended learning for both teachers and learners should they wish to work or teach more flexibly.”
Finally, teaching staff wanted to revitalise spaces at the college, ensuring effective utilisation. Tim said: “The space really needed to be utilised better, the staff room had a strange layout and some of the classroom furniture wasn’t particularly inspiring.”
The solution
- Flexible 3rd line IT Support, Consultancy and Server Monitoring.
- Redesign of rooms utilising new and pre-existing furniture.
- Installation of Meeting Room technology.
- Tailored Audio Visual Solutions.
The Audio Visual Solution introduced a variation of different screens throughout the college. In total there were 22 screens installed, starting off with 75-inch LED Interactive Touchscreens. These screens accompanied pre-existing Microsoft Surface Pro Laptops which replaced traditional lecterns. “Staff can stream
the screens from their surface laptops onto the other classroom screens.” Tim explained the college was clear that their objective was to move away from traditional lecterns in classrooms, which these new solutions supported.
In addition, Digital Signage Displays were installed throughout to “engage more of the students and improve classroom visibility” Tim said. One Touch Meeting Room Solutions were also installed in two rooms, including a video camera and sound bar. These systems were leveraged to make rooms immersive and interactive. The Video Conferencing capability also provided “versatility and flexibility to work remotely”, Tim explained.
A Wireless Visualiser was also implemented for one of the practical work rooms. The Visualiser was designed to allow teachers to demonstrate something on their workspace and showcase it on the screens in the room for better visibility.
Sharp also leveraged their Workplace Design capabilities, to refit and redesign some of the classrooms and the staff room in order to modernise them. As part of the Workplace Design process, Sharp considered the budget the college had to renovate the space. With this in mind, Sharp utilised a combination of new and existing furniture to future-proof the spaces. Both the staff room and the classrooms now act as a standard going forward, with future room renovations following similar design concepts.
Finally, Sharp provided IT Support to the College, this included Server Monitoring, Managed IT services and IT Consultancy. Whilst the college’s internal team were already handling everyday desktop support and IT queries, these solutions provided the external technical expertise they were seeking and “a safety net in case there is an issue we cannot resolve that needs to be escalated” Tim noted.
The result
- Enhanced content visibility and student engagement.
- IT Support for peace of mind and expertise.
- Meeting Room Solutions to support remote and hybrid teaching.
- Room transformations for better space utilisation.
When discussing the Audio Visual Solutions installed, Tim said: “It really is next level. With the Interactive Displays there is so much more functionality than what we had before, it’s really modernised teaching and learning. You can edit and annotate your presentations in real-time which saves time. It’s amazing when you see it all in action. With the Digital Signage Displays we now have more of the students engaged in lesson content, teachers can also freeze frame whilst they prepare their next bit of content, it works really well now that all the Audio Visual equipment works in exactly the same way in each room students and teachers can plug in and go.”
Tim continued: “The 3rd line remote IT Support that Sharp now provides us with is a safety net. It’s great knowing we have that knowledge and technical expertise there for issues that can’t be rectified in-house and need to be escalated. Usually this is for issues relating to our server.”
Now that teaching rooms are equipped with One Touch Meeting Room Solutions, “Teachers can conduct their lessons from anywhere in the building, and students learning from home for whatever reason can all be involved in the session, the devices really promote whole-class inclusion.”
Tim concluded: “The furniture Sharp has provided has also transformed our spaces. In the staff room the space is now utilised much better, there’s neat and tidy storage and comfortable seating areas for staff to use in between their lessons. The furniture is also standardised and clean-looking throughout, which adds a really nice aesthetic.”
