UCF adding cameras and training for online learning

LAKE MARY, Fla. - Students at the University of Central Florida will begin the fall semester on Monday. With days left to go, faculty and staff are continuing to train on the new virtual formats.

Even though there will be fewer desks in the classrooms, there will be more eyes on the lecture from home. A total of 350 classrooms are being outfitted with cameras and microphones to broadcast over the internet.

“We have several hundred classes that we expect will be using that technology,” said Tom Cavanagh, UCF Vice Provost for digital learning. “It allows us to comply with these reduced capacities in the classroom where we can only have say a third of students who we would typically have in that class at any given time.”

Starting Monday, the fall semester will mean 77 percent of UCF’s classes will be online or remote and only 23 percent will require an in-person experience – the complete opposite of what campus looked like in Fall 2019.

To meet this demand, teachers have spent weeks training on online instruction.

“It will also allow us to support students who might have to self-isolate, who may be exposed to somebody and have to quarantine or something and if they don’t get sick they can still participate in the class remotely,” Cavanagh said.  

To prepare for COVID capacity, UCF created a new hybrid class format called Blendflex that will split students into smaller groups with one in-person class per week and the rest online.

While everyone continues adapting to change, UCF leaders said their students are already familiar with online classes.

“Eighty-six percent of our students take either an online or blended class every academic year,” Cavanagh said.

The measure of success will ultimately depend on each student and educator.