AUSTIN, Texas — The challenge of creating safe classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a creative solution: beaming a professor into the classroom as a hologram.
The McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin has contracted with Austin-based Contextual Content Group to create a new 3D immersive video solution that combines in-person, hybrid and online teaching to deliver an engaging and interactive distanced learning experience.
“This is an authentic experience because I can see all the gestures and the nuances that students are expressing, whether it be raising a hand or nodding, and as a result, it really is very much like being right here in the classroom,” Limberg said.
The COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity for UT Austin and the McCombs School to offer students a variety of ways to learn during the fall 2020 semester. This was also an opportunity for collaboration with an Austin startup to invent a new way of activating multiple modalities simultaneously, keeping both the professor and students safe.
“This technology is very robust,” said Jim Spencer, CEO of Contextual Content Group. “Our goal is to keep the professors safe, greatly enhance the in-classroom socially distanced experience, and also greatly enhance the online virtual experience, and I’m happy to report it works.”
The technology is a good fit for the innovative culture at the McCombs School of Business, and there are plans for expansion.
