Although the 1500m² ACTS has the look and feel of a modern lecture theatre, it also hosts futuristic systems designed to maximise communication.
Students are able to integrate their own technology with the systems in the room. For example, they can download learning materials, including lecture recordings, on to their own iPods, laptops, personal organisers and/or mobile phones. Similarly, student work brought to class on a variety of media can be easily screened to the whole class.
As well as advanced projection systems at the front of the room, students each sit at an individual touch-screen enabling a wide range of services. The screens enable instantaneous polling and voting, not only keeping students involved with content but giving lecturers immediate feedback on how well key concepts are being understood. Students will also be able to type in questions rather than ask them out loud therefore overcoming any reluctance to openly participate. The screens also allow students to move through slides at their own pace, look ahead and review, or perhaps even branch off into specially prepared supplementary material.
An automated translation system is also under development, which will allow students without English as their first language to instantly look-up unfamiliar terms.
This new facility boasts teaching technology not expected to be commonplace elsewhere for at least a decade. Derek Powell, Manager of Teaching Technology Support and originator of the ACTS concept comments that “ACTS will be, in effect, a laboratory for teaching technology and is capable of evaluating each new practice in a rigorous way. It will allow the best emerging technology to be tested and adopted into mainstream UQ teaching spaces far sooner than otherwise possible.”