Breaking the Barriers of Two-Way Collaboration

Collaboration techniques designed to promote participation in classrooms have shown to produce higher education outcomes at all levels. According to a Harvard study, students learn more when taking part in classrooms that employ participation activities, such as active learning strategies. Active learning is an instructional method that engages students in the learning process. It’s designed to encourage student interaction with peers, teachers and the material. Although Solstice Active Learning was developed specifically for the higher education market, active video routing can be a useful tool for corporate training rooms, overflow spaces, or confidence monitors.

Despite active learning classrooms being shown to increase student success and attention rates, the adoption of the active learning technology model has been constrained due to high costs and the complexity of the hardware. Traditional active learning technology can be a significant investment for higher education facilities, and the technology will only remain relevant for a few years until a new, more innovative active learning system is released. Additionally, traditional active learning products require custom hardware and specialized programming, expensive and time-consuming product deployment, and inconsistent user experience. 

Mersive Technologies, Inc. is breaking the barriers of active learning with its flagship collaboration platform, Solstice. Solstice Active Learning, a software-based video routing solution using Solstice Pods, is designed to make active learning accessible by eliminating the high overhead cost and complexity of traditional active learning technology. Mersive CTO and founder Christopher Jaynes, also a former professor at the University of Kentucky, worked with top educational institutions around the world while developing Solstice Active Learning, and focused on removing the pain points experienced by traditional active learning technology. Jaynes understood that the vast majority of schools want to provide active learning systems but can only deploy one or two systems on campus due to the price tag. Then, it becomes difficult for professors to adopt active learning with only a limited number of systems available on campus.

Solstice Active Learning provides users with a flexible solution for designing and utilizing multi-screen environments — ideal for active learning rooms, overflow spaces, and confidence monitors. The Solstice Active Learning App utilizes an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to virtually design and enable rooms in minutes. Once the space is enabled, moderators can route video or broadcast messages on team displays through the easy-to-use app. Students can share content via web browsers, AirPlay, Miracast or the Solstice app. Unlike traditional hardware-based solutions, Solstice can be deployed in hours (not weeks or months) using a Solstice Pod with an Active Learning Subscription for each display. The Solstice Pod leverages existing Wi-Fi and Ethernet networks to serve as the receiver and encoder/decoder for each display.

Troy Suttle, VP of product and channel marketing, explained “Our vision for Solstice Active Learning was to provide a flexible solution that removes significant cost and complexity from deploying video routing in multi-screen environments, and we think we’ve accomplished that.” 

As higher education facilities and corporate environments focus on safe social distancing, Mersive Technologies will continue to enhance Solstice with new timely features, such as agnostic video conferencing integration and room occupancy monitoring— while also delivering a superior multi-participant collaboration experience. 

At AV Planners, we drive collaboration, connectivity and a simplified user-experience with AV. As a licensed dealer for Mersive Technologies, we can design and implement the Solstice Pod for a cost-effective active learning and active routing solution. Contact AV Planners via email at info@avplanners.com, or call us at 213-493-6473 for a 30-day trial of Solstice Pod. Keep up with the latest news from AV Planners on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.