The future of digital learning
First fully virtualized and interactive e-learning platform in Germany
Qvest has created the first fully virtualized and interactive e-learning platform in Germany for FOM University of Applied Sciences. The latest technology enables a didactically versatile and flexibly expandable learning environment.
As general contractor, Qvest was responsible for the design, integration and support of the technical equipment at various FOM locations throughout Germany – and has raised the range of media-interactive teaching to a new level with an innovative technology concept. The digital studies at FOM now enable a fully virtualized e-learning experience with state-of-the-art presentation and interaction options.
E-learning as a new business model
The use of e-learning offers universities the opportunity to create a modern teaching and learning environment. At the same time, this opens up new business opportunities in the field of digital education. Numerous universities have therefore worked with new forms of learning and digital tools for the first time in recent years – including FOM.
The advantage: lecturers and students can exchange ideas easily and efficiently without being tied to a specific lecture hall. The range of digital courses at FOM has been available since the winter semester 2021/2022 – and it is being continuously expanded.
Didactic centerpiece: Virtual Classroom
A key element of the digitalized teaching and learning platform is the FOM Virtual Classroom. Using Zoom Rooms conference software, hundreds of students can actively participate in lectures simultaneously from any location. In addition, up to 60 students can take part in lon-site lectures in the city of Essen. This allows them to contribute to the hybrid lectures.
The room is equipped with five Panasonic pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras as well as projectors and a large curved LED wall from BARCO: it forms the technical and didactic centerpiece. On a media surface measuring more than 30 square meters, lecturers have a wide range of digital presentation options at their disposal – be it for charts, infographics, or the practical portrait view of all participants.
Virtual Classroom
- Hybrid studio with video wall and auditorium for hybrid lectures (around 60 seats on site)
- Equipped for e-learning, various events and possibly TV productions with an audience on site with seating
- Virtual Classroom: dual-use installation for e-learning and on-site studio
- Control room for technical assistance
- Five cameras for mixing and distribution to remote students
- ARRI lighting installation installed in all rooms
- Mixed SDI and NDI signal usage
- Virtual Classroom LED wall: 12.8 x 2.40 m; displays from BARCO; processing designed for 4K; total resolution of the wall: 8064 x 1512 px; curved construction
- 8K player for native playback of the LED wall
- Further equipment: Panasonic PTZ cameras, RIEDEL MediorNet UHD, Dante audio network, NewTek TriCaster vision mixer, Remote dome camera from Panasonic, Kiloview NDI Converter
"High performance and easy to use at the same time"
Qvest was able to contribute its extensive expertise in bringing together media technology and communication technology providers to this project for the academic market. Prof. Dr. Burghard Hermeier, Rector of FOM: "The most important credo of our collaboration with Qvest is that the new digital solutions are technically high-performance and easy to use at the same time. In this way, we can ensure that students can make full use of our comprehensive range of courses, even if their internet access is down or their laptop is no longer the very latest." Thomas Müller, CTO of Qvest, underlines the potential of digital transformation in the education sector: "Digital transformation also offers universities, schools and similar educational institutions enormous potential for innovation and numerous opportunities for implementation. Together with FOM University of Applied Sciences, we are demonstrating what professional media and digital technology can do for academic education today."
In addition to the Virtual Classroom, FOM offers another interactive and digital learning environment: the Virtual Reality Room in Essen. In this compact livestreaming studio, lecture content can be visualized in real time using a reality engine from Zero Density with virtual reality – particularly vivid and didactically effective. The infrastructure of the interactive and fully digitalized study platform is complemented by four digital teaching studios at the main location in Essen. In these media rooms equipped with green screens, lecturers can enter into a live dialog with digitally connected students via Zoom Rooms.
In spring 2022, further set-ups were completed in Bonn, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, and Munich. Since October 2022, FOM has been operating a total of 16 digital teaching studios set up by Qvest across Germany.
