HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht prepares students for the future with CTOUCH touchscreens
Some partnerships are meant to last. Since 2018, CTOUCH has worked closely together with Hogeschool Utrecht (HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht) to ensure their teachers and students have uniform teaching tools they can trust to be used with ease - today, tomorrow, and for many years to come.
HU University is a vocational university. Utrecht Science Park, HU’s main location, consists of five education and research buildings. Able to accommodate 35,000 students and 3500 staff members, it is of utmost importance that these people can trust teaching solutions to effortlessly perform. The solution in question? CTOUCH touchscreens! Utrecht Science Park is home to a fleet of CTOUCH touchscreens, ready to serve teachers and students in over 500 (growing to 700!) classrooms.
Love at first sound
Let’s go back to 2018, when HU University was looking to update their teaching tools: from non-interactive presentations screens to interactive touchscreens. Heuvelman Sound & Vision, HU’s trusted AV dealer and one of our trusted resellers, recommended HU to check out CTOUCH at the ISE, the world’s leading AV exposition held in Amsterdam that year. ‘Twas there at the CTOUCH booth, where it was love at first sound with the CTOUCH Laser Sky, Riva’s predecessor.
Laser Sky provided something new and exciting in the world of large interactive displays: excellent sound even in classrooms of considerable size, courtesy of the integrated JBL speakers. Equally exciting for HU: Laser Sky’s security features. As part of our design philosophy, Laser Sky had fully customisable ports and measures such as disabling internet access and setting a pin code. Security by design!
Furthermore, Laser Sky was available in different formats with the exact same user interface. Different sizes could be placed in different classrooms, with no difference in use – a dream come true for standardisation procedures! The excellent price-quality ratio and 7-year warranty helped a great deal as well when it came to taking the plunge.
The benefits of touch
The installation of the Laser Sky was made possible with love and care by Heuvelman. The finishing touch was fitting the exact same set of colour-coded cables to accommodate several connecting cable types. This would allow not only teachers to connect, but also guest lecturers and students who may have all different type of devices and connection options.
The main challenge was to convince teachers to make full use of the touch functionalities. For further instructions, HU set the touchscreen’s starting screen to a manual and training videos were made. Slowly but surely, touchscreens were incorporated in lessons. Teachers would bring their own device, hook it up and voilà: the benefits of touch!
Future proofing 700 classrooms
And the love didn’t stop there! Every four to seven years AV equipment is to be upgraded within the HU. In practice, this means that each year 100 of the 700 classrooms are eligible to be updated with the latest AV technology.
Of extreme importance then was the ability to continue one’s classes, regardless of the exact model of touchscreen in the classroom. Future proofing their education by having touchscreens with the same features, regardless of the technicalities underneath the hood, was priority #1.
Enter the next generation of CTOUCH touchscreens: the CTOUCH Riva! The user-friendly CTOUCH Riva with its JBL speakers and excellent writing experience was just what the doctor/IT admin ordered.
The CTOUCH Riva is a massive technological improvement upon the Laser Sky but with the same ease of use, a similar interface and security measures. Another improvement that came with the Riva was the EShare application, which allows teachers to share their screen wirelessly.
As classes must go on and education never sleeps, when the renewal time came it was not possible to replace all Laser Sky’s with Riva’s at once. Luckily, CTOUCH Riva kept all of Laser Sky’s beloved features and improved upon them – as a result, there were no transition troubles. Both CTOUCH Laser Sky and Riva are now greatly appreciated among staff, with no significant issues detected in all their years of duty.
Together digital and future proof
Hogeschool Utrecht (HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht)’s vision is to contribute to an innovative approach to challenges in health, technology, safety, climate and sustainability by providing education for young students and professionals. CTOUCH’s vision is to foster happiness through extraordinary interactive experiences in collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Our visions intersect on a conceptual level, our solutions contribute on an executive level. By providing uniform and safe teaching solutions that are made to last, we hope to add value to teachers’ methods, and improve students’ education.
Our next step with HU: reducing IT staffs’ workload by helping HU implement our Heartbeat As-A-Service programme on their CTOUCH Laser Sky and Riva touchscreens. This pilot study is in full swing as of fall 2022, with an expected completion date in summer 2023. We look forward to continue assisting HU in this project and many more to come. To the future!