Connected Classroom
The room side of institutional technology, and how what happens in it reaches the digital environment. Rooms, capture, hardware, coordination.
Modal Flexibility: Delivering the Version You Can Support Well
Full HyFlex asks a great deal of a room and a course. Naming the version of flexibility you can deliver well, and delivering that, serves students better than promising more.
Margot Hemsfeld — Classroom Audiovisual Specialist, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsConnected ClassroomClassroom Hardware: Where the Money Changes the Experience
A capital line to commit and a supplier quote nobody can fully evaluate. One question sorts most of it: does this line take a step away from teaching, or add one? Where classroom-technology spending returns the most.
Margot Hemsfeld — Classroom Audiovisual Specialist, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsConnected ClassroomCoordinating a Classroom Project Across Four Teams
A room renovation has four owners: facilities, IT, the AV integrator, and academic affairs. Each has a real, bounded role. How institutions keep the academic voice in the decisions that shape teaching.
Jack Wrightmann — Consultant, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsConnected ClassroomLecture Capture That Publishes Itself: The Anatomy of a Setup That Just Works
When capture is wired well, a recording appears in the right course with captions and nobody had to think about it. How that setup is put together, and how institutions tend to run it.
Emily Connelly — Instructional Multimedia Technologist, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsConnected ClassroomDesigning a Room for Discussion, Not Just Presentation
Active-learning and seminar rooms have different AV needs from lecture halls. What discussion-focused classrooms get right, from sightlines to audio to writable surfaces, and how institutions template them.
Margot Hemsfeld — Classroom Audiovisual Specialist, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsLearning Platforms
The learning management system and the software around it. Using it well, and supporting the people who teach with it.
Feature Adoption Is a Design Question, Not a Willingness Question
When most courses use the same handful of LMS features, that is usually a fact about how the rollout was designed rather than how faculty feel. What the research says, and what a rollout that works looks like.
Charlie Wrightmann — Consultant, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsLearning PlatformsWhat a Faculty Development Cohort That Works Looks Like
A cohort is the format most likely to change how faculty teach, but the design decisions are what make the difference. The five that separate a cohort that moves practice from one that produces goodwill.
Charlie Wrightmann — Consultant, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsLearning PlatformsThe Accessible Course Template: Giving Faculty a Running Start
A well-built LMS course template makes the accessible, well-organized version of a course the starting point rather than a retrofit. What goes into a good one, and how teaching centers roll them out.
Emily Connelly — Instructional Multimedia Technologist, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsLearning PlatformsEarly Signals: Using Course Analytics to Reach a Student in Week Three
LMS and early-alert data can flag a student who is drifting while a short conversation can still change the trajectory, which signals are worth acting on, how institutions route them to a person, and how to keep the practice supportive.
Charlie Wrightmann — Consultant, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsLearning PlatformsThe Collegial Course Review: Quality Frameworks That Do not Feel Like an Audit
Quality Matters, OSCQR, and peer-review models give course design a shared vocabulary. How institutions run them as a supportive, faculty-owned practice rather than a compliance exercise.
Charlie Wrightmann — Consultant, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsLearning PlatformsUniversal Design for Learning in an Online Course: A Practical Starting Point
UDL is often introduced as a large framework. In an online course, a handful of concrete moves deliver most of the benefit, and each one also tends to cut support requests and accommodation friction. Where to begin.
Charlie Wrightmann — Consultant, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsTechnology Procurement
Choosing, evaluating, and living with the technology that runs the institution.
Planning the Implementation as Its Own Project
The license is the number on the proposal. The implementation, meaning integration and data and configuration and faculty support, is the number that shapes the project. How to build a realistic one before you sign.
Jack Wrightmann — Consultant, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsTechnology ProcurementKeeping the Technology Stack Coherent as It Grows
Every ed-tech tool an institution owns was a reasonable decision on its own. A light standing structure keeps the whole from getting tangled: a review, an interoperability expectation, an annual look.
Shuji Toyama — Learning Management System Administration Specialist, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsTechnology ProcurementFive Contract Terms Worth Settling Early
Once a product is chosen, the agreement is where the operational details get set. Five terms that are straightforward to include before signature and useful to have in place, with the sector's shared instruments behind them.
Jack Wrightmann — Consultant, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsTechnology ProcurementCooperative Purchasing, Explained: Buying on Terms Someone Else Negotiated
Cooperative agreements and consortium contracts let one institution buy technology on terms many institutions shaped together. What they are, what they save, and how to check whether one covers a purchase.
Jack Wrightmann — Consultant, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsTechnology ProcurementDesigning a Product Pilot That Tells You Something Real
A pilot can answer questions a demo cannot, but only if it is scoped to produce a clear signal. How to choose the courses, set the question, decide what to measure, and read the result.
Jack Wrightmann — Consultant, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsTechnology Procurement'It Integrates' Should Mean LTI and OneRoster: Interoperability for the Committee
When a supplier says a product integrates with your LMS, it helps to know what that can mean. A plain account of the standards, what each one does, and the questions that tell you which kind of integration you are getting.
Shuji Toyama — Learning Management System Administration Specialist, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsAccessibility and Compliance
WCAG, ADA Title II, VPATs, FERPA, and academic integrity, built into how technology and content get made.
Reading an Accessibility Conformance Report
A completed VPAT is a supplier's structured self-assessment against an accessibility standard. Read with attention, it shortens an evaluation and strengthens a contract. What it tells you, what it does not, and how to use it.
Shuji Toyama — Learning Management System Administration Specialist, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsAccessibility and ComplianceSequencing Accessibility Work Toward the Title II Deadline
The 2024 ADA Title II rule sets WCAG 2.1 AA for public colleges, due in 2027 and 2028. What it covers, and a sequence that reaches the date with a working practice rather than a one-time push.
Emily Connelly — Instructional Multimedia Technologist, Wrightmann Education TechnologistsAccessibility and ComplianceBuilding an AI-Integrity Policy Around What a Detection Score Can Bear
AI-writing detectors are carrying more weight in conduct decisions than the research supports. A policy shape that keeps the tool useful, protects the student who did nothing wrong, and holds up under appeal.
Charlie WrightmannAccessibility and ComplianceBuilding a Captioning Pipeline: Options and How Institutions Choose
Captioning works best as a standing process rather than a queue of requests. The common models, automatic and supplier and in-house and hybrid, what each is good for, and how institutions size and run them.
Emily Connelly — Instructional Multimedia Technologist, Wrightmann Education Technologists