Updating Rounds Rooms

COVID-19 has brought all sorts of changes to our world including the College of Veterinary Medicine.

You can now add changes to the student rounds rooms in the Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center to that list.

The teaching hospital’s rounds rooms will be updated with conferencing abilities and wireless displays thanks to funding from the Committee on the Advancement of Student Technology for Learning Enhancement (CASTLE). Iowa State’s student computer fee central pool fund is the source for the project.

The project will update the audio visual infrastructure in 13 rounds rooms while installing conferencing capabilities to facilitate virtual educational opportunities.

“Teaching and learning occur in these rooms 365 days a year,” said Jeremy Kellen, audio visual support III and the project’s lead. “This includes student-to-student and student-to-instructor discussions, daily review of cases presented to individual clinical services, and student case presentations.

“COVID-19 and expanding interactions with educational opportunities external to Iowa State are also increasing the need for modern audio visual technology.”

A majority of the 13 rounds rooms have outdated audio visual technology. Kellen says the technology does not easily lend itself to modern teaching needs nor does it provide conferencing capabilities.

Each rounds room will be updated with large (up to 65”) flat screen television monitors and video conference cameras with integrated microphones.

“Upgrading the audio visual technology with modern video monitors and wireless access will enhance and expand the student learning experience by providing functional technology for use in case discussions, analysis of medical data and presentations,” Kellen said. “It can also facilitate greater communication between students, referring veterinarians and clients while allowing new collaboration with students and colleagues from other universities.”

The new equipment will enable instructors to record either via conferencing software such as Zoom or through lecture capture software. This will enable presentations for future viewing by all veterinary students.

The project has been awarded $43,750 in funding from CASTLE. The College of Veterinary Medicine is committing $49,015 towards the project.

October 2020