Randolph Community College Case Study

The Client

About Randolph Community College

Ranked in the top 10 of community colleges nationwide by Smart Asset, Randolph Community College is in the city of Asheboro, North Carolina. The Dr. Robert S. Shackleford Jr. Allied Health Center, (named for the college president who has devoted much of his career to modernizing the college campus), is a two-story, Silver LEED-Certified building designed by Little Diversified Architectural Consulting to house state-of-the-art Associate Degree Nursing, Radiography, Medical Assisting, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) programs.

Classrooms

Planning for classroom technologies began well before the building was constructed. Tara Williams, Director of Information technology Services, explained that a Technology Committee consisting of people from different areas across campus worked together to “create a technology plan. And from that plan, we set a standard for what we will have in the classrooms for instructional technology.” Clarus glass and Epson short-throw projectors became the state-of-the-art solution for most classrooms.

With sleek modern lines, Clarus glass acts as both a dry-erase board and a projection screen. Instructors can turn off projected digital presentations and pick up dry-erase markers to continue lessons without significant transition time. Williams shares that the Instruction and Distance Education department worked with her to get Clarus glass as the standard for the Allied Health Center classrooms and that she gets requests from other areas of the college that want Clarus glass in their classrooms.

Using Epson short throw projectors work great with Clarus glass, allowing for a simplified design. The HD laser technology projects high-quality images for easier viewing, regardless of classroom size.

Instructors were included in the technology planning for the Allied Health Building. When educators preferred digital displays over projection technology, LG flat panel displays were installed to meet the instructors’ requests.

Training Room

A large training room serves as multi-purpose space for both education and community meetings. Daffie Garris, Vice President for Administrative Services, explains that the large space is used for both EMS training and as a general-purpose room available to the public
for reservations. Garris says, “We invite people to come, and we want them to have the latest technology.”

The large room’s technology is configured as a “divide and combine” room which means that the space can be broken into smaller areas and that audio and video components can serve both the smaller spaces or the room as a whole. Modeled after another training room that was upgraded a few years prior, the success of the design proved very popular with instructors and community members. Tara Williams explains that the room is designed for simplicity so that anyone who can plug in a laptop can start presenting without much training required.

Video Wall

A two-story video wall brings visual excitement to the state-of the-art Allied Health building. Measuring 30 feet tall x 16 feet wide, the DigiLED display scrolls artistic images that add a sensational ambiance to the buildings main atrium and can be seen from a distance outside the building. Daffie Garris say that after consulting with the architects at length about artwork for the large feature wall, “We knew we wanted a WOW factor and that it needed to be digital.”

Tara Williams adds “We were very focused on what is WOW.” She continues, “The product that was eventually found (DigiLED) was more than we expected. I did not expect that we would be the first school in North Carolina to have this product, but we are.”

Garris says, “We sometimes have people ask ‘Why do you spend so much money? Why does it matter?’ But it does matter. Environment matters.” The dynamic visual effect sets the tone for the state-of-the-art health sciences educational opportunities available at Randolph Community College. Garris says, “We have had people tell us that it (Allied Health Building) is better than many universities that they have been to. We are a small
community college, so we are proud of that.”

Randolph Community College

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