The University of Liechtenstein and its project partner, the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, have been trialing a hybrid lecture hall. This improves the feeling of closeness between those physically in attendance and those connected online through state-of-the-art technology.

As part of a research project financed by the Erasmus+ program, the University of Liechtenstein has trialed a hybrid lecture hall. To this end, a hybrid lecture hall was developed in partnership with the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, further details of which can be found in a press release issued by the University of Liechtenstein. The aim here was to solve the problem that hybrid learning environments can often lead to students and lecturers present in person feeling isolated from those participating online.  

To solve this problem, the hybrid lecture hall at the University of Liechtenstein was equipped with state-of-the-art technology from K-Businesscom AG, an ICT solutions and services provider from Austria. A network of freely movable cameras, ceiling microphones and projectors enabled those connected online to be projected onto the back wall of the lecture hall “in real time and in life size,” as the University of Liechtenstein writes in the press release. The external transmission was also able to focus on individual participants, for example when they spoke up.

“Participants dialing in from home as well as those present in the lecture hall report that they feel closer to one another thanks to the improved representation of facial expressions and gestures, as well as various didactic innovations”, explains project leader Martin Angerer from the University of Liechtenstein in the press release. “This is reflected in the quality of group work, collaboration and an increased sense of connection in particular”, he adds. In a next step, the project partners now intend to make their project materials publicly available in order to make it easier for other universities to introduce appropriate hybrid concepts of their own.

Back to overview