February 27, 2008

Polycom Telepresence Helps Georgetown University Create Global Classroom

By Tim Gray, TMCnet Web Editor

Polycom (News - Alert), the leading provider of unified collaborative communications solutions, today announced Georgetown University has deployed the its RealPresence Experience (RPX) HD in an effort to create a global classroom bridging the University's Washington, D.C. and Doha, Qatar campuses.

The Pleasanton, Calif.-based company’s RPX is the industry's only high definition immersive telepresence solution, and by providing symmetrical telepresence class rooms in each location that feature high definition video, voice and content-sharing capabilities, students separated by more than 7,000 miles of ocean and land are able to interact and collaborate with each other and faculty as if they were in the same room.

"The point of the global classroom is to enable students and teachers in separate locations - in this case Doha and Washington - to experience learning as if they were in the same room," said Reardon-Anderson, dean of the School of Foreign Service in Qatar. "This gives students from different countries and cultures an opportunity to talk directly to one another, and it weaves together the two Georgetown campuses in ways that have not been possible in the past."

Located in the capital city of Doha, the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar is the first branch campus of its world-renowned Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown. The program provides a four-year undergraduate degree in international politics to students from the Middle East and around the world. The Global Classroom initiative is designed to help provide a consistent learning experience between the campuses, said Reardon-Anderson.

Youssef Saleh, vice president and general manager of telepresence and vertical solutions at Polycom, said creating a realistic and interactive learning environment was important to Reardon-Anderson and his colleagues. As a result, they experimented with other visual communications technologies and evaluated other telepresence solutions, but found the Polycom RPX HD solutions offered a unique and more natural collaboration experience.

"Georgetown University's global classroom is a great example of how Polycom telepresence solutions can erase the collaboration barriers caused by distance and create wonderful new opportunities - in this case for the students, faculty and the university," said Saleh. "The flexible nature of this technology makes it ideal for a broad range of industries and interactive applications. We look forward to seeing how the progressive educators at Georgetown use this solution to continue to enhance their curriculum for students of international relations."

The system is currently being used in one undergraduate course titled "Causes of War." David Edelstein teaches the course from Washington, D.C. to two groups of students, one in D.C. and one in Qatar. After overcoming the initial surprise of using the new technology, students from both campuses are now engaging in real-life classroom discussions.

"It is a way of enhancing the experience by providing select opportunities for teachers and students on both sides of the Atlantic to study and learn together," said Reardon-Anderson.

The University is currently evaluating ways to expand the use of the system for additional courses, as well as student meetings and more.

"This truly opens the doors between D.C. and Doha," said Randy Bass, executive director of the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship. "This is at the center of what we do as a global university. It's exciting how many possibilities there are for powerful interactions in the future."


Polycom telepresence solutions eliminate the barriers of working across distance through immersive, life-like visual communications, enabling people to collaborate face to face with coworkers, customers and partners in different locations as effectively and productively as if they were in the same room.

The telepresence solutions are based on open standards and work seamlessly with the full range of Polycom visual communications solutions from the desktop to immersive telepresence suite, allowing organizations to connect their entire knowledge network. The standards-based solutions integrate with the unified communication networks that customers have today, and interoperate at the highest possible quality with standards-based video conferencing solutions from other manufacturers, and the million-plus legacy video conferencing systems in use around the world.

Tim Gray is a Web Editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To see more of his articles, please visit Tim Gray’s columnist page.

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