Engineering school Mapúa University and tech giant Cisco Philippines have forged an AI-led collaboration to launch what is dubbed as the first truly digital classrooms in the country.
The initiative was made under Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program, Ugnayan 2030, and the government’s National Digital Agenda, and integrated into Mapúa’s Tri-X (triple experience) teaching and learning framework.
Zaza Soriano-Nicart, managing director of Cisco Philippines, said that “by helping the university leverage AI and inclusive collaboration tools in the classroom, we are closing the learning divide, enhancing student access, and ensuring quality education for every student nationwide so that no one gets left behind.”
The five upgraded classrooms are distributed between the Mapúa’s Intramuros campus (three classrooms), and Makati campus (two classrooms).
Using Cisco’s network capabilities, these classrooms are connected so broadcasts would not have any noise and lag, allowing teachers to present their modules, and for students to hear and see them clearly.
The main software used for the classrooms is the Cisco Webex Meeting Suite, which Ericson Dimaunahan, Mapúa University Center for Teaching and Digital Learning director, demonstrated during the press launch.
Aside from the participants in the Intramuros campus, the demonstration also involved volunteer students at the Makati campus, at their home, and even at a coffee shop.
Along with providing the lecturer a view of their students, the Webex Board has a responsive screen which allows the lecturer to write on the board with their finger or the provided pen.
The annotation features allow collaborative interactions so people outside of the classroom could also write and interact on the board as the lecturer does, and save it to a file.
The Webex Board is also equipped with a 96-megapixel wide angle camera for a simpler digital classroom set up. Its Nvidia-powered image processing and AI virtual lens assure clear and detailed images, even without the help of external cameras.
Due to the net access capabilities of the Webex Board, class participants could share files through the network, eliminating the need for cables and USB drives.
The annotation feature also allows the participants to write or highlight presentations or document files as they are projected on the screens.
The Webex Assistant is a Webex Board software that houses its AI functions. It provides the classroom participants with notes, action items, and reminders. It also has a real-time transcription function, so the participants would not miss any details during discussions.
The Webex Assistant gives both teachers and students more time to focus on the class, and cutback on the time needed to manage the documentations.
The Webex Assistant could also be voice-activated, for easy command prompts while in the middle of a lecture.
Speaking about voice, audio is also a key component of the Cisco Webex Meeting Suite. The Cisco Ceiling Microphone has noise cancellation, and a 180° pick-up pattern, for clear audio reception focused on the active speaker, wherever in the room.
The Meeting Suite comes with a Room Navigator is a 10-inch tablet controller to connect the audio-visual equipment to the suite.
It also controls the Cisco Quad Camera, situated at the front of the room, and the Cinematic point-tilt-zoom (PTZ) 4k at the back.
The Quad Camera is an 80-megapixel, 4-camera system, capable of 7x zoom, so people could be clearly seen, and focused on, even at the back of the room.
The PTZ camera has a AI-driven people focus, and dynamic speaker tracking, so it follows the active speaker as they move around the room.
The digital classrooms are all equipped with the AI-powered Meraki Wireless Access Points for seamless and secure online connections.
The rooms also have three Cisco Meraki cloud-managed security cameras, with intelligent motion-indexing search engine and motion analytic tools, for a safe and secure learning environment.
Dr. Dodjie Maestrecampo, CEO and president of Mapúa University, stated that “the goal is to overcome traditional barriers to teaching and communication.”
Maestrecampo said Mapúa plans to increase the number of digital classrooms in the future, as well as expand to their campuses in Laguna and Davao.
