Kortrijk/Izegem, Belgium, 8 June 2016 – Barco, a global innovator in collaboration technology, and Televic Education, a world leader in educational technology, have just signed a partnership with KU Leuven (KULAK - Kortrijk campus) to explore how technology can help educational institutions implement a whole new way of learning and teaching. Under the TECOL project (Technology-Enhanced Collaborative Learning), the three partners will set up a living lab at the KULAK campus. There, they will investigate the power of technology to foster interaction, collaboration and, as a result, student engagement in traditional classrooms, multi-site environments and virtual, worldwide classrooms.

Based on Barco’s expertise in wireless sharing (ClickShare) and connectivity in control and meeting rooms, Barco’s collaborative learning solutions help teachers and students to wirelessly show information from their own devices on classroom displays. In this way, they boost interactivity and collaboration and, consequently, engagement in the classroom. Under the TECOL project, KU Leuven will now test the efficacy and value of these solutions, combined with Televic’s educational software solutions. As a worldwide provider of collaborative learning, online testing and classroom management solutions, Televic Education brings many years of expertise in educational technology (edtech) to the table. The first trials prove that Televic and Barco technologies work seamlessly together: in a lecture at KULAK, future students filled out a number of quiz and poll questions on their own mobile devices, and the results were shared via the Barco platform.

Living lab to study several use cases
KU Leuven has been investing in edtech for quite some time now. It will now call in the help of its in-house ITEC research team and specialists from the Faculties of Psychology and Educational Sciences and of Medicine to study how existing educational technology can be used to enhance learning and engagement. In practice, the research team will set up a living lab at the KULAK campus in Kortrijk to examine several use cases: how to increase student interactivity during lectures, build collaborative learning spaces and set up a multi-location learning environment. Using the insights gathered, KU Leuven plans to develop new technology solutions that enable interactive, collaborative learning.

Rik Torfs, rector at KU Leuven: “This is a unique chance for KU Leuven to position itself as a frontrunner in edtech. More important, of course, are the results: we hope to gain interesting insights into how technology can help boost interactivity and collaboration and, as such, raise engagement levels and improve the success of our students.”

Edtech ecosystem
“The release of this joint platform is the next logical step in the growth of Televic Education’s product portfolio: you can compare it with our current digital multimedia and classroom management system, but enhanced with new possibilities like BYOD and asynchronous learning. Furthermore, the collaborative learning platform fits perfectly into the new product suite that we are developing. We attach great importance to security and usability, and the living lab provides an excellent opportunity for us to perform extensive user tests,” says Filip Vanlerberghe, Product Manager of Televic Education. “This project connects our organization with new trends such as flipped classrooms, peer reviewing and rating, collaborative learning and discussion and blended learning.”

“We’re delighted to be part of this Flemish Edtech ecosystem. For Barco, the partnership is the perfect chance to test our solutions in real life and gauge the needs of students, lecturers, facility managers and other stakeholders. We believe it’s really enriching for the academic world and the industry to join forces to develop solutions that address real challenges and give rise to real opportunities … to truly reshape education,” says Wim Barbaix, Business Development Manager of Education/Collaborative Learning at Barco.

About Barco
Barco, a global technology company, designs and develops visualization products for a variety of selected professional markets. Barco has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco (NYSE Euronext Brussels: BAR) is active in more than 90 countries with about 3,300 employees worldwide. Barco posted sales of 1.029 billion euros in 2015.
About Televic Education Televic Education, founded in 1956, is part of the Televic Group and a worldwide provider of collaborative learning, online testing and classroom management solutions. With its AVIDAnet solution - a digital multimedia lab that helps teachers manage content distribution, monitor pupils and assist when necessary - Televic Education has been providing solutions for “the classroom of the future” for over 20 years.

© Copyright 2016 by Barco and Televic Education