Experiences Using Large Scale Video Walls for Distance Education

We describe our experiences building and using the Rutgers Videowall, a low-cost telepresence system that has been used teaching 15 courses and colloquia. By relaxing typical spatial telepresence features, such as background continuity, we greatly reduced costs and gained flexibility in the rooms it could be deployed in. The lower costs and room flexibility enabled academic departments to use the wall, in contrast to traditional telepresence systems which remained inaccessible. We found that the Videowall’s spatial distortions did not have a significant impact on useability, as our initial survey results show that students had an overall positive experience.