2. Light Conditions

As mentioned in the Introduction: One of the most important and critical tasks is to define the level of usage of the digital classroom.

Normally we define three levels of usage of digital classrooms:

• Level 1: Ordinary teaching with access to modern audiovisual tools.
• Level 2: Videoconferencing teaching where the room primarily will receive teaching.
• Level 3: Videoconferencing teaching where the room will be used to send teaching sequences.

Generally, it is more complicated to design and more expensive to build classrooms with a high level of usage.

In level 1 material from the Internet can easily be used and visualised in the lecture, and content of the teaching session can easily be stored in the learning management system (LMS) being used.

Level 2 and level 3 are more demanding, both from a technical and economical point of view. However, in level 2 it is possible to choose less expensive solutions by using simpler videoconferencing equipment that still gives acceptable sound and picture quality.

In level 3 effort must be really made to design user-friendly solutions with easy inclusion of far end parts.

In addition, digital classrooms will often have combined levels of usage, with some usage in two of the levels or, perhaps, all three levels described above. When designing a classroom for a low level of usage, it is important to consider how a future increase of usage level should be implemented. It is therefore important to consider whether it should be possible to upgrade audiovisual solutions in response to growing use and increased level of usage.