Penn State Instructional Technology Services has adopted a 1,000-seat, university-wide Doceri Desktop education site license for use by its faculty. (read the press release here)

“We were looking for an affordable means by which instructors could access programs and annotate their presentations from a mobile device that worked with our existing network infrastructure,” said Brian Young, instructional designer for Penn State ITS. “After evaluating a half a dozen options, Doceri was the only whiteboard annotation and remote desktop control software that gave us the confidence to pursue university-wide deployment.”

More than 40 instructors from a diverse range of instructional fields including chemistry, mathematics, engineering, English, theatre, nursing, and criminal justice took part in the Doceri pilot.  Instructors are using the Doceri software suite in the classroom to access and remotely control presentations and other class materials on the podium computer. Many also use the Doceri iPad app to create flipped classroom screencast videos for inversed classroom instruction.

Penn State University Professor Christine Masters using Doceri. Photo Credit: Mary Janzen, courtesy of PSU.

Christine Masters is associate professor of engineering science and mechanics at PSU. Using Doceri, Masters now can walk throughout her classroom while projecting a computer desktop on which she can write and sketch using her iPad. No longer restricted to standing at the podium, she can engage with all the students in her class sections of 200 students, not just those sitting in front.

“Doceri lets me not only be able to move around the room while I’m talking to the students, but also put it in their hands to draw,” said Masters. “The E MCH 213 Engineering Mechanics: Strength and Materials course that I teach is the beginnings of engineering systems, and so the way that we tend to lay out the math we’re going to do is by starting with an image. We sketch what it is we’re envisioning for the system, and then we use math and equations to analyze it.”

In Mid-March, 2013, PSU faculty discussed their experiences with Doceri at the university’s on campus Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) Symposium.