Advancing education with collaborative learning

BenQ’s InstaShow WDC30 for higher education offers a secure Wireless Presentation System (WPS) that advances collaborative learning

One of the benchmarks for successful higher education is its ability to successfully prepare students for the real world. Understanding this, many institutions actively integrate collaborative work into their curriculum to enable students to work directly with peers, industry professionals and other members of the community.

This collaboration provides students with a deeper understanding of how socioeconomic and even environmental factors can influence the decisions individuals make; especially when finding ways to work together towards a mutual end goal.

For Learners
Effective communication through active listening, the division of activities, and the creation of mutual support systems that result from collaborative work can only help accelerate the learning process. BenQ’s InstaShow seeks to do that by providing places of learning with a secure Wireless Presentation System (WPS) that advances collaborative learning by simplifying and at the same time optimising the ability for students to share, interact and create over digital media.

But with the variety of devices present within a classroom for users, an effective WPS needs to ensure all these devices are supported with stable transmission regardless of the size of the learning environment.

Ensuring these various capabilities, InstaShow supports wireless casting directly from Android and iOS mobile devices, as well as laptops powered by macOS or Windows. It also employs CCA (Clear Channel Assessment) mechanism to detect and select the best channel for smooth WiFi performance and transmission up to 30 metres. So regardless of what device the learner is using, connection is stable from wherever they are sitting.

Collaboration is also further supported by the split-screen capability casting up to four different screens at the same time. This gives participants the ability to take advantage of a larger screen to compare their work. Just imagine how participants in a group (think of fine arts or architecture students) can enrich their discussions by being able to do side-by-side comparisons of each other’s work or present different versions of the same idea.

For Educators
The impact of collaborative learning is consistently positive, with pupils making an additional five months’ progress, on average, over the course of an academic year. However, the size of impact varies, so it is important to get the details right.

Fortunately the InstaShow WDC30 offers next level interactivity with Touch Back, giving teachers the ability to hold the attention of learners via a touch screen without switching back and forth between the display and laptop. Furthermore, it gives teachers the chance to turn their touchscreen display into a digital whiteboard with the ability to annotate, capture and share the PC’s screen.

For Institutions
But what about security? Can WPS really provide secure networks that keeps educational institutions’ protected from cyber-attacks?

The data breaches the majority of companies suffered from in the past years came from unsecured wireless devices like printers, scanners, mobile phones or laptops connected to their WiFi network, since cyber-attacks aim at these devices as the weakest points to get a ‘way in’ to a private network.

In order to counter network infiltration, any institution should make sure that the wireless devices they use pass at least vulnerability tests for WPA2 or WPA3. What’s more, it’s highly suggested to employ Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation (CC), to provide extra protection to these wireless devices.

CC refers to the Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL), which has seven levels, graded from EAL1 to EAL7. Financial services generally use EAL6 augmented (or EAL6+) security compliance in their payment systems to justify the additional costs spent when handling high value protected assets, which are transmitted in high risk situations. The WDC30 has received the Common Criteria EAl6+ Certification meaning that it has the highest level protection integrated.

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