New center designed with multimedia in mind

From designing web sites to recording high-quality videos to creating and practicing PowerPoint presentations, students can do it all in a new, state-of-the-art facility on campus.

Under a distinctive crown of bright blue lighting, the Student Multimedia Design Center, located on the lower level of Morris Library, has opened for business. More than 140 guests and members of the UD community attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony during spring semester, in which Provost Dan Rich said the new center “will help meet the needs of students in every discipline to communicate effectively through multimedia.”

The center serves as a resource for students whose classes require the creation of multimedia presentations. Its facilities also are designed to enhance student presentation skills.

Susan Brynteson, May Morris Director of Libraries, says that today’s multimedia expectations of faculty and students require specialized expertise, technology, software and space, all of which can be found in the new center.

“I think the new multimedia center will assist in the role of being a great teacher, enriching the curriculum as well as student lives,” Brynteson says. “It will expand understanding and appreciation for creativity and for diverse forms of aesthetic and intellectual expression. The Morris Library is honored to be a partner in the home of the Student Multimedia Design Center.”

Special features incorporated in the facility include six studios, some large enough to accommodate six persons, and all equipped with high-end technology to allow video recording and editing, as well as the rehearsing and recording of presentations. A transfer studio is equipped with the technology needed to change media formats, such as converting VHS tapes to DVDs.

Dedicated to optimal audio recording, the sound studio supports vocal recording with built-in equipment, while allowing for the mixing of multiple audio sources. All studios may be reserved for two-hour blocks.

Faculty members can reserve one of the multimedia classrooms that offer Windows and Macintosh multimedia-production computers plus a full range of software. When not in use for larger group work, classrooms are open to individuals or small groups.

The Student Multimedia Design Center is set up for flexibility, with movable workstations, rolling chairs, Smart boards, whiteboards and privacy screens to allow students to work individually or in groups. Adjoining the studios and classrooms are multimedia workstations, where Macintosh dual-core processor computers with Windows and Apple software capabilities afford students access to a broad range of multimedia software.

“Student creation of multimedia communication projects as part of the academic program is part of a larger, strong trend nationwide—and not just in higher education,” says Sandra Millard, assistant director for library public services. “Students who will be attending the University of Delaware in years to come will expect and benefit from this technology resource, which will continue to evolve.”

Multimedia equipment and workstations are available to UD students, faculty and staff to create and edit multimedia projects for courses and practice presentations. Video cameras, hard drives, light and sound kits and related equipment can be borrowed from the service desk for individual or group use.

For Natasha Reid, CHEP ’02, an elementary school teacher who enrolled in graduate education courses over the summer, the new center was an eye-opener. Her course in school business management required students to work in small groups and develop PowerPoint presentations analyzing a financial problem that they would then share with the rest of the class.

Reid says that, when her group decided to meet in the library to begin work on their presentation, she didn’t expect the high-tech equipment and user-friendly work areas that the new multimedia center offers.

“When I saw this, I was astounded,” she says. “This is so much better than anything I remember as an undergraduate. There’s room to work as a group, and the video facilities are amazing. I just love it.”

Her summer school classmate Annie Bostwick, AG ’95, ’03M, a high school teacher whose specialty is technology education, agrees that there was “nothing like this the last time I was in the library. This really offers all the best equipment.”

Steve Zeigler, AS ’07, a communication major, has borrowed a high-definition video camera from the center to make a short film with two friends who are musicians. The three of them worked in a studio at the center during the summer, transferring their video onto a disc for later editing.

“The equipment here is awesome,” Zeigler says. “I wish this had opened when I was a freshman so I could have used it for all the visual communications classes I took.”

The new service area in the design center, one of the largest such academic facilities in the country, also incorporates such existing library services as microforms, maps, copy services and digitization.

Among the first faculty members to use the center during spring semester was John Quintus, an instructor in political science and international relations, who gave his students the option of presenting a talk with a DVD to the class instead of writing a term paper.

“Several students took the challenge, and the results have been just terrific,” Quintus wrote in a letter to Brynteson. “Your new multimedia center will of course be an integral part of …all of the courses I teach in the future.”

Another early user of the center was Donald Scott, AS ’08, a computer science major with a minor in mathematical science, who says he enjoys the character and friendly atmosphere of the multimedia center. “I love it. It’s a great place to relax your mind,” he says.

Karla Smith and her friend Jacyann Florio, both AS ’10, say the equipment in the center was a big help with class projects they were assigned during spring semester.

“It’s the only place on campus where we could find the software we needed to complete our assignment,” Smith, a math education major, says.

“I think it is really nice and that we will be here a lot,” Florio, a mathematics and economics major, says. “It’s convenient, and these computers are capable of doing a lot of things that we can use.”

Jo Kmetz, an instructor in the Department of Communication, says the new center will benefit students, who can schedule from 15 minutes to an hour of studio time.

“This place is centrally located, it’s recognizable, and it’s a safe environment,” Kmetz says. “It has a lot of wonderful assets and will allow students to learn and to help others to learn.”

Initiated by Rich, the center is a collaborative service of the UD Library and Information Technologies and was designed with input from a wide variety of faculty and staff. Funding for the project came from the Unidel Foundation and the Office of the Provost, with additional support from the state of Delaware. For more information about the Student Multimedia Design Center, visit [www.udel.edu/smdc].