Miami Herbert Business School leverages Neat and Zoom to power distance learning during hurricanes and pandemic school closures, maximizing engagement between in-person and remote students.

In a pre-pandemic plan to avoid disruptions during hurricane-related school closures, the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School finalized a five-year road map to deploy advanced education technology throughout all its classrooms. The aim was also to bolster the school's global reputation for world-class educational brilliance, its innovative curriculum and international outlook in developing tomorrow's principled 21st-century business leaders. Then COVID struck!

Luckily, the school was able to rapidly pivot by turning to Zoom, with Executive Director of IT for Miami Herbert, Zheng Fan, providing personalized training to all faculty members to transition to remote teaching as smoothly as possible. Once they were up and running and as things progressed, the school soon surmised that hybrid teaching and learning would most likely become the future of post-pandemic classrooms.

So, Fan and Vice Dean Henrik Cronqvist sought a solution to amplify everyone's Zoom experience, one that would support the school's enriched program of creative teaching methods. Next up, then, was equipping classrooms with top-quality, reliable education technology that tightly aligned with Zoom. Essentially, Miami Herbert needed video hardware solutions that maximized engagement between in-person and remote students and teachers to support long-term digital content sharing. Enter Neat Bar.

Embracing educational technology solutions

Creating a major impact on Fan and Cronqvist, Neat Bar proved to be everything the school was looking for and more in a highly capable video device. Suitably impressed by its superior-quality audiovisuals and unique features, Fan and Cronqvist paired Neat Bar with Zoom Rooms and set about organizing a virtual happy hour. The idea was for the rest of the faculty to get a first-hand feeling of how things would look and sound.

"It was critical that the faculty embrace the solution so we could use it effectively to deliver the exceptional education that we promise our students," said Cronqvist. "Once we deployed Neat Bar and began using it with students, we found it offered a much more engaging and interactive experience than other options we'd tried. Plus, it gave faculty the freedom to think creatively about how they could adjust their curriculum to take advantage of simple collaboration with business leaders around the world."

Related: Miami Herbert Business School – Educating Tomorrow's Business Leaders with Zoom + Neat

Boosting the remote learning experience for students and teachers

Thanks to its wide-angle camera and far-reaching audio output, Miami Herbert could install Neat Bar at the far wall throughout each of its classrooms. That way, students enjoy a crystal-clear, birds-eye view of the entire room. Giving everyone a sense of being physically all together in the same space, Near Bar with Zoom Rooms levels the field to provide total equity between in-person and remote students and teachers, ensuring no one's ever left out of any discussions, activities or lectures.

"Installing Neat Bar throughout our classrooms was very straightforward. Mounted at the back of the room, it easily supports our faculty's typical teaching and collaboration methods," said Fan. "Working with Zoom and Neat has been great. Both companies are innovative, continuously rolling out new features to support customers, which helps us constantly improve the virtual experience we deliver to students."

Learn more: Explore classroom technology solutions for in-person, hybrid or remote teaching

Future-proof classroom technology

Miami Herbert originally designed its five-year technology road map to implement expanded and enhanced educational opportunities to its students to safeguard against hurricanes and similar natural disasters. Not only has it succeeded in that, but in the wake of the pandemic, it's enabling the school to successfully navigate the development and sharing of digital content to keep students and faculty connected, whatever the future brings. Furthermore, it allows Miami Herbert to set up virtual guest lectures with top business tycoons, no matter where they are in the world.

"We pride ourselves on driving innovation and using cutting-edge technology to support education and our standards of excellence," said Cronqvist. "During the pandemic and well beyond, with Neat and Zoom, we are fully equipped to connect our classrooms to international business leaders and bring the world of commerce back to our students in Miami."

To learn more about Miami Herbert Business School and how it prepares students for global business leadership, visit herbert.miami.edu/graduate/mba-programs.html.

Read our full Miami Herbert story at neat.no, where you can also discover all there is to know regarding Neat devices. In addition, watch our latest webinar Enabling Hybrid Classrooms with Zoom & Neat, featuring Zheng Fan and Vice Dean Henrik Cronqvist from Miami Herbert Business School to explore recommendations for complete in-person, remote or hybrid teaching.