Integrating new technology into classrooms is a challenge that many schools still struggle with. Although plenty of schools have interactive boards in their classrooms, the upgrade from traditional whiteboard to interactive display often happened years ago. As these boards age, some of them are no longer fit for purpose and are causing more problems in the classroom than they’re solving. This is exactly the issue that The Elms Academy had.

Located in Clapham, London, the mixed secondary school and sixth form had installed a mixture of overhead projectors and interactive boards in their classrooms years ago. While these worked well at first, recently the boards had started to fail. Much of the interactive touchpoints no longer worked, computers struggled to connect, and the overhead projectors not only had poor image quality but couldn’t be seen unless the room was dark.

The Elms Academy knew that they needed to upgrade their classrooms urgently in order to continue providing the supportive learning environment that they commit to. They sought the help of BenQ and Odyssey Education, a BenQ reseller for education, to reestablish the strong academic focus that they pride themselves on.

When The Elms Academy originally upgraded their classroom technology, overhead projectors and their existing interactive boards were considered to be cutting-edge technology. While this combination worked well originally, the products have aged and degraded over the years which meant that teachers were tackling technology issues more regularly.

The interactive boards had lost much of their interactive touch points and due to their age, they were unable to be detected by computers leading to teachers becoming frustrated and disruption to lessons. The overhead projectors originally worked well, but the image quality had become poor. The brightness was also an issue which meant that teachers had to turn off all of the lights in their classrooms in order for students to see the projection.

This meant that students were having to work in the dark, or if the lights were turned back on to enable them to see their work, they’d no longer be able to refer back to the materials on the screen. 

On top of causing frustration for teachers, the IT team were also struggling to keep up with the number of help requests and often found that they were unable to help teachers with the issues they were facing as they were a result of age degradation.

Odyssey Education presented The Elms Academy with solutions from 7 different brands and staff were encouraged to test out each option before selecting their favourite. The BenQ RM7503 boards were the clear winners at the end of the week thanks to their ease of use, sound quality, and IT management solutions.

Since the installation of the 65 boards, these features have continued to stand out to teachers and IT teams alike, alongside transforming the learning experience for all of the students.

InstaShare 2 allows teachers and students to connect their devices to the board no matter which operating systems they use. This means that they can easily share documents, presentations, videos, and other media with the rest of the class without having to search for the right connection cable or even leave their seat, fostering improved collaboration and more interactive lessons. And touchback technology makes it easy to control the screen directly from their display or vice versa.

Other stand out features for teachers are the ability to freeze the screen at any point without the use of a remote control, and the wide range of apps and software that the boards are compatible with. This versatility and the easy-to-use interface are considered invaluable tools for helping teachers to deliver engaging and effective lessons.

For students, the days of squinting at a poorly lit screen, or straining to hear the audio from a video are long gone. Students sitting at the back of the classroom can now easily see and hear what is being displayed on the board thanks to the RM7503’s high quality image and sound. The responsive touch capabilities mean that students can now enjoy a more engaging and interactive learning environment, and they especially love features like the random number generator which teachers use for various activities.

The burden on the Academy’s IT team has also been lifted thanks to the help of BenQ’s DMS. This software provides easy management for teams by allowing them to monitor and control all of the devices and trouble shoot remotely, therefore cutting down on the amount of travel they’re required to do between classrooms.

Automation features such as firmware updates, being able to schedule the screen’s on/off timings, and specifying which input to automatically use also help to increase the team’s efficiency. In terms of security, they’re able to remotely set and implement policies and restrict the content available to be downloaded on each board.

Alongside the software and automation features, the IT team have also noticed a significant difference in the durability of the boards compared to their predecessors. The team have seen fewer quality issues and less reports of broken boards, which has reduced the time they’re spending in classrooms and has freed up their time to focus on more important issues.

To help facilitate a smooth transition from the old interactive displays to the new ones, BenQ made sure that staff at The Elms Academy got all the training they need on a range of subjects from how to get the most out of DMS to how the screens and their features work.

The support didn’t stop there however as BenQ’s after sales support kept up continued communication with the Academy to ensure that there were no issues. One of the screens unfortunately had an error that meant it needed to be replaced. This was picked up by the support team who promptly sent an engineer to fix the problem, resulting in barely any disruption to lessons and minimal downtime.

The Elms Academy were so impressed by the quality of BenQ’s service and products, and the speed of their support staff that this was reported to the wider Multi-Academy Trust that they belong to who are now in talks to place boards in several of their other schools. BenQ looks forward to the continued relationship with The Elms Academy and its sister schools in order to help them continue to provide a strong academic focus and a high quality learning experience for every student.

"Our school's outdated projectors and boards were no longer meeting our educational needs. The low image quality, limited interactivity, and frequent maintenance issues hindered the learning experience. To address these shortcomings, we embarked on a trial of screens from seven different brands.

"After conducting thorough demonstrations and allowing teachers to use each screen for two weeks, it became clear that the BenQ RM7503 was the superior choice. Its InstaShare feature facilitated seamless wireless content sharing, the crisp image quality enhanced visual learning, and the excellent sound ensured clear audio delivery. Being able to freeze the screen without a remote was also a feature the teachers loved.

"Impressed by the RM7503's performance, we decided to implement these screens across our school. Two years later, the success of this initiative has led us to expand their use to another school within our cluster. The BenQ RM7503 has proven to be a valuable investment, significantly improving our teaching and learning environment."  - Luis Martin, Assistant IT Service Manager at The Elms Academy