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One-room magic: UFS' immersive classrooms redefine learning

29 August 2025 | Story Igno van Niekerk | Photo Stephen Collett

The university is transforming education across its Bloemfontein, Qwaqwa, and South campuses with its pioneering one-room spaces, mirrored across all three locations to deliver cutting-edge, immersive learning. Research for these innovative spaces began in 2023, sparked by a photo from the University of Leuven in Belgium, which the university identified as showcasing Leuven’s advanced classroom setup. Prof Philippe Burger, Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, leveraging a connection there, led a team to explore this technology globally, collaborating with Canada’s X2O OneRoom to make the UFS the first in South Africa – and one of (as far as we know) two in Africa, alongside Kenya – to offer such immersive classrooms.

Unlike Zoom or Blackboard, where online students were often overlooked as small icons, one-room spaces ensure that everyone feels included. Designed for postgraduate training and PhD interactions, these rooms accommodate up to 40 in-person and 40 online participants, with large video camera feeds on screens, reminiscent of the TV programme Small Talk, where children’s faces lined the wall for engagement. Directional audio and personal cameras create a sensory experience, with sound coming from the speaker’s direction and eye contact feeling natural. Angelique Carson-Porter from the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics shared her excitement about a postgraduate session led by Prof Aletta Olivier, Lecturer in the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies: “It feels like you’re right there, even from Pretoria or Ghana. You see everyone, interact, and never miss a beat.”

Gavin Coetzer at ICT Services, a key project leader, highlighted how lecturers struggled with older platforms’ limitations, often only addressing online questions at the end, disrupting the flow. The UFS’ one-room spaces, implemented in the UFS Business School, the Clinical Skills Unit, South Campus teacher training, and Qwaqwa, solve this with breakout sessions and global conference support. While other universities rely on Teams, the UFS’ user-friendly tech, with around 24 screens and ceiling microphones, allows lecturers to focus on teaching.

Staying ahead of tech trends is challenging, but the university is excelling, making education inclusive, engaging, and truly global.

News Archive

Deborah Meier on Education and Social Justice

2012-06-18

With Deborah Meier is, from the left: Brian Naidoo, Senior Lecturer: Department of English; and Rèné Eloff, Research Assistant at the International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice.
Photo: Johan Roux
18 June 2012

Celebrated author and educator, Deborah Meier, recently visited the university. Meier, ranked among the most acclaimed leaders of the school reform movement in the United States, spoke about democracy and education at a Critical Conversation hosted by the International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice.

Speaking from her experience of the United States education system, Meier said that she had always been primarily concerned by the fact that schools were not engaging children in discussions about important and difficult topics such as democracy, race and class. As far as democracy was concerned, Meier pointed out that most schools viewed the occasional voting exercise as a lesson in democracy. However, as far as she was concerned, voting was the least important aspect of democracy. She admitted that democracy was almost impossible define, but in her view engaging with this difficulty was, in itself, an important democratic act – an act which could and should find its rightful place in the classroom.

Meier pointed out that children were effectively “incarcerated” for the six hours they spent at school every day. She expressed her grave concern about the fact that this time was not used to nurture and develop the considerable energy and creativity that young children had. Meier envisioned a school that could rise up to this challenge. At one point she mused, “Did I miss something? Did we invent some other institution that was taking on this responsibility?”

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