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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

Faculty of Law bids farewell to Prof. Andries Raath

2012-11-27

Prof. Andries Raath and some of his colleagues during his farewell held in the Bobbert Room of the CR Swart Building. From the left are: Prof. Loot Pretorius, Dr Ilse Keevy, Prof. Andries Raath, Prof. Johan Henning and Prof. Gerhard Fick.
Photo: Christiaan van der Merwe
27 November 2012

The Faculty of Law had to bid farewell to another stalwart in Prof. Andries Raath last week. Prof. Raath retired after more than 30 years of service to the university. Prof. Johan Henning, Dean of the Faculty of Law, described it as a day of “great personal sadness” due to the loss of a person who had made such a tremendous impact in the faculty, both at a personal and an academic level.

Prof. Raath was praised for his academic prowess and relationship with students who referred to him as a “real professor”, and doctoral students who often saw him as a father figure. For his part, the avid Anglo-Boer War buff thanked long-time as well as newer colleagues, whom he said had all left an imprint on him in some way or another. He urged his former colleagues to maintain the “precious academic heritage” of the faculty, in which his personal career also had numerous highlights.

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