A lot of ink has been spilled regarding the habits of millennials, many of whom are entering the workforce and affecting society in unforeseen ways. But colleges and universities are laser focused on with their even younger cohort, Generation Z – the teenagers and young twenty-somethings filling up lecture halls and transforming learning models within higher education.

Members of Generation Z (born after 1996) are digital natives. These individuals have never known life without the internet, and are far more comfortable with technology than their predecessors. College administrators realize that to effectively target this group, lecture halls must evolve.

Institutions are making heavy investments in LED displays and video walls to adapt their classrooms for digital natives. Classic chalkboards and whiteboards are on their way out, relics of a bygone age. Sleek, modern glassboards are taking their place. These stunning writing surfaces provide tools for collaborative teaching and learning, and can be seamlessly integrated with video displays as SUNY Stony Brook did in 2016. The university added Clarus™ glassboards and digital screen combinations to campus areas, which proved so successful that plans to add even more are currently underway.

Glassboards make an eye-popping, almost futuristic upgrade to the staid lecture halls most alumni experienced during their college years. They are superior to both chalkboards and whiteboards not in just aesthetics, but in function as well. Clarus glassboards are made of tempered glass that can withstand a stress load of 6500 lbs. To visualize this strength: a Ford F-250 weighs as little as 5941 lbs., meaning a Clarus glassboard could bear the weight of this heavy duty truck with strength to spare¹. While whiteboards will crack and damage over time, a durable glassboard will never need to be replaced due to random breakage.

Professors spend a lot of time at the front of the classroom writing notes and drawing illustrations to help students comprehend their lessons. An engineering or math lecturer might go through a dozen markers a semester as they fill whiteboards with graphs and equations. But whiteboards suffer from a problem known as ghosting, where faint remnants of past illustrations remain as they can never be fully erased. These unsightly discolorations force facility managers to replace whiteboards every 4-6 years². Clarus glassboards have a non-porous surface that erases completely. Even permanent marker can be wiped away without leaving a streak³. Since glassboards never need to be replaced due to unattractive blemishes, they have a lower total cost of ownership for schools that must keep an eye on tightening budgets.

Lecture halls must evolve to attract prospective students and meet the needs of a new generation of pupils who have been interacting with glass screens their entire lives. In the age of mobile phones, tablets, and touch screen displays, glassboards make handsome and functional tools for teaching and collaborative learning. These glassboards can also be customized with school colors and logos to help foster greater school pride. Leading institutions including Stanford, Duke, UCLA, Purdue, Texas, and of course SUNY Stony Brook have made the investment in Clarus glassboards to modernize their learning environments and better serve their students.⁴ To learn more about how Clarus glassboards can improve your lecture halls and campus spaces, visit clarus.com today!