You are at:
Faculty and staff who are remotely teaching from home may need additional equipment to create exemplary content for their courses, or to provide superior experiences synchronous communication. The items in this page are pragmatic recommendations to assist faculty and staff in ensuring the high quality of Driehaus College of Business courses.

It is assumed that faculty and staff will be using a DePaul-supplied Windows or macOS laptop. Where possible, the technology recommendations are device-agnostic for those two platforms.

Currently, the university provides the choice of one of three types of laptop via the Computer Ordering Catalog:

  1. Dell Latitude 7410 Business Laptop
    • Not recommended for teaching: Does not have a stylus and touchscreen.
  2. MacBook Pro 16
    • Recommended. Does not have a stylus and touchscreen, but this deficiency can be addressed by using an external stylus or iPad.
  3. Surface Pro
    • Recommended: Has an integrated stylus and touchscreen. For most faculty and staff, this will be the best teaching machine. Default option, unless using macOS is required.

Dock

A dock provides power and additional ports to a laptop. A dock allows additional devices to be connected to the laptop, where there may not enough (or any ports) such as:

  • Second monitor.
  • External webcam.
  • Document camera.
  • External microphone.

DePaul-supplied Microsoft Surface Pros may come with a regular dock. The Kensington SD7000 Dual 4K Surface Pro Docking Station is both a dock and a flexible laptop stand. It will work with the Surface Pro (2017) and Surface Pro 4, 5, 6, 7 (other versions will not fit). The stand allows for the screen to move but requires an external keyboard.

The CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock works with current MacBooks. Older laptops may require a different version of the dock. This particular dock requires an “active” monitor cable

Monitor Cable

The CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock requires an active Displayport cable to work.

Microphone

The quality of your audio is something that is sometimes ignored, but greatly impacts how video is perceived. A decent microphone properly positioned is key. The Blue Yeti is the industry standard for home podcasting. Adding a windscreen and a pop filter may reduce noise in recordings.

Webcam

If filming yourself via a webcam, the camera should be at your eye-level. Using an external webcam or raising the height of your laptop will achieve the required results. The Logitech range of USB webcams are reliable but may be in short supply. The Logitech Brio is a 4K camera and provides a degree of futureproofing.

Lighting

To look good on camera you will want soft lighting in front of you. Professionals invest in desktop lighting to improve their presence on camera. In a studio, you would use the traditional three-part lighting system with back light, key light, fill light and the presenter in the middle.

The Elgato Ring Light simplifies things by providing both an adjustable stand for a webcam and a soft light to illuminate the presenter. The Elgato Ring Light uses either an app or computer controls to adjust brightness and temperature.

Green Screen

You may look great on camera, but your environment may not look as good. You also want to be careful that items in the background do not betray your privacy. You, or someone who lives with you, may have a medical condition, and you may inadvertently show prescription drugs in the background to your Zoom participants. The same advice goes or books, posters, alcohol, and other recreational items that you are happy to display at home, but perhaps less happy to display in more formal environments - particularly since your students can easily record Zoom sessions for posterity.

A portable green screen background can improve the quality of the background replacement and provides privacy to those recording video from home.

Monitor

A second (or even third) monitor is essential to teaching remotely. The ViewSonic VA2456-MHD is a reliable monitor for home use.

If desk space is constrained, a monitor arm may fix that constraint.

Laptop Stand

The Surface Pro recommended laptop stand is the Kensington SD7000 Dual 4K Surface Pro Docking Station (details earlier on this page). The recommended laptop stand for the Macbook Pro is the Rain Design iLevel2. A laptop stand raises a laptop off the desk, improving air flow to keep the laptop cooler and moving the webcam towards eye-level.

Document Camera

Document cameras can be found in some DePaul classrooms, and can be used equally well at home. The IPEVO DO-CAM HD Ultra Portable 8MP USB Document Camera is a portable USB document camera that can be easily transported. This document camera can also function as a webcam, but the video footage is not quite as the Logitech Brio.
 You are at: