Case Study: The U School builds community and engagement in remote classrooms with Kumospace

Meet the Remote Educator Busting Out of Breakout Rooms To Build Community

The U School, a Philadelphia public high school, needed a better way to keep remote and hybrid students engaged and connected during online learning. Humanities teacher Samuel Reed III looked for a more creative alternative to standard video tools, and found Kumospace, an immersive video chat platform, to support teaching and collaboration.

Using Kumospace for weekly “Teamwork Thursday” sessions, Reed hosted student group projects in virtual spaces like a stage or park, where students could move around, chat privately with spatial audio, and feel more present than in Zoom or Google Meet. The result was stronger participation and community-building: students were more likely to unmute, turn on cameras, and engage, while Reed also used Kumospace successfully for laid-back office hours in an entrepreneur accelerator program.

The U School

Samuel Reed III

Founding Teacher