Learning Resources

Abstract: FLEXSpace—The Flexible Learning Environments eXchange—and the Learning Space Rating System (LSRS) are tools that can help you plan, design, assess, and improve learning spaces on your campus. In this session, you will learn about the newly released FLEXspace 2.0 along with the LSRS. We'll cover the features and benefits of both tools and how they can be incorporated into the planning process. Come learn how to use these tools to inform designs and support end users from planning through post occupancy.

Abstract: Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of learning space is now an essential tool for institutions to align capital decisions with student performance. We will explore exemplary active-learning environments and the evaluation methodology we used to measure how these environments have elicited learning behaviors that foster student engagement. You will learn which aspects of the learning environment are important to measure, how to measure them, and how the collected data connects to metrics that matter to institutions.

Abstract: Over their 150-year history, land-grant universities have played a tremendous and vital role in the development of the United States and the education of its people. Most of these institutions were established as the result of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862. How has this mission, drafted in a much different time, held up over the years? As we move toward the third decade of the twenty-first century, many universities are evolving to better embrace changing student demographics; build industry partnerships; and reframe campus legacies to ensure that the land-grant mission still supports the needs of our times.

Abstract: Learn the things you need to do to get ready and stay ready! Numerous recent campus disruptions, outages, and disasters have highlighted the importance of investing in the proactive risk management solution known as academic continuity planning. Go beyond theory and concepts to the actual integrated mechanics and step-by-step methodology for developing and maintaining operational-level continuity plans. Cultivate integration with a service designed specifically to support the need for higher education institutions to be prepared. Is your campus ready?

Abstract: Born out of a belief that higher education must improve its delivery of service, the School of Education and Human Services at Oakland University initiated and implemented a quality system. To better respond to market need, this initiative focused on current behavior and the future needs of the students, faculty, and school-at-large. This article reports the steps taken, lessons learned, and recommendations developed for implementing a quality initiative process successfully within a university culture. The outcome of this process was the creation of a template that can be used by other units in higher education.

Abstract: The commonly-used expression “going to college” affirms that higher education is still rooted in place. Our institutions have three cultures in which learners physically immerse themselves: collegiate culture (a generational culture); academic culture (an intellectual culture); and campus culture (an institutional culture). Other agents—the armed forces and the work place, for instance—also acculturate young adults, but colleges and universities alone nurture academic culture. For this reason, the design of campus places as learning spaces becomes a critical issue. We must be endlessly inventive in creating and celebrating the cultures of place in academic life.

Abstract: Today, the amount of space devoted to research at research universities exceeds that of classrooms and class laboratories. This research space portfolio presents important policy and management challenges. As stewards of this portfolio, universities must address issues of funding the construction of research facilities, equipping and maintaining them, allocating and accounting for space used for research, and managing, in broadest terms, the physical and administrative infrastructure in which research is conducted. As this article illustrates, managing the balance between the growing demand for and the supply of research space is complicated. To address the issues of research space, universities have developed a variety of space management methods to fit their unique research missions, priorities, and operational culture. This article provides important insights into this little studied aspect of higher education space planning. The article is an overview of research space management across the U. S. on general campuses and in health science centers. It is based on interviews with senior administrators in selected research universities conducted specifically for this study, information about research space management available on university documents on the Internet, and on the work of Ira Fink and Associates, Inc. in programming research facilities on a multitude of campuses nationwide.

Abstract: Universities and colleges across the country are faced with growth in the campus population and the loss of surface parking lots for new buildings. The response of many institutions is to build new garages with the assumption that parking demand ratios will remain the same. Such an approach, however, can be extremely expensive—upwards of $2,000 per net new space annually. In many cases, a mix of parking and demand reduction programs—such as shuttles, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, and financial incentives not to drive—can accommodate growth at a lower cost per trip. A balanced approach will also tend to support other goals, from improving town-gown relations to maintaining debt capacity. Demand management strategies have been employed by institutions for many years. However, it is less common for a cost-benefit analysis to be undertaken comparing them with new parking construction. Using examples from universities in California and Colorado, this article demonstrates a methodology to inform basic decisions on the amount of parking required to cater to campus growth, which can be incorporated into campus master planning.