Learning Resources

Abstract: Consortia tend to be groups of either public or private institutions that have formed an alliance that allows them to achieve more collectively than they could individually, and consortial efforts are gaining moment as significant powerhouses in enhancing academic life on campus and reducing administrative expenses. This article examines some of the current consortial models, which have two primary areas of focus: academic affairs and administrative functions. The potential for building academic breadth/depth on campus and the possibility of cost savings offer a powerful incentive for institutions to explore avenues for substantial consortial efforts. This overview includes a question set that should be addressed before embarking on a collaboration.

Abstract: Will online education render the traditional university campus irrelevant? Is there a there there when it comes to online education? What makes the flesh-and-blood, brick-and-mortar material realm still relevant—even essential—to education? While online education has brought with it radical transformation, bringing people together in physical space is and will be essential for student success. The reasons for coming together, however, are changing; institutions must adapt if they are to remain vital. Institutions need to know where they stand. What is their “there”? What can they do “there” that cannot be done online?

Abstract: College and university administrators understand that parking is a necessary and valuable resource. By taking a fresh look at their campus parking resources, planners across the country are using parking to achieve a wide array of objectives, including promoting important institutional values like sustainability. They are also using cutting-edge technologies to improve the quality of life on campus and streamline the administration of campus parking facilities. Furthermore, the emerging trend of privatizing or leasing campus parking offers new opportunities for financing important institutional initiatives. These—and other—trends are helping colleges and universities fully realize the potential of their parking resources.

Abstract: Change in higher education is ubiquitous. Accountability, assessment, outcomes, competencies, affordability, and quality continue to be of critical importance to stakeholders, policy makers, students, and communities. A three-part strategy for reinventing the paradigm around student success includes analytics, policies, and politics. As stewards of the future, we all need to be aware of the importance of analytics in developing continuous improvement strategies; the role of policies in supporting the framework that allows us to deliver on the promise of education; and the politics that form the complex environment that must sustain and support new approaches to meeting students’ learning needs.

Abstract: This article presents a rigorous methodology for objectively analyzing whether a college or university should drill for natural gas on property it owns, either at its own expense or by contracting with a for-profit exploration and production company. It describes the acquisition of gas well production data and the utilization of that data in a mathematical model to forecast likely production from a new well. In addition, the article describes the financial analysis used to assess the likely fiscal impact of drilling a well and summarizes the non-quantitative factors that should also be considered in making a decision whether to drill for gas.

Abstract: Many on-site generators on college and university campuses may be avoided with no loss in backup power availability when a district energy system is used as the normal source of power. This has obvious benefit in terms of site impact and the reduction in greenhouse gases. In many cases, this backup power will be less expensive and more reliable than a system of building-specific on-site generators. Getting this possibility driven into the engineering culture and financial balance sheets is the hard part.

Abstract: The recently completed Stokes Hall at Boston College creates a new base for the humanities. Designed in the campus’s historic Collegiate Gothic style, this new facility and the future companion buildings anticipated in the Middle Campus master plan will add value to the university by extending the existing architectural tradition to the edges of the Middle Campus. This extension of the Middle Campus architecture and landscape will emphasize and support BC’s planning goals and mission through greater public visibility of its iconic built forms and create memorable experiences and a sense of community for all users.

Abstract: Design Lab 1 (DL1) grew out of an awareness of core principles strongly similar to those of what has now come to be called connected learning, bringing them to life at the University of Michigan in 1999 in an extensively open, and continuously evolving, hybrid teaching, learning, making, presenting, and community space. DL1 shares elements of other learning environments but also differs in a variety of fundamental ways, including that it is an inhabited space with a culture of open user-centered design defined around a process of continuous change, ownership, opportunity, and risk taking in the service of authentic learning. Drawing from a 2012 yearlong descriptive research project, this article presents a snapshot in time-lapse video, respondent quotations, and researcher narration of course-focused activity in DL1 in order to show the complex, interrelated structures observed there that enable users to truly engage and DL1 to come to life.

Abstract: A post-occupancy evaluation instrument was developed and piloted to measure (1) the reliability and validity of the instrument and (2) the effect of evidence-based solutions on student engagement in the classroom. Content analysis synthesized elements of engagement from multiple sciences to form the body of questions. A post/pre methodology compared the “old” row-by-column seating with the “new” classroom designs. A high degree of internal item consistency was reached between all identified factors (α = 0.91, α = 0.93, α = 0.96, α = 0.96), and highly statistically significant differences were found between the “old” and the “new” classroom designs (all p-values < 0.0001). Improvements were found when comparing each of the identified factors, all of which related to active learning and engagement practices in the “old” and “new” classrooms.