By Rebecca V. Frazee and Lisa Stephens of FLEXspace.org
To browse details, images, floor plans and more from spaces featured in this column, plus hundreds more, visit FLEXspace.org and click ‘Sign In’
We asked our FLEXspace friends to reflect on highlights of the past year, with a focus on learning spaces in particular. We asked, what is one project, initiative, or accomplishment that you are particularly proud of? Tell us a bit about it, and why it stands out as a highlight for your or your team.
Here are highlights from some of our FLEXspace friends. Want to share your story and have it featured in our blog? Please share your story here.
Danuta Nitecki, Dean of Libraries at Drexel University
We are so grateful for Drexel’s FLEXspace support, and for Danuta’s passion for innovative learning spaces. As Dean of Libraries since 2010, Dr. Nitecki has worked to envision the academic library and to model one that best contributes toward achieving Drexel University’s dynamic mission. Serving on the Provost’s Academic and Deans Councils, the President’s Executive Council, as well as various campus groups, she has worked to evolve the Libraries as an integral part of the learning enterprise.
Danuta, what are you most excited about from this past year?
“At Drexel we’ve had little time or capacity to attend to our space ambitions, however there are a few things accomplished. Within the Libraries spaces, we have soft-launched two group study rooms with “green screen” walls—walls painted an appropriate color for superimposing other images/video on. In collaboration with our campus IT partners, the VCap Co-ops [students on early career work detail] recommended and will work to help guide other students on its availability and easy functionality of technologies added to the space.
Having tried various approaches, the Libraries’ administrators are very pleased to get support from a faculty review committee and resulting approval for campus facilities/planners to conduct an assessment of our main library’s basic facility conditions. Expected results are a report with cost estimates & recommendations to make decisions on whether to invest in a building currently functioning as a library to be remodeled to support a variety of student and faculty engagement programs within multiple types of spaces, including flex hybrid environments.”
Shannon Dowling, AIA, LEED AP, Principal, Learning Environments Strategy + Design at Ayers Saint Gross
Shannon has been a FLEXspace friend for many years. She is an architect, space analyst, and educator who focuses on creating research-driven and student-centered learning environments. Her extensive knowledge of educational trends and challenges informs her work in planning, programming, and design. We’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with Shannon through Jeanne Narum’s Learning Spaces Collaboratory roundtable discussions, and are grateful for her thoughtful contributions regarding innovative learning space design and the consideration of diverse stakeholder needs. Shannon was the 2021-2022 SCUP Fellow, and you can find her research in the Toolkit area of the FLEXspace portal. And learn more about it here through SCUP.
Shannon, what are you most excited about from this past year?
“I am excited that the Playbook for the Planning + Design of Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Learning Environments was released and well-received. I hope it will be useful towards centering students in this important conversation at colleges and universities.”
Craig Park, FSMPS, Assoc. AIA, Assoc. Principal, Director of Digital Experience Design at Clark & Enersen.
We’re so excited to have Craig as a new FLEXspace friend. We’ve learned so much from Craig’s unique perspective and experience in AV systems engineering, architecture, and marketing! Craig leads a team working at the intersection of architecture, engineering, and technology, focusing on improving our clients’ digital experience — connection, collaboration, and communication — environments across markets that span education, civic, cultural, healthcare, and workplace facilities. We had the pleasure of collaborating on a SCUP presentation, and had many fruitful and inspiring conversations about technology for learning spaces.
Craig, what are you most excited about from this past year?
“2022 marked my introduction to the FLEXspace initiative and the pleasure of working with Lisa and Rebecca on a well-received presentation at the Society of College & University Planning (SCUP) in July in Long Beach, CA. Our program on how technology can support equity and inclusion (which also featured Joe Way from USC and Sumegha Shah from CannonDesign) was enhanced by the insights shared by the FLEXspace team. I look forward to future opportunities to contribute to FLEXspace and have been promoting the program to our higher education clients and our design team.”
Rebecca Frazee, Lecturer, Learning Design & Technology Program at San Diego State, and FLEXspace Director.
Rebecca, what are some highlights from 2022?
“For me, the highlight has been all the in-person conferences in 2022!! I participated in several presentations and panels at ELI in San Diego, SCUP in Long Beach, Educause in Denver, and EdSpace in Portland! I am so grateful to have reconnected in person with my longtime FLEXspace pal, Lisa, and colleagues who I only typically see on Zoom! And of course, being in the packed auditorium to watch Lisa receive her Educause Community Leadership award, I was proud of her, and honored hearing her give me shout out by name in her one-minute acceptance speech – I think I got a little teary eyed!! Another highlight is that FLEXspace is officially underway with a portal upgrade! We will soon be reaching out to FLEXspace users and stakeholders like you all to conduct user research. Stay tuned!
Another recent highlight reminds of the wonderfully generous education community we live in! I am teaching my learning environments design class again at SDSU, and this time around, the focus of the student project is to design the ‘conference room of the future.’ The students are coming up with some creative approaches, looking at innovative layout, furnishings, technology for hybrid/remote participants, and how the space can be more inclusive. I recently put a call out to the Educause Connect Learning Spaces listserv for conference room examples and received several responses, from Kevin Wagenmaker, Director of Instructional Innovation Montcalm Community College, another example from Tom Worthington, MEd FHEA FACS CP IP3P, Honorary Senior Lecturer, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
And one detailed example came from Anna Lewis, Director of Academic Technology and Libraries for the School of Education UW-Madison School of Education, who gave me her permission to share it here with the HEAV community.
Anna Lewis, Director of Academic Technology and Libraries for the School of Education UW-Madison School of Education
Anna, tell us about your example conference rooms.
“Our school is midway through a “Technology Baseline Project” to get all of our conference rooms and instructional spaces up to the same *baseline* in terms of tech. Here is a presentation about our project. It’s been great for departments. They like that it’s centrally funded. We like it because we aren’t trying to support one-off equipment that depts used to buy (likely what was the cheapest); also, support calls are much easier for us because equipment is standardized.
We typically spend about $9000 per space, this is what we typically buy:
- Display / Projector: $2500 – $3500 (Sony)
- Video switching: $1500 (Extron)
- Speakers / Audio: $1000 (EV, JBL, Shure, Biamp)
- Controls / Automation: $1000 – $2000 (AMX)
- Video Conferencing: $1000 (Logitech, Jabra)
- Computer: $1000 (Dell)
- Wireless Video (Apple TV, Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter) $500
- Cables / Installation Accessories: $500 – $1000
Well, there you have it. 2022 was filled with many great connections, accomplishments, and projects, and I can’t wait to see what the new year brings!
The FLEXspace Team
LISA STEPHENS, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean, Digital & Online Education
School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, The University at Buffalo
Project Director, FLEXspace.org
Lisa serves as Assistant Dean at the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences leading the Office of Digital & Online Education, and also serves as Senior Strategist for Academic Innovation in the Office of the SUNY Provost. She enjoys an appointment in the UB Department of Communication as an Adjunct Associate Professor. Her SUNY portfolio includes leadership of FLEXspace.org™ and serves as the SUNY Partner Manager for Coursera.
REBECCA V. FRAZEE, EdD
Faculty, Learning Design & Technology Program
San Diego State University
Associate Director, FLEXspace.org
Rebecca teaches in the Learning Design and Technology program at San Diego State University and is the FLEXspace.org Manager. She enjoys experimenting with new technology tools and techniques to support active learning and team collaboration in higher ed and the workplace. Rebecca is a singer and songwriter and has been having fun with asynchronous ‘socially distanced’ recording projects this year. Contact Rebecca at rfrazee@sdsu.edu, and Twitter at @rebeccafrazee.
The Flexible Learning Environments eXchange (FLEXspace.org) is an award-winning community and open digital repository for higher ed that houses a growing collection of user-contributed content “by campuses for campuses,” with detailed examples of formal and informal learning spaces ranging from multimedia studios, maker spaces, computer labs, hybrid/flexible classrooms, and huddle spaces to large exhibit spaces, simulation labs and renovated lecture halls. FLEXspace was launched in 2012 as a collaboration between SUNY, the CSU Cal State University system, and Foothill-DeAnza Community College District and has since grown to include over 5000 members from 1400 campuses around the world, with PennState joining the partnership in 2019. FLEXspace won the Campus Technology Innovators Award in 2016, and the California Higher Education (CHEC) Collaborative Conference Focus on Efficiency Award in 2018.
FLEXspace users include practitioners, experts, and decision-makers in higher education, K-12, libraries, and museums who are focused on campus planning and facilities, learning technology, A/V systems integration, instructional design, teaching, and research. The FLEXspace portal provides a sophisticated suite of features that enables users to document and showcase their own campus learning spaces, share research, best practices, and tools for planning.