By Lisa Stephens and Rebecca V. Frazee of FLEXspace.org, featuring guest contributors
To browse details, images, floorplans, and more from spaces featured in this column, plus hundreds more, login to FLEXspace.org and visit the Gallery “FEATURED IN HIGHER ED AV MAGAZINE”.
Talk About a Year Gone By Fast!
It was just last May that we penned an article about AV and IT being “Stronger Together” – reflecting on thoughtful conversations from multiple conferences (especially CCUMC) on the evolution and intersections of libraries, media centers, classroom technologies and information technologies. A glance behind the wall of any newer classroom display is all you need to appreciate the complexities of role convergence!
Designers, manufacturers and vendors – especially those committed to directly engaging a broad customer base – play a critical role in shaping this role convergence. We easily fall into comfort zones – language shortcuts, acronyms and most importantly learning about new processes and efficiencies from each other.
The FLEXspace mission is to narrow those comfort zone gaps – and to bridge understanding across faculty, academic technology staff, AV/IT, and facilities designers and architects; always under the umbrella of “technology in service of pedagogy.” Now cautiously emerging from pandemic restrictions, there’s an opportunity to learn from new hybrid and hyflex teaching and learning processes in the rearview mirror, which leads us to…
Thought Leadership
Danuta Nitecki, Dean of Libraries at Drexel University offered, “Let’s challenge the traditional ideas that thought leadership around academic space design focuses primarily on the formal classroom learning environment. Here, the Libraries has been exploring how partnering with central IT can be leveraged for providing innovative informal learning environments for self-directed active learning beyond the classroom. Our excitement about joining FLEXspace is to maximize communications among different thought leaders to more effectively align our investments and efforts to prepare students for work and civic life.”
Drexel University Libraries have recently become an institutional partner sponsoring FLEXspace.org, joining Penn State, Cal State University System, Foothill De Anza and of course SUNY. These are academic leaders who believe in, and have invested in the FLEXspace mission supporting institutional effectiveness of learning space design and renovation – the heart of residential campuses.
Why would a manufacturer or vendor invest precious marketing resources sponsoring FLEXspace? Because the institutions themselves find value in “stronger together!” Aligning our collective experience while improving the portal and growing the community enables open sharing of designs, “lessons learned” and problem-solving from a variety of perspectives.
Trends in Learning Spaces
One big shift on the horizon is inclusion of more virtual elements into physical spaces. We’re starting to see more learning spaces with dedicated VR headsets and classes where mobile phones are slipped into inexpensive cardboard viewers to experience new levels of viewing and immersion. Meanwhile, many post-pandemic designs include more high quality video capture systems which provide increased access and flexibility to a variety of learners who may participate in person, remotely, and/or asynchronously. That flexibility also allows campuses to expand educational opportunities to non-traditional adult students who appreciate options that don’t require them to neglect current priorities and family life. Building and expanding inter- and intra- disciplinary programs that cater to this adult learner population can help meet post-pandemic employment needs.
FLEXspace FLIPP Hits the Road
FLEXspace friends are submitting conference abstracts, both in person and online. The development of the FLEXspace Integrated Planning Pathway – or FLIPP (yes! A new acronym!) expands a planning process to diverse stakeholders at the table while actually reducing the time necessary to drive consensus building and renovating learning spaces.
Conferences for EDUCAUSE, ELI, SCUP, SUNY STC, Cal State Technology, CCUMC, AVIXA… Yes! More acronyms! We’ll be sharing the FLIPP process and trends as we see them.
International travel is on the radar too! We’ll be presenting a FLEXspace workshop with our friends at SCHOMS at the University of Durham in the UK, and maybe get to visit ISE as well. AVIXA will be offering a workshop, and we’ll report back on what we learn!
Planning for a Facelift
Another major FLEXspace endeavor this year is to migrate the portal to a new version of Drupal. In the process, we’ll incorporate long awaited upgrades in features and functionality.
Want a say in the ‘new and improved’ FLEXspace? Visit https://flexspace.org/feedback-form/ to share the features you’d like to see in FLEXspace, or let us know your pet peeve… we’re upgrading from Drupal 7 to 9, and adopting some new frameworks and templates to make sharing and snagging data for trends analysis even easier!
Indeed, Better Together!
If you’ve not had a chance to look – the EDUCAUSE Horizon Report is out! FLEXspace has been prominently featured in the banners, and we’re proud to play a part in helping institutions and partners informed through this roadmap for the future.
Last but not least… stronger together… we bid a fond adieu to our longtime friend Andrea Mayer – Internal Sales Manager for Wolfvision, Inc. Andrea has devoted many hours to improving FLEXspace and contributing Wolfvision content to help our growing community of users understand the application of Wolfvision products in classrooms. Wolfvision has supported FLEXspace from its earliest days – often educating us about effective vendor relations!
For More Info:
Want to contribute to the FLEXspace Community?
The growing FLEXspace community is always looking for the latest examples of innovative and effective learning spaces. Please share your campus spaces by logging into FLEXspace.org, and contact Rebecca or Lisa if you would like to be featured in an upcoming issue of Higher Ed AV magazine.
The FLEXspace Team
Assistant Dean, Digital & Online Education
School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, The University at Buffalo
Project Director, FLEXspace.org
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.
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.