Education Space Consultancy

Providing expert timetable and space management consultancy services within the education sector

Should Timetabling And Social Media Mix?

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At a conference I attended recently, one of the speakers spoke about their use of social media for timetabling at their institution and how they have explored using Facebook to not only let students know about last minute cancellations and timetable changes, but also to remind students about timetabling related news with the addition of the occasional timetabling related internet meme!

The use of social media for timetabling hadn’t been something I had properly considered before, however I use it every day to let people know about these articles as well as the different services Education Space Consultancy offers and see the use of social media as a key element of Education Space Consultancy’s marking strategy. I use social media for a variety of reasons and I believe most businesses do so to.  Hubspot recently (2014) published stats stating that 92% of marketers claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites.

If social media is now a focal point for businesses could it not similarly be beneficial for those in the timetabling world?  [Read more…]

Hard And Soft Timetabling Constraints – Not Only A Working Timetable But A Great Timetable

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Soft and hard constraints  are fundamental elements behind not only creating a great timetable, but also a working one. The make up of a timetable (any timetable) consists of a variety of constraints that are either hard or a soft, but what are they? and what is the difference?

Let starts with hard constraints, these are the fundamental elements of a timetable that you and the software use to create the timetable and must be abided by. For example, the number of hours in the teaching day is likely to be a hard constraint. If you teach Monday – Friday 09-17:00, then the timetable must ensure that all timetable activities are placed within this time frame. A timetable booking placed on a Thursday at 18:00 or a Saturday at 12:00 will not be of any use, therefore the software and those who use it must abide by this constraint in order to create a working timetable i.e. a hard constraint.

Each hard constraint, is an element of the timetable that is equally weighted a [Read more…]

Informal Learning Space – Make Better Use Of Your Space

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Due to the nature of the work Education Space Consultancy carries out I get to visit a lot of Universities and Colleges from around the UK and am always interested to take a look at the different types of spaces they offer their students. No one institution is the same, with each offering a different assortment of spaces each with their own unique features.

One type of student focussed space that has become more and more popular over recent years within University and College estates, is Informal Learning Space. To briefly define what “informal learning space” is, I am going to use a section taken from the very interesting report on informal learning spaces, put together by by Sheffield Hallam University; informal learning space are”non-discipline specific spaces frequented by both staff and students for self directed learning activities and can be within and outside library spaces.”  A study exploring learners’ informal learning space behaviors, attitudes, and preferences

University of South Wales

University of South Wales

I see these spaces as the type of learning environment that fills the void between quiet library spaces and busy refectory spaces, as they provide the type of space that both students and staff can drop in and use to discuss ideas, practice presentations, carry out group work etc. They are a more relaxed [Read more…]

When Should You Survey Your Teaching Space?

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Most institutions survey their teaching space at least once a year in order to collect data on how the teaching rooms are being utilised. This data is then typically used to build strategies for making the most out of the teaching space available. However, usage typically fluctuates significantly throughout the semester and therefore similarly so will you results depending on which week you chose.

Therefore, when deciding on when and how many weeks to survey you want to clearly define what it is you want to get out of carrying out a survey. I have given some examples below of the different objectives and options, as well as the week(s) I would recommend as a result. I would be interested to know how you choose your survey week and if you have anything to add so please feel free to leave your comments at the bottom of the article.

  • What is timetabled and what is booked

I start with this one, as I feel it is one of if not the most important objectives of a Teaching Space Utilisation Survey. This survey provides you with an opportunity to not only find out how well the teaching space is being used but also compare the [Read more…]

Timetable Data Tool – From List to Grid!

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Rather than posting an article this week, I am going to do something a little bit different and share with you a new Microsoft Excel based tool that I have put together.

This tool is called “The Timetable Grid Tool” and turns a weeks timetable export into a timetable grid, with the class sizes displayed in the corresponding timeslots within the grid. The purpose of this tool is to display timetable data in a format that is familiar, easy to interpret and analyse, unlike that of a typical timetable software export.

To use the tool, you simply have to set up your data in the same format as displayed within the Timetable Data Spreadsheet (created from a Scientia Syllabus +/Enterprise export) and then via a couple of clicks, The Timetable Grid Tool will turn your timetable data from a list to a timetable grid!

[Read more…]

How Do You Make Sure Departments Have The Office Space They Need?

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This can be a tough question to answer, however by gathering key information you can put together an effective and accurate plan of an departments or and institutions office space requirements. Therefore, the first step to finding the answer to this question is gathering this key information.

I touched on this in a previous article Are My Office Spaces Being Well Utilised? and this is part of the consultancy services I and Education Space Consultancy offer – Office Space Utilisation Surveys and Consultancy and Space Modelling. However, to give you some insight into the processes behind calculating office space requirements, for this article I am going to look at the different staff and department information I look to gather and confirm in order to asses how much office space a department needs.

Staff Information

This is one of the core components and as with all  models, the results are only as good as the information you put in, therefore this staff data must [Read more…]

Office Space And The Importance Of Engaging With Users

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Last week, I focussed primarily on the methods for understanding how office space is being utilised however that alone will not enable you to get the most out of your institutions office space. What this data does do is provide you with a platform and a reliable data source that can be used for the next step – user engagement.

User engagement is critical to not only improving but also understanding how space is being used. The office space utilisation survey data alone, will often not paint the full picture rather just provide a snap shot in time that offers little back story or explanation. Only using this data to make decisions regarding the use of office space can end up causing more harm that good, hampering departments performance and growth as well severely impacting upon the relationship those effected have with “Estates”.

I see this final point as a critical element to managing space and it is often a point that is over looked.

The relationship between departments and those responsible for space management is typically a delicate one. This is understandable, departments are often competing for space and ultimately there is often not enough to fulfil everyone’s needs, therefore there is a lot of scope for staff feeling unsatisfied, ignored and marginalised by “Estates” decisions creating an attitude of us and “them”.

It doesn’t however need to be this way.

User engagement is the critical process that helps to prevent this [Read more…]

Are My Office Spaces Being Well Utilised?

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Office space is a core component of every institution and its availability is typically a very hot topic with demand often outstripping supply and departments very resistant to releasing any space that they know they aren’t using efficiently. This can create an environment where everyone wants more space but at the same time aren’t prepared to release space they aren’t utilising efficiently.

‘Build more space’, is something I have heard often as the ‘solution’ to this problem. Admittedly this would create more space……. but the huge investment and maintenance costs associated with creating additional office space would have to be found from somewhere and ultimately this would mean funds having to be moved away from other projects that would have also brought their benefits. The big pot of money typically doesn’t exist. Institutions can’t meet all their demands without running themselves into the ground and therefore have to decide which of the demands bring the greatest rewards.

As with any project, there is a need to assess whether there is truly a demand, what the demand is and what the solutions are. In this case, assess whether the institutional demand for more office space actually exist and if so, how much office space is required and what the potential options are for solving this shortage. This isn’t to say the demand doesn’t actually exist – but it must be tested, to not only indicate whether additional office space is required, but also determine how much, what type and who for.

In order to do this, an institution needs to know how each department is utilising the current office space they have assigned, what their current space requirements are (typically not the same thing!) and what the future demands on this space will be. This information [Read more…]

Node Chairs – Student Focussed Furniture – Updated

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The Node chair is a piece of furniture that I have had my eye on for a while. Not only does it look fantastic (surely no one can disagree with that!), but you can see just from looking at it, that a lot of thought and effort has been put into its design.

It seems to break the mould of typical furniture, or more specifically chairs, by not just addressing one problem but many. A chair that has a writing tablet, a seat with support, somewhere to store your bag, mobility and of course – looks great.

In case you hadn’t guessed teaching room furniture is something of a slight obsession of mine. I am particularly interested in those ideas and solutions that solve issues that I have come across within education and I believe this is exactly what the Steelcase strive to achieve with the Node chair. I have no links with furniture companies, therefore the only reason I write about a furniture solution via this blog is if I think it’s interesting and potentially very beneficial to educational institutions – which again, I think the Node chair is!

So, what’s so great about the Node chair?

  • Teaching Room Furniture vs Teaching Styles

I have found that teaching room furniture, or perhaps its use, has not kept up with the changing teaching [Read more…]

How Many Teaching Spaces Do We Require?

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In order to answer this question those managing the teaching spaces must be able to not only know the current demand but also the future demand for these spaces – not always easy information to get hold of, in my experience!

Understanding how the factors that affect teaching demand will change over the coming years is critical, as this can be used to generate future predictions of teaching room requirements by creating models using this information.

This models and the information they provide enables those managing the teaching spaces to focus any capital investment towards evolving the estate in line with the changing teaching space demands. In doing so, this not only ensures that staff and students have rooms that suit their needs – benefitting both staff and student experience – but also ensures that the supply of teaching  spaces reflects the demand – benefitting the space utilisation rate and therefore enabling institutions to get the most out of their space and capital.

Future Teaching Space Requirements

Knowing your future teaching space requirements is the key [Read more…]