Education Space Consultancy

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

How To Get More Out Of Your Teaching Space – Computers And Tables

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The provision of both traditional teaching desks AND computer terminals in the same space is a pet hate of mine, although from a purely teaching perspective I can see how and why this practice has become embedded in many institutions. My problem with this set-up, is that it wastes a huge amount of space as only a proportion of the room is ever being used at any given time.

For example, the following teaching room has an actual capacity of 25, with 13 standard size computer terminals and 12 seminar style workplaces at traditional teaching tables. However, the room will seldom be used or timetabled for more than 12 students as the class will only use one or the other at any given time i.e. 12 using the computer terminals, or 12 using the tables/chairs. If the room layout was changed to only include teaching tables, this room could accommodate classes with up to 24 students – doubling the size of the classes using the same size space and therefore enabling the institution to get twice as much out of the space.

Dual Purpose and Single PurposeSimply replacing all the furniture with traditional tables or computer terminals however, won’t address the teaching pedagogy that has resulted in this [Read more…]

Are your “actual” capacities wasting space and money?

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The use of “actual” capacities is typically a fundamental part of calculating how well your institution is using any of its space, but do they actually reflect the size of your rooms?

“Actual” capacities that are misrepresentative of the space they have been assigned, will result in your space utilisation data creating a false impression of how well the estate is using its space, preventing you from saving money and getting the most out of your space.

For example, having an actual capacity for a teaching room of 24 that could realistically, easily seat 48, will cause your space utilisation results to appear more positive if only using this “actual”capacity to investigate space usage, when in reality this space is being very underutilised as at least half of the space is not being used at any given time, as shown [Read more…]

Are You Timetabling Classes For More Weeks Than Required?

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The number of weeks a taught module activity is timetabled for, often fall sunder the “all semester” bracket with module activities being booked for all weeks, at the set day/time throughout the semester. There is therefore typically (and hopefully) an expectation that these timeslots will then be used for all the timeslots booked ……but how sure are you, that this is actual what is happening ? Are all the weeks booked, actually being used?

I have found that in answering this there is often an institutional belief that yes, the timetable does reflect what is actually happening. However once investigated via a space utilisation survey it quickly becomes apparent that this is certainly not the case. Why is this?

In most cases, those requesting timetable activities do have the option of requesting specific days and times but either don’t realise or if they do, still choose to select “All Semester”. This can be for a variety of reasons/misunderstandings, such as “I thought I would be more likely to get a better room, if I chose all semester”, “I didn’t realise I could choose specific weeks”, “Although I won’t teach all weeks, I like the flexibility of having all the weeks available”, “I haven’t yet decided which weeks I will be teaching” and “It’s easier to select all weeks, rather than select each individual week, what’s the difference anyway?”.

All of these can be answered through effectively communicating the impact this booking behaviour has upon teaching room availability, the timetable and consequentially student experience and available funding. There are two common [Read more…]

Getting The Most Out Of Your Teaching Space – Occupancy

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Occupancy rate, is just as important as frequency rate, yet it is often not seen this way and I find this is usually simply down to a misunderstanding over the importance of occupancy and what the effects of poor occupancy practices can be.

There is often an embedded view within institutions that as long as the room is being used, it is being well utilised, but this simply isn’t the case. Changing this understanding of what a “good” room utilisation is, can make a significant difference to the overall occupancy and utilisation rate for an institution – without having to invest funds – so is definitely a worth the effort. If your large teaching space always seems to be the space where there are no timeslots available, this article will be particularly helpful.

First of all, lets start from the beginning – what is occupancy rate? I have explained this in more detail in a previous article looking at frequency, occupancy and utilisation rates however, in brief your occupancy rate is defined as how the number of people using a room compares against the room capacity. For example, if there are 5 people using a room with a capacity of 100 the occupancy rate is: 5/100 = 5%. Whilst if 80 people were using this same room, the occupancy rate would be: 80/100 = 80%.

The problem that institutions face, is that [Read more…]

Video Tutorial – Space Utilisation Survey Data Calculations – Part 3

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This is Part 3 of the Space Utilisation Survey Data Calculations Video Tutorial Series looking at  how to calculate the frequency rate by timeslot as well as discussing how this data analysis technique can be used to further understand and improve space utilisation.

All of the worksheets used in this video tutorial series are available for free, to all those that subscribe to Education Space Consultancy so please remember to add your name and email address on the right hand side of the webpage and click subscribe to be sent the worksheets directly to your email account.

If you have missed Part 1 and Part 2 of the Space Utilisation Survey Data Calculations Video Tutorial Series, please follow the links below to find them as these go through the earlier stages of analysing space utilisation data:

Video Tutorial – Space Utilisation Survey Data Calculations – Part 1

Video Tutorial – Space Utilisation Survey Data Calculations – Part 2

If you are interested in teaching space utilisation data analysis and are [Read more…]

How Framing A Problem For Your Audience Will Improve Success

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I have often found that getting everyone on board with solving a problem, is one of the greatest obstacles yet at the same time most critical factors of success, for improving space or timetabling practices. Accomplish this and you can have a much more informed, success focussed proposal as well as the significant extra benefits majority support will bring.

I have touched on the importance of communication within a previous article, however I feel that it deserves a more detailed look, considering that it can truly make the difference between failure and celebrated success. This article will be the first in series, looking specifically at communication within an education institution and how it can be used to influence your ideas and proposals and ensure they bring you and your institution celebrated success.

This first article looks at “framing a problem for your audience” and I define this, as your ability to explain what the problem is, how it affects your audience and why they should care. In every meeting your ability to successfully [Read more…]

6 Factors Institutions Should Consider For Maximising The Benefits Of Department Only Teaching Space

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This article is the second part of the The Pros And Cons Of Department Only Teaching Space discussion, this time looking at what factors should be considered before allocating departments their own teaching space. The first article explored the benefits and downfalls of department only teaching space, whilst this article considers 6 factors that if implemented can maximise the benefits your institution receives from department only teaching space.

1) Proven Demand

The department must be able to prove that it has demand for the type and size of teaching space it is requesting, this can be ascertained from the current timetable data and projected student numbers/teaching requirements over future years. Likewise, the central team should also be sure that it can accommodate one of the central teaching rooms becoming department only, gain this can be done using projections. A timetable model that includes these projections will help to clarify the impact and measure whether the planned change of teaching room is feasible and what impacts there will be.

If there is a demand, but not enough to warrant an entire teaching space , then it may be worthwhile looking at whether the department and central team can share a teaching space (see point 5). If there is a proven demand, the departments [Read more…]

5 Tips For Improving Your Teaching Space Utilisation Without Leaving Your Desk

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This article looks at how to improve your teaching space utilisation, without even having to leave your desk. Each tip can be actioned independently of each other and will help you to pin point, investigate and resolve factors that are effecting your institutions utilisation of teaching space.

1) Timetabled Class Sizes For Module Activities

The timetabled activity class sizes, are meant to represent the number of students that should be attending each of these activities. This aspect of the timetable data can become inaccurate as the timetable often relies on academic departments to predict class sizes for the upcoming year and therefore a centrally managed timetable class size check can be difficult to administer during timetable construction. This can result in classes being timetabled into rooms much larger than they need, simply because the timetable was provided with inaccurate class size data.  If your timetable is rolled over each year, which most institutions will do in some manner, there is even greater risk of this happening with last year’s [Read more…]

Video Tutorial – Space Utilisation Survey Data Calculations – Part 2

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This is Part 2 of the Space Utilisation Survey Data Calculations Video Tutorial Series, this edition looks at both how to calculate your institution data by building, room/space type and departmental/central ownership, as well as also looking at some examples of how to analyse each of these data sets further in order to begin to understand your institutions space utilisation.

I will be providing this and all other worksheets used in this video tutorial to those who subscribe to the website – for free! Therefore if you would like these worksheets please remember to subscribe .

If you have missed Part 1 of this video tutorial series, follow [Read more…]

Why “Suggested Days And Times” Are Damaging Your Timetable Student Experience And Space Utilisation

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I see “Suggested Days and Times” as one of the timetabling process that can stand in the way of creating a timetable that maximises the student experieince and teaching space utilisation. Not only this, but the process typically wastes a huge amount of department and central administration time all in the effort to meet these “Suggested Days and Times”, despite this process not enabling the institution to create the timetable that it really wants.

In the past requesting “Suggested days and times” as part of the timetable data collection process was probably the best or perhaps only feasible way of creating a timetable each year. Each department would spend a lot of time creating their own timetable and then request days/times for all of their teaching activities from the central timetabling team. This solved the problem of the central timetabling team needing to manually collect and process all the building blocks behind the requested days and times, resulting in the central timetabling process being more of a “room booking” process.

Although this may have been the most effective or only feasible way of doing this in the past, over the last 10-20 years with student numbers, choice and expectations have all significantly increased and the use of technical timetabling software now being the norm. Therefore is using these “Suggested Days and Times” still the most effective method of creating a timetable?

Below, I explore what I believe to be the 5 main reasons for why [Read more…]