I have worked and spoke with many HE and FE institutions from the UK, Australia, New Zealand and America over the last year and have discussed very similar issues with each when it comes down to getting the most out of their teaching spac such as “Teaching rooms are being booked and not used”, “When rooms are used they are being used inefficiently” and “The availability of teaching rooms does not match the demand”.
These are common issues that I believe most institutions share, recognise and are trying to address. But how are they addressing them?
What I have found is that each institution (both FE and HE) approach solving specific teaching space utilisation issues differently, some slightly, some very and each with a varying degree of success.
For example, as mentioned a lot of institutions suffer from the issue of teaching rooms being booked and not used. This is in fact a very significant and prevalent issue, often resulting in 100’s of hours of teaching space availability being wasted per week – see article “Are There Rooms Timetabled But Not Used”. However, do you know how others address this issue? Or do you know how big an issue this is for other institutions? Is there an acceptable level of rooms booked and not used? Are there proven successful and unsuccessful strategies?