Education Space Consultancy

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

The Top 5 Blog Posts of 2014

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I hope everyone has had a great Christmas and New Year’s break and is now looking forward to the year ahead! I just want to start with saying thank you to everyone that has supported Education Space Consultancy over the last year, 2014 was an exciting first year for the company and I am really looking forward to all the possibilities 2015 will bring.

Over the coming year, I will be continuing to post a new article onto the Education Space Consultancy blog each week looking at space and timetabling management with the education sector. Before the end of 2014, I added a free Teaching Space Utilisation Data Analysis Tool  that is available to all newsletter subscribers and will also be continuing to make further resources freely available to subscriber members over the coming months. There is also a fortnightly newsletter that includes Education Space Consultancy news and offers, recent blog posts as well some interesting sector news, links and resources. To subscribe – simply add your email address and click subscribe at the top of the web page.

With the end of 2014 now passed, this first blog post of 2015 is going to look at the top 5 blog posts of 2014, rated by popularity (visits). If you notice an article you haven’t read before and would like to have a look,  click on the title and you will be sent straight there.

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7 Ways To Improve Timetabling Communication And Understanding Within Your Institution

 

This article was the most popular article of 2014 and is a topic that I feel very passionately about as [Read more…]

6 Methods For Ensuring Classes Are Timetabled Into Suitable Teaching Spaces

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Timetabling is a complicated and occasionally (or perhaps often!) exasperating task for all timetablers, especially when other expectations are very high! One of these timetable expectations that is often taken for granted and seen as something that “should be simple”, is that each class will be timetabled into a a room that suits the class size, teaching pedagogy and equipment demands.

This article isn’t going to explain why this is more complicated that it an seem (although this is a by product!) but rather specifically look at this expectation and provide 6 methods for improving the rate at which activities are timetabled into the right size room, with the equipment the class requires, in the style that suits the classes desired teaching pedagogy.

As with every article, I welcome your input so if you have any other tips and methods, please add them to the comments field at the bottom of the article to let other know.

1) Timetable Data Collection, Ad-Hoc Bookings And Software Set-up – How Are Teaching Activities Assigned Rooms?

I have touched on this briefly already, but in order to assign the correct room the timetable data collection stage and timetabling team/person must request from every activity the information [Read more…]

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…]