The Impact of Social Distancing on Teaching Delivery

This is the first in a fortnightly series looking at the different challenges the current pandemic has created for the upcoming academic year. We will explore one issue per newsletter in detail, looking at the potential effects, likely outcomes and how best to successfully tackle and solve each challenge.

For this post we have explored how and why social distancing will impact on teaching delivery this academic year, from an estate management and timetabling perspective. Breaking the discussion down into the following sections;

These guidelines are currently focussed towards primary and secondary education, given that a percentage of children are still attending school. It is therefore not overly presumptive to predict that similar guidelines will be requested of all schools, colleges and universities when they are permitted to re-open.

Will these social distancing rules still be required come September? UK Government advice indicates that social distancing will be required up until the end of this year, with some scientists believing social distancing in some form may be required up until 2022.

What does the rather ambiguous statement of “Students sit at desks that are far apart” actually mean? We can look to other countries for indications;

Germany – maximum class size 15 students, with a 2m distance between each student
Denmark – 1.8m (2 yards) between each student
Norway – 1m (2m ideally) between each student

There is also of course scientific reasoning for maintaining a specific distance between each person, with evidence suggesting that ideally a 1.8 metre distance should be maintained.

When planning the impact of social distancing on education the lack of definitive guidance is frustrating. However, at this stage given other European country guidance and scientific reasoning, we can assume that social distancing would require students to be between 1 and 2 metres apart from each other, with the latter being the most likely requirement.

This requirement for social distancing should not only be considered for teaching spaces, but also all those spaces that students must travel through in order to access and leave teaching spaces i.e. corridors (and also all other space types used by students such as libraries, refectories and social spaces).

How will teaching space capacities be affected by social distancing?

Lecture Theatres
The impact of social distancing on teaching delivery & the estate are very much intertwined. Having 100’s of students squeezed into large capacity lecture theatres each hour, is not a realistic option. A single workplace gap between each student in these environments, would typically still not provide a 1m gap between each student. A required 1.8m-2m gap between each student only compounds this issue.

If social distancing rules must be abided by, reducing lecture theatre capacities therefore becomes the only viable option. With each lecture theatre design most likely differing, we recommend the distance between lecture theatre workplaces are measured in order to determine the new capacity for each space.

The lecture theatre plan below demonstrates how a 2m social distancing requirement would reduce the capacity from 122 to 19. This is a 103 capacity reduction and indicates only 16% of the capacity could be occupied if social distancing guidelines were to be abided by.

The order students are seated at their desks will also need to be considered for lecture theatres, so as to ensure each student’s access to a workplace is not blocked by another student having already taken a seat within 2m of their path.

A solution to this issue, would be to number each workplace and enforce a seating order (front seats first, then working back) for when students enter and leave each lecture theatre. This would help to maintain social distancing but would need careful planning and communication to prevent queues from forming outside teaching spaces.

Seminar Spaces
Flat floored teaching space capacities will also be impacted by social distancing guidelines, albeit less severely when comparing the capacity lost to that of the lecture theatre spaces.

The following seminar room plan highlights how a 2m social distancing requirement would reduce the room capacity from 36 to 8. This is a 28 capacity reduction and indicates that only 22% of the available capacity could be occupied if social distancing guidelines were to be abided by.

The type of furniture within each space now becomes an issue to be considered. Group learning furniture will cause the greatest issue, with each table top typically now only able to accommodate 1 or 2 students if social distancing is to be maintained. The following plan highlights how different furniture provision capacities would be impacted.

Practical spaces
Each activity type will need to be carefully considered when determining whether a practical space can be used for this purpose. We have provided some thoughts on specialist spaces commonly found within Universities below;

Dance studios; Unrealistic for group teaching to be carried out within these spaces. Depending on size of space potential for small number of students to work in isolated corners/areas; clearly marked on floor.

Science Laboratories; Potential for practical demonstrations to continue, albeit to reduced student numbers per session, to enable suitable distance between each student. Group work not feasible. Potential for perspex screens to be added to back of benches to provide barrier between rows (if needed)

Computer rooms; Capacity could be reduced via removing workstations. Perspex screens between rows, may again need to be considered. Travel in and out of each workstation row, would need to take place sequentially.

How might student and staff access to teaching rooms need to change?

Movement between teaching rooms will need to be planned for, if social distancing is to be maintained. This may be easier for primary schools, with student groups consistently taught within the same space; but much more difficult for Universities where students will typically move between rooms each hour.

In addition, historically it has been commonplace to find groups of students waiting outside a room before the beginning of a class. This is compounded when there are multiple teaching rooms all on one corridor; forcing students to walk past each other in order to access spaces.

We have proposed some ideas below, however the solutions will be dependent on the layout of the building;

1) One way corridors; This would help to ensure students and staff only travelled in one direction, enabling each student to successfully maintain a suitable distance whilst travelling through corridors. Presuming classes start at the same time and finish at the same time (with a suitable gap in between), dead end corridors could be managed. However, there is a risk students would miss their room and be unable to return without retracing their path and passing other students.

2) Open door policy; All teaching spaces to have an open door policy, with seating guidelines clearly signposted. This would enable students to arrive early, reducing corridor traffic, and enter the room immediately, sitting in a workplace that did not cause issues for those arriving later. Importantly this would remove the risk of students waiting in corridor spaces.

3) Enforced gap between classes; Ideally a 15-30 minute gap between classes (depending on size of campus) would help to provide ample time for students to carefully leave one classroom and arrive at another. In addition, an enforced gap between every activity would help to prevent students from arriving and leaving at the same time as well as reduce the chance of students waiting outside of rooms before they can access them.

4) Minimise student movement; Student traffic in corridor space could be reduced, by ensuring students were scheduled within the same space consecutively (i.e. 2+ hours). Although this would be complex to manage from a timetabling perspective with students rarely being in the same group each hour.

What will your teaching space capacities be?

Teaching room plans can be redesigned given different social distancing guidelines (1m, 1.5m, 1.8m or 2m), determining the capacities that can be achieved. These can be planned offsite using tools such as AutoCad presuming furniture dimensions are either included on floor-plans or available. Most furniture suppliers will provide AutoCad blocks for their furniture, removing the need to create them yourself.

The aim here is to determine what capacity can be achieved per teaching space and also highlight whether different furniture provisions could help to boost capacities for some spaces. This data most importantly, can then be used when scenario testing the upcoming academic year’s timetable demand.

Circulation space can also be mapped with the aim being to answer questions such as, can one direction movement be achieved?

What signage needs to be added?

Will access to some areas need to be opened in order to allow one way movement?

• Major reduction in teaching space capacity.
• Students unable to discuss/problem solve in small sub-groups within a class.
• Large group activities may not be permitted, even if distance between students maintained (Germany maximum 15 students).

Next time

We hope you have found this post exploring the impacts of social distancing, informative and useful. Click here to read our next post that explores the impact of social distancing on student onsite contact hours and how the University can plan effectively for the upcoming year.

All the best and stay safe
The Education Space Consultancy Team

www.educationspaceconsultancy.com
Email: enquiries@educationspaceconsultancy.com
Phone Number: +44 1172 303468