EduComm Expo Session Reveals How Colleges Can Gain a Great ROI from Physical Spaces

During the session called “Mission Critical Technologies of the Higher Ed Classroom” at the EduComm Expo, tech experts Lisa Stephens and Ryan Berndt covered how colleges can reap a decent ROI from physical spaces.

Stephens, Senior Strategist for SUNY Academic Innovation in the office of the SUNY provost, State University of New York, said that colleges are often looking for references when it comes time for new construction.

AV departments turn to their peers at other institutions to research best practices, as well as tips and tricks to convincing administrators that new construction is worth the investment.

Stephens said solutions like FlexSpace can help demonstrate the ROI of new construction, and display examples of peers’ solutions.

“It’s not just about replicating the classroom experience,” she said. “It’s about modularizing it, making it easier, and figuring out how we share this with each other.”

Solutions like FlexSpace, which is an online repository, enable colleges to:

• Decrease the facilities planning and construction time cycle

• Encourage consistent terminology across stakeholder groups, such as facilities planners, etc.

• Demonstrate a variety of ways to capture/flip content and course capture

These solutions also provide research and references from other colleges, and information by vendors and integrators.

Stephens said these types of solutions give colleges a space to be honest about a campus project, especially if a certain part of the project ran more smoothly than another, or if an AV member should have rethought one step of the building process.

“You really buy from your colleagues,” she said. “[You can report] what your experience with a certain company was like. We encourage people to be honest about their failures.”