At What Cost Classrooms The Experience of One Institution

1
At What Cost Classrooms? The Experience of One
Institution

• Rick Peterson
• Director of Information Technology College of
  Arts SciencesChair, Classroom Design
  Advisory Committee
• UNC-Chapel Hill
• rick_peterson_at_unc.edu

2
Goals for this session

• Provide UNC-CH classroom specific background and
  share our particular experiences (esp. related to
  costs to support multimedia classrooms) (30
  minutes)
• Overview of UNC-CH classroom environment
• Broad classroom metrics
• Specific costs for building/supporting
  classrooms
• Challenges / next steps for UNC-CH
• Resources
• Discuss broader implications, challenge
  assumptions, learn from your experience(s)
• (60 minutes)

FOR MORE INFO...
Presentation available on-line at
http//cdac.unc.edu/docs/classroomcosts.ppt
3
UNC-CH General Info

• Only public university to award degrees in the
  18th century.
• (we have some OLD buildings)
• Composed of 16 Schools Colleges
• Academic Affairs (AS, Journalism, Business, Law,
  Education, Info Library Science, Social Work,
  etc)
• Health Affairs (Medicine, Public Health, Nursing,
  Pharmacy, Dentistry, etc)
• (we are in general HIGHLY DECENTRALIZED)

4
UNC-CH General Info (cont.)

• Approx. 26,000 students, 16,000 undergraduates
• (we are pretty big)
• Health Affairs and professional Academic Affairs
  schools (predominantly) schedule their own
  classrooms
• professional schools mostly do their own thing
  re classrooms

5
UNC-CH General Info (cont.)

• Only (?) large, research intensive public
  university with undergraduate student laptop
  requirement
• all 4 undergraduate classes will have laptops
  this coming Fall
• State Bond providing approx. 500 million in
  capital funding through 2009/10
• 36M allocated where needed to whole building
  renovations
• 14M allocated where needed to individual
  classroom renovations

6
UNC-CH Classroom Environment

• 191 general purpose classrooms (centrally
  scheduled by Registrar) in 28 buildings
  predominantly in the poorer Academic
  Affairsschools
• 92 non-general purpose classrooms (dept./school
  scheduled, 37 geographically remote) in Academic
  Affairs(62 in Health Affairs)
• Fiscal, Technical Administrative ownership of
  classrooms an issue

7
Provosts Classroom Committee

• Classroom Design and Advisory Committee (CDAC)
  formed in Fall 2000 at the Provost level to
• oversee classroom design and assure that active
  learning needs are considered and incorporated
  into the construction of new classrooms and the
  renovation of old ones.

FOR MORE INFO...
http//cdac.unc.edu
8
What the CDAC has done

• Contracted out and facilitated classroom/lab
  utilization and mix analyses
• Brought everyone together in one room twice a
  month to discuss
• Built nascent website to coalesce distributed
  information
• Advocated for classrooms

9
Metrics we have found useful

• Eva Klein Associates Space Factor
• Assignable Square Footage (ASF)
• Target 18 ASF per station
• Weekly Room Hours (WRH)
• Target 35 hours/week
• Student Station Occupancy (SSO)
• Target 65

FOR MORE INFO...
Follow the UNC Story link at http//www.evaklein
associates.com/
10
Determining Classroom Productivity

• Space Factor ASF / (WRH SSO)
• Using targets
• Target Space Factor 18 / (35 .65)
• Target Space Factor .79, or just .8
• Lower is Better (more productive classrooms)
• You can try this at home, if you have the
  data/time/need

11
Our standard ASF targets

• 17-20 ASF for traditional classrooms, lowering to
  15 ASF for large fixed seat lecture halls
• 30-35 ASF for computer classrooms
• NOTE We are now adding 20 to the first target
  above to accommodate larger desks/tables for
  student laptops

12
Classroom Costs

• Will Focus on
• Traditional (non multimedia capable) classrooms
  (chalkboard and overhead/slide projector)
• Multimedia capable classrooms (LCD projection
  device, touch panel control system, appropriate
  lighting, VCR, DVD, laptop connection, ring-down
  phone, wireless capability, etc.
• NOTE Computer and Teleconference classroom costs
  NOT represented in these numbers some costs of
  course overlap.

13
Classroom Costs

• Capital (One-time)
• Construction
• A/V equipment lighting, multimedia
  technology, control systems
• Overbuilding?
• Operating (Ongoing)
• Traditional Classrooms
• Multimedia Classrooms two components
• Maintenance
• Equipment Lifecycling
• Human
• Personnel
• Learning (soft? costs)

14
Capital Costs

• Full Building Renovation
• Two identical buildings (4 floors, 27K gross
  sq. ft., 17K ASF, built 1922-1924).
• 6.7 million (16 multimedia classrooms)
• 4.5 million (5 multimedia classrooms)
• Classroom A/V budgets lighting, multimedia,
  controls
• 15,000 to 180,000 based on level of technology
  and seat count
• Facilities ballpark of 1,000/seat
• (does NOT include furniture, or per seat hard
  Internet connections/power)

15
Capital Costs (cont.)

• Cost of OVERBUILDING classrooms
• 250/sq. foot 950 sq. feet (50 station tablet
  arm chair classroom) 237,500 A/V costs.
• Can go a long way towards funding other needs
  (laboratories, office space, e.g.)

16
Capital Costs (cont.)

• Question Can we use capital funding to just
  significantly upgrade existing classrooms
  (assumes building infrastructure not in need of
  significant upgrade)?
• 50K per 50 seat classroom in this case gets us a
  fresh classroom new paint, furniture, MINIMUM
  multimedia.

17
Operating Costs Traditional Classrooms

• Traditional (not multimedia capable) classrooms
  maintenance costs
• Chalk/markers, clock batteries, erasers,
  overhead/slide projector bulbs, cleaning,
  depreciation.
• Example 8/bulb 20/year 160/year
• Cost/yr/classroom 150/yr - 300/yr

18
Operating Costs Multimedia Classrooms -
Maintenance

• Maintenance Costs
• Bulbs (LCD projector, document camera, overhead,
  slide), hotline phone, Chalk/markers,
  batteries, cleaning, depreciation
• Example 400/LCD bulb 2/year 800/year

19
Operating Costs Multimedia Classrooms -
Maintenance (cont.)

• Overall 5 of initial room system cost/year
• A 50K room will have approx. 2,500 in yearly
  maintenance costs
• We are averaging 4 per year per classroom

20
Operating Costs Multimedia Classrooms
Equipment Lifecycling

• Equipment Lifecycling Cost Estimates
• 25 of equipment replaced every 3 years
• 25 of equipment replaced every 5 years
• 50 of equipment replaced every 10 years

21
Operating Costs Multimedia Classrooms
Equipment Lifecycling

• A 50K room will have approx. 9,150 in yearly
  lifecycle costs
• Overall 18 of initial room cost / year
• We project UNC-CH costs varying year to year from
  9-14 per year per classroom

22
Human Costs

• Personnel to support traditional classrooms
• Roughly 1 FTE checks each of 100 classrooms for
  25 minutes each week (.01 FTE/classroom)

23
Human Costs

• Multimedia Classrooms
• Roughly 1 FTE checks each of 20 multimedia
  classrooms for 2 hours each week (.05
  FTE/classroom)
• Niemayer recommends .15 FTE/classroom, .5
  FTE/computer classroom

Hard Facts on Classroom Design, The ScareCrow
Press, 2003, Daniel Niemeyer
24
Add em all UP and you get

• Method 1 (top-down)
• Multiply your initial classroom costs by the
  percentages given for maintenance and lifecycling
  and personnel and you get a yearly cost/classroom
  
• Method 2 (bottom up)
• Take the per item costs for maintenance and
  lifecycling and personnel by type of multimedia
  room and get a yearly total to maintain a
  particular type of classroom

25
UNC-CHs numbers using Method 2
26
UNC-CHs numbers using Method 2
27
A More Readable Summary

• Fiscal Year 00/01 Projected Budget
• 935,399 for 52 multimedia classrooms
• Fiscal Year 04/05 Projected Budget
• 1,829,244 for 132 multimedia classrooms

28
A More Readable Summary

• Fiscal Year 08/09 Projected Budget
• 2,291,315 for 162 multimedia classrooms
• Approx. .56 of Provost Offices State Funding
• 1,355,916 in NEW operating funding would support
  110 new multimedia capable classrooms
• Approx. .33 of Provost Offices State Funding

29
UNC-CH Challenges / Next Steps

• Budgeting How do we identify new operating
  funding to support bond capital spending, esp. in
  hard fiscal times?
• Oversight How can the CDAC effectively oversee
  the creation of great classrooms?
• Collaboration / Coordination How can central IT,
  Facilities, and faculty work together more
  effectively?

30
UNC Challenges / Next Steps

• We are losing 10-30 of our seat count when
  renovating old classroom space due to
  infrastructure and laptop support issues
• We are continuing to make every classroom we
  renovate or create multimedia capable
• Recently completed a Faculty Classroom Survey to
  gauge interest/support

31
Resources/Links

• Ways to inform yourself about classrooms
• Hard Facts on Smart Classroom Design, Daniel
  Niemeyer, ISBN 0-8108-4359-5
• http//www.classrooms.com
• http//hotline.unc.edu (shows exact equipment in
  UNC-CH classrooms)
• Make Yourself Uncomfortable, 3/7/03 Chronicle
  of Higher Ed cover story

32
Some Questions for Discussion?

• Are the added costs required to support
  multimedia capable classrooms worth it? (45 of
  our faculty say that they cant COUNT on getting
  a multimedia classroom their 1 constraint in
  using classroom technology)
• Should institutions, if large, designate a staff
  person to oversee classrooms?
• Should all classrooms be multimedia capable?

33
Questions (cont.)

• Why do we need overhead projectors and slide
  projectors when we have document cameras and
  digital libraries?
• Who owns the classrooms?
• Do we overbuild classrooms to accommodate more
  prime time sections?

34
Questions (cont.)

• How do we project the impact (e.g., quality of
  learning environment) of renovating old buildings
  , making classrooms laptop friendly, aiming for
  lower class sizes, and increasing enrollment?
• Oh, by the way, how can we design multimedia
  classrooms to better support active learning? (we
  just designed a new flexible, ADA-compliant,
  podium standard)

35
Thank You!

• Presentation Available on-line at
• http//cdac.unc.edu/docs/classroomcosts.ppt