Report on Teaching Rooms Survey

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Report on Teaching Rooms Survey

• Presentation to Division of Resources Directors
  September 2nd, 2002

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Presentation Outline

• Objectives of Survey
• Methodology
• Results
• Conclusions
• Recommendations

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Objectives

• To understand how rooms are being used in support
  of teaching and learning and research activities
  of the University.
• To identify patterns of poor usage that could be
  changed to improve room efficiency.
• To identify examples of apparent over booking
  of rooms where bookings are timetabled but no
  event actually takes place.
• To survey the use of teaching and learning rooms
  that are not in the Syllabus Plus system so as to
  identify their use, function and user.

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Methodology

• RTS Limited was engaged to manage the survey and
  generate the report.
• All teaching rooms across the University were to
  be surveyed.
• Survey was to record five days of activity on
  each campus.
• Post graduate students were recruited and trained
  by RTS Limited for the purposes of conducting the
  study.

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Methodology

• The following Room Types were surveyed
• Type A - Tiered Lecture Theatres
• Type B - Classrooms and Seminar Rooms
• Type C - Computer Laboratories
• Type D - Specialist Rooms such as
  Laboratories and Studios

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Methodology

• Teaching rooms were divided into two categories,
  booked and timetabled.
• Booked rooms were those rooms where no occupancy
  data was taken, just frequency.
• Timetabled rooms were those rooms that were
  surveyed for both frequency and occupancy.

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Methodology

• Syllabus Plus timetable information existed for
  Timetabled Rooms and not necessarily for
  Booked Rooms.
• Survey lasted from 9am to 6pm over five days on
  each campus, with Parramatta also surveyed in the
  evenings until 9pm.
• Due to the ANZAC Day holiday, Bankstown,
  Blacktown and Campbelltown were surveyed over two
  weeks.

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Methodology

• Students were instructed to record the number of
  people in a room as part of a circuit of rooms.
• Observations were made of each room every hour.
• Information was recorded on sheets and later
  entered onto Excel spreadsheets.

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Results Some Definitions

• Frequency is defined as how often a room is in
  use over a given period and is expressed as a
  percentage of the total hours available over a
  timetabled week, which is 45 hours.
• Occupancy is defined as how many people are
  within the room when it is in use and is
  expressed as a percentage of the rooms actual
  capacity.
• Utilisation is defined as the product of
  Frequency and Occupancy and is a more detailed
  measure of a rooms use over a particular time
  period.

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Results Proposed Targets
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Results Timetabled Rooms

• Results are given for both timetabled rooms and
  booked rooms.
• Timetabled rooms had Syllabus Plus information
  making it possible to compare actual use to
  timetabled use.
• Timetabled Room analysis will be given first

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Results Timetabled Rooms
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Results Timetabled Rooms
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Results Timetabled Rooms
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Results Timetabled Rooms
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Results Timetabled Rooms
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Results Timetabled Rooms
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Results Actual and Booked
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Results - Bankstown
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Results Bankstown
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Results - Blacktown
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Results - Blacktown
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Results - Campbelltown
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Results Campbelltown
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Results - Hawkesbury
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Results - Hawkesbury
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Results - Parramatta
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Results - Parramatta
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Results - Penrith
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Results - Penrith
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Results Booked Rooms
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Results Booked Rooms
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Results Booked Rooms
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Results Booked Rooms
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Results Booked Rooms
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Results Booked Rooms
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Results Comparisons
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Conclusions

• Average Frequency rate for whole of UWS is 40.
  Viz. of the available 45 hrs per week, teaching
  rooms on average were in use for only 18 hours.
•  
• Average Occupancy rate for whole of UWS is 43.
  Viz. on average, occupied rooms were less than
  half full.
•  
• Utilisation is measured by combining Frequency
  rate X Occupancy rate. Consequently if 50 of the
  rooms were occupied, and each room was 50 full,
  Utilisation would be 25. The average Utilisation
  rate for the whole of UWS is 17.
•  

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Conclusions

• A comparison of Room Bookings with actual Room
  Usage showed that over 46 of timetabled room
  bookings were not utilised. Viz. A very high
  degree of over-booking occurs.
•  
• Room usage is relatively similar on all campuses
  except Hawkesbury, where the rates are
  approximately half the rates for the remaining
  campuses.
•  

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Conclusions

• All categories of teaching space, Lecture
  Theatres, Classrooms, Computer Rooms, and other
  Specialist teaching rooms have capacity to meet
  present needs if well managed and if booking
  discipline can be maintained. The survey suggest
  that overall there is no case for creation of new
  teaching space.
• Room condition, lack of teaching equipment, and
  possible mismatch between supply and demand of
  specific room sizes and types in particular areas
  (viz. distribution of space) may contribute to
  the low observed rates, and needs to be further
  studied.

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Recommendations

• A more detailed investigation should proceed to
  determine the drivers of the disparity between
  actual and booked use of rooms.
• All teaching rooms be given a quality, or
  desirability rating to determine what influence
  this has on Utilisation.
• Capital Works and Facilities be charged with
  developing a strategy for reducing the size of
  the estate.
• Problems remain in the allocation and
  distribution of teaching space and is recommended
  that a more refined report be commissioned to
  determine more precisely what the issues are and
  how they can be solved

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Recommendations

• It is recommended that a utilisation survey be
  conducted annually using a similar methodology as
  applied in this study. This will enable the
  University to build up a picture, over time, of
  how its teaching rooms are used.
• It is recommended that the University sets
  utilisation, frequency and occupancy targets that
  are to be achieved over a nominated period, such
  as four years and that the accountability for
  achieving this be vested with the Deputy Vice
  Chancellor Resources.