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
2000-2001 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05
Total Multimedia Classrooms 52 72 95 117 132
Total Traditional Classrooms 133 113 90 68 33

Lifecycle All Classrooms 466,940 550,254 698,367 789,688 862,614
Maintenance All Classrooms 185,943 221,610 270,034 305,358 333,686
Perm. Personnel Costs 119,026 199,780 269,668 351,034 421,727
Temp. Personnel Costs 163,490 175,324 187,566 199,967 211,217

Total Classroom Support Budget 935,399 1,146,968 1,425,635 1,646,047 1,829,244
26
UNC-CHs numbers using Method 2
04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09
Total Multimedia Classrooms 132 144 151 161 162
Total Traditional Classrooms 33 41 34 24 23

Lifecycle All Classrooms 862,614 918,187 966,909 1,012,488 1,017,045
Maintenance All Classrooms 333,686 356,003 372,397 390,870 392,717
Perm. Personnel Costs 421,727 485,067 535,497 599,237 632,437
Temp. Personnel Costs 211,217 221,688 230,998 241,283 249,116

Total Classroom Support Budget 1,829,244 1,980,945 2,105,801 2,243,878 2,291,315
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