connecting campus design to a new kind of student (gensler)

7/30/2019 Connecting Campus Design to a New kind of Student (Gensler)

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Changing Course.CONNECTING CAMPUS DESIGNTO A NEW KIND OF STUDENT

Design + Perormance Report


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Weve all heardabout the newstudent arriving on

college campuses.These millennials, postmillennials and

digital natives grew up with the social

technologies to which older generations

are still adapting. Many walk to class

wearing headphones, surng the web on

a smart phone and responding to text

messages. Interaction occurs as muchvia email, social networks and instant

messaging as it does in person. According

to Genslers new research, despite all

o this connectivity, independence and

study-alone time are the actors that

dene todays student experience.


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New models o educationare arriving as well.Top-tier universities are putting class materials online using ree, open-sourceplatorms. Libraries are also in ux, as reading and research move rom the physical

to the virtual catalogue. Teachers and administrators are acknowledging the

need or new teaching and learning models that match these evolving realities.

Yet campus design has not kept up with these pedagogical aspirations.

The integration of the virtual seems to pair with a renewed

interest in the physical. Inside the classroom, the student

wants to deplug and interact with ellow classmates. Theycan watch lectures at home and would rather engage in

collaborative learning on campus. And while students may not

be going to the library or books, they still see it as a prime

space or studying and perorming individual workspace that

seems to be in increasingly high demand and short supply.

The realities of on-campus spaces havent caught up with the

demands and aspirations of either educators or students.

The current generation o students is reporting low levels

o outoclassroom collaborationthey would rather

spend that time studying alone in a quiet space. Spaces

designed to prioritize collaboration are interering withstudents desire or quiet spaces where they can ocus on

individual studies. Learning spaces designed or oneway

communication, like lecture halls, cannot give students

the interactive classroom environments they crave.

For the past two years, Gensler has conducted research about

student preerences or learning and how campus design

does and does not support them. Colleges and universitiesneed to challenge conventional wisdom around campus

design. Students see the classroom, not the quad, as the ideal

place or collaboration and acilitated discussion and view

lounges and libraries as spaces or headsdown ocus work.

Students are letting us know what works and what doesnt.

Its time to reinvent outdated models so that we can realign

spaces with new educational realities and student needs.


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Todays campus spacesarent working or students.

STUDENTS DONT FIND CAMPUS SPACES EFFECTIVE

CAMPUS DESIGN ISNT ENHANCING THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

LECTURE COLLABORATION STUDYING

ALONE

GROUP STUDY SOCIAL

19% 36% 32% 31% 31%

PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS WHO RATED SPACE AS VERY OR EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE

Students ranking o on-

campus experience was highlyvariable. Two-thirds say campus

design makes them proud

o their school (a ranking o

4 or 5 on a ve-point scale),

while only one-third eel the

campus connects them to the

surrounding neighborhood.

Only slightly more eel it

encourages interaction with

aculty outside the classroom.

67%Makes meproud to go toschool here.

58%Makes me eellike Im part o alarger community.

47%Really makes meeel at home.

42%Supports myextracurricularactivities.

38%Encouragesinteraction withaculty outsideo class time.

33%Makes me eelconnected tothe surroundingneighborhood.

Across activity types very ew

students reported that spaces

were efective (a rating o 4or 5 on a ve-point scale).


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Independence is the oundationo the student experience.

When asked about their

study habits, students report

an interest in studying

alone versus in groups.

44 o on-campus time is

spent studying or working

alone, reinorcing the need

or good ocus spaces.

MOST ON-CAMPUS TIME IS SPENT WORKING ALONE

STUDENTS PREFER STUDYING ALONE ALMOST 3 TO 1

Study Alone

71%Study in Groups

29%

44% 18% 13%17% 8%Studyingin groupson-campus

Studying/working alone on-campus Time in-between classes LecturesGroup projects

I get more accomplished when Im

alone than when Im with others. I can

ocus more easily on the task at hand.


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Great study spaces are hard to nd.

QUIET TIMELIBRARY22% 39%43% 66%

VS VSREPORTED PLACE WHERESTUDIED/WORKED ALONE

REPORTED QUIETSTUDY TIME

PREFERRED PLACE TOSTUDY/WORK ALONE

PREFERRED QUIETSTUDY TIME

LIBRARIES ARE IN HIGH DEMAND AND SHORT SUPPLY

I independent, studyalone time is undamental to the student

experience, campuses need to give students ample appropriate

environments. For many, that means quiet environments

where they can put their heads down and ocus. Fortythree

percent o students told us the library is where they preer

to studywork alone, and 26 reported labprojectstudio

space was their avorite place or that headsdown time.But when asked to report where they had actually studied

worked alone, the numbers ip. Only 22 report studying

in the library and 38 in labprojectstudio space. Students

want to study at the library, but they are more likely to

head elsewhere or simply not nd the space they need.

This may be explained by the noise: only 39 o respondents

told us that the spaces where they workedstudied alone were

quiet, a distressingly low number considering that 66 o

students told us they preer quiet when studying alone. With

quiet space at a premium, colleges will have to rethink whether

libraries should provide access to noiseproducing activities.

Respondents were asked

to provide both the best

place to study/work alone

and the place in which they

perormed the activity. The

library ranked rst as the best

place, but ar less respondents

report actually studying there

than report it as ideal.

When asked about the spaces

in which they studied alone,

66 o students reported a

preerence or quiet space,

while only 39 reported

that the place in which they

studied recently was quiet.


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CLASSROOMS ARE WIRED BUT NOT INSPIRED

Over the past decade colleges and universities have made

concerted eforts to increase oncampus technology access.

Highspeed WiFi is nearly ubiquitous. Highdenition

televisions are situated in many buildings. These tech

rich environments certainly serve techsavvy student

bodies. When asked about the current unctionality o

campus spaces, students and educators placed support ortechnology at the top o the list78 o lecture spaces

support proessors technologywhile experiential measures

ranked signicantly loweronly 48 were comortable,

29 were inspirational, and 27 were attractive.

One explanation or these responses may be that technology

by itsel does not address student needs. When asked

what tools they used while oncampus, pen and paper

slightly outranks laptops and the internet across a variety

o activities, illustrating that colleges and universities need

to reconsider the emphasis on investing in new technologies

or their buildings. Laptops and wireless connectivity areundoubtedly important in combination with lesstechnology

inused ways o working, but cant deliver on their own.

Many institutions o higher learning may have reached a tech

saturation point. Adding more computers, at screen televisions

and other systems will cease to have a greater return on

investment. As many students come to campus with their own

tech devicesrom smart phones to tablets and laptopsthis

trend is poised to increase. Provide those students with easy

access to wi and theyre set. What they dont, and cant,bring with them are dynamic, inspirational experiences.

FUNCTIONALITY OF

LECTURE SPACE

STUDY TOOLS

PEN & PAPERLAPTOP INTERNET

1st2nd 3rd

Supported proessors technology 78%

Allowed me to ocus on what

proessor was saying 69%Supported my technology 57%

Had good lighting 56%

Had comortable seating 48%

Had good ventilation 45%

Had a good arrangement oseats, desks, or working space 41%

Had lots o windows 31%

Was inspirational 29%

Had an attractive look and eel 29%

When asked what tools they use most, pen and

paper ranked highest across all settings. Laptops

and the internet were a close second and third.

Technology isnt the key to great spaces.

0% 100%


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STUDENTS WANT COLLABORATION IN THE CLASSROOM

In a 2011 research study conducted by Genslers Education +

Culture practice area, students reported that efective teachers

act as acilitators and that this multimodal teaching style is the

most efective pedagogy. The act that students view lecture

spaces as particularly inefective underscores this point: or

many, the lecture ormat is not just ideal, its not working.

Current classroom experiences clearly arent delivering the

experience students want. 23 o students report no time

collaborating on campus at all, and o those that did collaborate

only 13 report breaking into groups to collaborate during

class time. I collaboration is an important part o the learning

process, its place is in the classroom where teachers can

acilitate and direct conversationexpecting students to do it

on their own is unlikely given their preerences, and students

oten view outoclass group work as less than productive.

Traditional thinking about campus design is based on the

idea that nonclassroom spaces should be collaborative in

purpose and promote interaction and collegiality among the

student body. But that thinking is based on an education

model in which lectures reign and interactions happen

outside the classroom. A new model in which the classroom

is the primary site or collaboration is necessary.

Students to teachers: stop lecturing us.

Long-termstudy group

31%Other

6%Adhoc groupsduring class time

13%Group project workoutside class time

50%

TYPES OF GROUP

WORK ON CAMPUS

When asked to elaborate

on the types o group work

they perormed on-campus,

only 13 o respondents

reported that collaboration

happened during class time.


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EXPERIENCE DIFFERENTIATES THE ON-CAMPUS EXPERIENCE

The growth o online learning opportunities and the

question o what valueadd a physical institution delivers

are put in new light by these ndings. Lectures arent where

universities competedynamic experiences are where

physical institutions still have a leg up on the virtual.

Growth in online platorms ofers a renewed challenge tothe lectureas Thomas L. Friedman notes in his New York

Times oped Come the Revolution, published May 15,

2012: Finally a generation that has grown up on these

technologies is increasingly comortable learning and

interacting with proessors through online platorms.

Students are becoming comortable using online venues or

oneway learning models like lectures and toptier universities

are increasingly supplying the content. Schools rom Stanord to

Harvard and MIT are ofering ree online access to lectures and

assignments, revolutionizing highereducation in the process.

These moves represent an unprecedented nod to expanding

educational access around the world. But they also reveal

an understanding o a shit in the university business model

its not the inormation that makes these institutions

great; its the experience and environments or learning that

will remain their competitive edge. Oncampus learning

should take place within interactive environments thatcomplement the noninteractive online learning experience.

My most memorable learning experiences are

when the proessor doesnt dominate the whole

conversation. Its a discussion among the entire class

and everyone gets to have their voice heard.

Dynamic learning environmentsare the competitive edge.


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Methodology

Over the course o the 2011 all semester, Gensler conducted

a series o surveys o 250+ college students with the goal

o identiying the actors and spaces that contribute to

successul highereducation environments. The survey sample

included 32 graduate students and 68 undergraduate

students representing various disciplines and more than 116

colleges and universities throughout the United States.

The rst was a prole survey, ollowed by ve learning modessurveyslectures, collaboration, studying or working alone,

group studying, and time between classes. Conducted through

a series o six short surveys on smart phones, each survey did

three things: ask about the time spent in each study mode

that week; ask specic questions about the space where

students perormed particular activities that week, with each

week ocusing on a diferent mode; and ask questions to

understand students oncampus experiences and preerences.

This allowed the team to capture inthemoment data, and

by using a series o short surveys we achieved an unusually

high participation rate over the course o the three months.

Further Questions

This research paints a provocative picture o oncampus lie

that challenges the efectiveness o current campus spaces and

approaches. While many o the insights are actionable, some o

which are described above, we also see vast opportunities or

urther investigation to continue to develop an understanding

o how oncampus spaces can best support students.

The evolving role o the library, the traditional place or

heads down study time, is o primary concern. For our part,weve embarked on a 201213 research initiative to better

understand this problem. We will be going oncampus to

benchmark usage and to see and hear whats working and

whats not. As a container o inormation, the library seems

the ideal study spot. Now that students seek more inormation

online than in print, whats the librarys main draw?

Gensler 2012.

The inormation contained within this brochure is and shall

remain the property o Gensler. This document may not

be reproduced without prior consent rom Gensler.


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connecting campus design to a new kind of student (gensler)

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