What is the FLEXspace Vision? The Flexible Learning Environments eXchange – FLEXspace is a robust, open access repository populated with examples of learning spaces. It will contain high resolution images and related information that describes detailed attributes of these spaces from institutions across the globe. The incentive for participation is to showcase innovative design solutions open to peer review ranking and comments. As more contributions are received, the repository will emerge into a very useful planning resource for education and supporting entities at multiple levels. FLEXspace Prototype FLEXspace Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Who do I contact for more information? Any of the current partners listed in the title can help. has agreed to serve as a point of contact while formative steps are underway. How much will it cost to participate in this new Community? This will be determined by the emerging business plan and how levels of sponsorship are defined. If you are interested in serving as a sponsor, please reach out to a FLEXspace member. When will additional information be available? An Advisory Board should be in place by Summer 2013, a Communication Plan will be part of the early organizational efforts. Please be proactive an reach out to a named partner. Who are the committed stakeholders at this time? The organizations below agree this project has merit and have committed cash and/or in-kind resources. Next Steps & Major Milestones FLEXspace is currently being tested in prototype. The SUNY FACT 2 Learning Environments Task Group partnered with ARTstor™ for a proof of concept on their new Shared Shelf™ product that was still in Beta (2011). The SUNY Learning Environments Task Group (LETG) completed an environmental scan that found a need for a repository to store and share a broad range of content including: High resolution images Lower resolution images in various formats Video Planning documents and/or blueprints RS 232 source code A taxonomy describing learning environment attributes and pedagogical objectives (active learning, hands-on space, virtual simulation or immersion) Shared Shelf™ enables different types of content to be uploaded and filtered depending on the criteria described. (See Figures 1 and 2) A Vision for FLEXspace: Flexible Learning Environments eXchange Lisa Stephens, Joseph Moreau, Mark McCallister, Jim Twetten, Clare van den Blink Proposing a new community of practice and open access, peer-reviewed learning space respository to support the education community What is the Value of FLEXspace? The attributes describing the space can be displayed next to the image in a variety of layouts (Figure 2). Figure 2: Large Image coupled with side-by-side attributes display Consistent with EDUCAUSE Seeking Evidence of Impact, a small group of committed stakeholders seeks to scale the prototype so it may: Provide ROI examples of peer solutions Decrease the facilities planning-to-construction time cycle Encourage consistent terminology across stakeholder groups (facilities planners, architects, faculty, instructional support, administration and information technologists) Demonstrate a variety of ways to capture traditional content for repurposing in digital environments (course capture, tutorial applications, developmental education) Enable a way to “rate” or “scale” solutions through peer review. Education Community FLEXspace Community of Practice: Participants from Higher Education, K-12, Museums, Continuing Education and Specialized Training Environments who will benefit from this service, and sponsors who can showcase application of products in a non-commercial environment CCUMC Consortium of Colleges & University Media Centers – Contribution of membership interest - academic and corporate members design, deploy, maintain, and support learning spaces ELI EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative – Contribution of Learning Space Rating System or similar solution to support a rubric to “score” learning environments MERLOT Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning & Online Teaching – Contribution of peer review and partnership model already adopted in their open access learning object repository ARTstor ARTstor - a not-for-profit hosted database environment that now allows for open distribution models creates the service foundation with their Shared Shelf™ product Leveraging Partnerships to Create a New FLEXspace Community of Practice A number of organizations have committed to continuing discussions to define a business and partnership model. The immediate goal is to continue the “Listening Tour” and determine the level of interest and support to expand this vision! Ensuring a Sustainable Resource The FLEXspace business and partnership model must be sustainable over the long-term in order to encourage contributions. To encourage this sustainability the early thinking includes: External hosting. Contract with a service provider to avoid institutional burdens of hosting a production service within a partner or sponsor institution. Create a Sponsorship Model to reduce or eliminate institutional cost burden. It is feasible that vendors and manufacturers of furniture, equipment and services will support this effort in order to display implementation examples to new clients in a non-commercial environment. Create competition through “best of class” rankings by online voting systems or peer editorial review boards. Highlight novel and innovative solutions that demonstrate use of content capture and curricular integration. Share these examples broadly through online and traditional publications. Staff properly! Avoid creative solutions where the service is integrated as a student project or part time responsibility. Create a business model that enables this service to be successful over the long term to build confidence. FLEXspace support may fit into a partner’s business or service delivery model, but it should always remain “a gift to higher education, not a burden.” Engage in perfection through production. Accept that refinements will be made as part of production rollout. Follow a timeline according to key milestones, but don’t allow perfection to become the enemy of the good – it’s a community effort. Spring 2013 Demo Prototype & Listening Tour SUNY, CCUMC, NMC, ELI, Sloan-C/MERLOT Summer 2013 Draft Governance Compile Feedback, Form Advisory & Business Plan Fall 2013 Pilot Production, Dedicate Staff Peer Testing, Revision, Communicate Updates Spring 2014 Production Release 1.0 Listening Tour 2.0 Figure 1: Shared Shelf Attribute Collection Page for Record Entry FLEXspace Collaborator Acknowledgements: Joseph Moreau, Vice Chancellor of Technology - Foothill-De’Anza Community College District Brad Snyder, Associate Director - Classroom Technology Services – SUNY Cortland Lisa Stephens, Senior Strategist, SUNY Academic Innovation Clare van den Blink, Director of Academic Technology – Cornell University Kim Scalzo, Director - SUNY Center for Professional Development Mark McCallister, Associate Director, Office of Academic Technology – University of Florida Malcolm Brown, Director, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Gerry Hanley, Exec. Dir. – MERLOT & Sr. Director, Academic Technology Svcs., California State Univ. Jim Twetten, Director – Academic Technology – Iowa State University Carey Hatch, Associate Provost for Academic Technologies and Information Services, SUNY Conference Presentation Available on YouTube! Search “YouTube + CCUMC + Repository” to view the prototype demonstration. Special Thanks to the SUNY FACT 2 Learning Environments Task Group