FlySpace: A Collaborative, Reconfigurable Workspace for group projects. Statement of Purpose There is a need to build small meeting spaces that can be located at our public lab facilities. Our current lab environment is not conducive to group projects. Traditionally, these types of meetings have taken place in lunch halls, the library or residence hall rooms. Issues such as noise, lack of connectivity and flat work surfaces are always a problem. In keeping with a student's nomadic existence, these spaces should be peppered around campus, and should offer enough technology that students need not bring anything other than themselves and their personal artifacts. Specifically, they are small cubicles with a rectangular table, seating no more than 5 people. They contain a white board with an inexpensive white board recording device that can wirelessly send content to palm pilots, laptops, etc. There are 4 computer workstations, tied together with screen sharing software, as well as network and power connectors for laptops. All of these are, in turn, connected to a large 21” display that can be controlled via a switch panel. In addition, a video conferencing camera with a wide angle lens is connected to one machine, which can be used with Netmeeting. This will allow users to teleconference without having to schedule an expensive room, and can leverage the collaborative white boarding capabilities of Netmeeting with the white board in this room. The emphasis is on flat work surfaces, where the technology is there to assist, but not dominate the environment. As such, computers will be very small, the displays will be compact LCD's on arms, and everything can be pushed out of the way to maximize desk space. These rooms will be scheduled in advance. Initially, we can handle scheduling through existing staff located in our labs, but ultimately, as more of these places come available, we should go to a web-based scheduling system. Steps to be Taken 1.Identify potential locations for Flyspace facilities. 2.Identify key personell for implementation and support. 3.Determine software and hardware configuration mix
4.Prototype facility and test usability. Prototype web-based scheduling. 5.Implement one facility in a high traffic area. 6.Assess usability based on exit interviews, focus groups and randomized pop-up surveys. Time line Potential locations should be indentified in less than a month. We will need at least a month, preferably two, to do software testing of the screen sharing software,. Making it reliably work for students with no configuration at all will be a challenge, but it has already been done on this campus. This will need to work with our lab kit to ease deployment, particularly as we scale this program up to more than one facility. Some room construction work will need to be done, so we will need a satisfactory lead time for building the first facility. It may take us as long as three months to get the facility clear enough to do renovation, necessary wiring, etc. From beginning to end, deployment should take 6 months. The good news is that assessment can happen immediately after the facility is open. When students log out of the computers in this room, they will be given the chance to take a quick, anonymous survey on line. Responsibilities ITD's involvement in both campus lab maintenance and support, and our experience with the pilot classroom technology project will allow us to use existing staff to outfit and manage this facility. The Talley Student Center will be responsible for the initial space, furniture and scheduling the facility. The Tutorial Center will partner to provide student services and help guide use of the technology in an online mentoring environment. Expected Impact on Student Learning It's to be expected that these spaces will be in very high demand, since collaborative projects are a common occurrence on our campus, and there are few good places for team members to meet, with the exception of department specific spaces, where students are often given lowest priority.
Video Conferencing is a commonplace technology, but it's use on our campus has been limited to either expensive, managed classrooms, or solitary users in their office or dorm room. By making the technology more available, and an integral part of small collaborative workspaces, it will allow our students to easily work as teams with students at other campuses. Finally, by closely monitoring on how these rooms are used, it is possible that we will learn from students on how this technology can be used in new and creative ways. Cost and Financing Plan We can pay for this facility through a variety of means. Talley Student Center is willing to donate space for initial rollout, as well as furniture for the room. A combination of ETF funds and operational money can be used to pay for equipment and technical support. Four Computers, LCD Displays and associated hardware: $8000 High Quality VideoConferencing Camera $1200 Conferencing Microphone $400 21” LCD Display $1600 VGA Switch $700 White board system $800 Furniture and hardware costs $3000 Installation and Configuration $3000 Support $1k/year Assessment Strategy Initial assessment of ease of use will be important to the success of this space. As we prototype the environment, we will enlist the help of students and faculty to fine tune it's utility. After the facility is open, students will be asked to take a brief web-based survey when they log out. The data will be completely anonymous and may give us insight into how the room is used. Finally, we will include survey questions about the space in other surveys that ITD does.