The work has run from the very basic—providing nice furniture
in classrooms—to the more sophisticated—equipping more classrooms
with technology, says Sean Sullivan, vice provost for enrollment and
planning, and chair of the Classroom Steering Committee.
The results, he says, have met with "great success."
Adds Joseph Zambon, professor of periodontics and endodontics, chair
of the Faculty Senate Classroom Quality and Attributes Committee, and
a member of the Classroom Steering Committee: "People's attitude seems
to be that all of these are real positive things that we've done."
Among the work done in the latest round of classroom improvements:
- All extraneous material—including broken furnishings and additional
chairs and desks—have been removed from classrooms.
- Additional chalkboards and 135 lecterns and 320 new desks have
been installed in classrooms.
- Video cabinets containing a television monitor and VCR have been
added to 12 classrooms, ensuring they have a basic level of technology.
- Six medium-sized classrooms were equipped with educational technology,
which includes the addition of video cabinets, video projectors and
visualizers.
UB has been adding to its technology-classroom inventory all along,
Sullivan says, noting that about 50 classrooms now are equipped with
technology—slightly less than half of all the centrally scheduled
classrooms. And technology classrooms with more than 100 seats have
been equipped with wireless mice—a device akin to a remote control
that allows faculty members to roam around a classroom but still be
able, for instance, to change a slide in a PowerPoint presentation without
having to return to the computer.
He notes that technology equipment has a life cycle of only about four
years, and therefore must be maintained continually. The university
spent $250,000 replacing equipment in its existing inventory of technology
rooms, on top of building the six new rooms, he points out.
The university also has hired two student classroom auditors to check
for condition and utilization problems in the classrooms. "We want to
make sure that when we schedule a classroom, it's actually used," Sullivan
says, adding that the auditors will provide for an "early warning" system,
spotting such problems in the classrooms as broken lights and furniture,
and contacting the appropriate persons to remedy the problems.
Moreover, they'll conduct a complete inventory of the classrooms—how
they look "from the floor to the ceiling"—and will input the information
into a database that will make it easier to keep track of classroom
conditions and take care of any problems that may occur, says Sharon
Myers, director of scheduling in the Office of Records and Registration
and a member of the steering committee.
Mark Greenfield, Web development manager and a member of the steering
committee, says the university is trying to become more proactive on
classroom issues, rather than reactive. Instead of having a faculty
member call and complain about a light being out for two months, "we're
going to be a little bit more proactive and try to identify these problems
ahead of time," he says.
The inventory of classrooms will help the steering committee in planning
for the future, Sullivan says. "It will identify where we have quality
problems and will give us information that then will allow for quick
reaction and recommendations for improvements," he adds.
The steering committee also has been monitoring its Web site on classroom
issues, a vehicle that Greenfield calls "comprehensive, one-stop shopping
for any information about classrooms."
The site features a wealth of information about classroom issues, including
the steering committee's recommendations for classroom and technology
improvements, timelines for improvement projects, an overview of the
classroom planning process, an overview of the scheduling process, an
inventory of physical and technical attributes of the centrally scheduled
classrooms and information about the technology classrooms.
Greenfield noted that a search mechanism is in place that allows users
to search the database for all criteria. That will enable a faculty
member to find a classroom that will meet all of his or her needs—location,
technology and space.
Multimedia also has been added to the site, he says, offering users
both still and moving pictures of the larger technology classrooms.
Greenfield says that while the site is getting quite a bit of traffic,
faculty members are not using the comment form on the site to offer
their opinions on classroom issues. He encourages faculty members to
do so, noting "we really want to get feedback from the faculty." The
Web site is accessible at http://wings.buffalo.edu/faculty/classrooms.
Zambon points out that the steering committee has initiated a one-year
pilot program to determine the feasibility of replacing chalkboards
with marker (white) boards. Many of the chalkboards are worn and won't
erase anymore, he says, noting it's very expensive to replace slate
board.
Marker boards have been installed in four or five classrooms around
campus, he says, and faculty using the rooms will be surveyed at the
end of each semester. If faculty members' responses are positive, the
steering committee will look into replacing chalkboards with the marker
boards.
Sullivan says the steering committee is gearing up to develop a plan
for work to be done during Summer 2002. Besides the chalkboard/marker
board issue, items to be addressed include classroom issues on the South
Campus and equipping classrooms with swipe-card locks and desks that
students can use with laptop computers, he says.
