C-Level View | Feature

FLEXspace Update: What's in Store for AY '23-'24?

A Q&A with FLEXspace leadership

• By Mary Grush
• 09/11/23

This is going to be a big year for FLEXspace, the Flexible Learning Environments Exchange. Academic year '23-'24 will bring FLEXspace version 3.0 with a total portal redesign plus numerous new features and services.

So hold on tight as FLEXspace leaders Lisa Stephens, executive director, and Rebecca Frazee, director, give us a preview of all the enhancements along with their visions and expectations for FLEXspace 3.0.

"We're realizing an early vision we had when designing the current portal, making the task of uploading content much more elegant and streamlined." —Rebecca Frazee

Mary Grush: What is the timeline you're expecting for your FLEXspace 3.0 rollout? What will be the first milestone along the way?

Lisa Stephens: Right now, we're in the process of completely redesigning the FLEXspace portal. We're pretty jazzed about rolling out version 3.0 at the end of Q4 2023 or hopefully no later than the beginning of Q1 2024.

Rebecca Frazee: Meanwhile, coming up at the EDUCAUSE and the Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) annual conferences in October, we'll have some pieces to share — wireframes to show our new look, and hopefully some preliminary navigation for people to explore. We can't wait to show it off!

Stephens: And here's an interesting aspect of our timeline: All along we've had a friendly competition with our colleagues at EDUCAUSE who supported the development of the Learning Space Rating System (LSRS), and they beat us to version 3.0! But that was terrific, because the LSRS version 3.0 gives us a tool to measure potential learning effectiveness in neurodiverse spaces. That means we can already begin to focus on encouraging schools to upload built environments based on neurodiverse and other inclusive characteristics.

Grush: What are some of the most important changes we'll see with FLEXspace 3.0?

Stephens: There are so many. I'll highlight five major categories. These include a unified user experience; interactive communications at the record level; revamped Idea Boards to boost collaboration; global search; and streamlined record creation.

Grush: Could you describe these important categories of change, starting with the first one — a unified user experience?

Frazee: To begin, the external FLEXspace.org and the password protected portal will have one consistent look and feel. So, whether you simply visit the site or log in, what used to be two sites are now combined into a single, unified experience throughout your session.

Stephens: Overall, we think everyone will appreciate an updated user experience. Nobody will need to hunt for redesigned features, as they are functionally similar to the current portal. But the layout is a quite a bit more intuitive — as websites tend to be after the community shares good ideas.

And for the best user experience yet, version 3.0 is fully designed — from the ground up — for mobile devices. This delivers on the long-held vision of walking into a space, taking pictures, and uploading the data from your mobile device while you're still standing in the room.

This delivers on the long-held vision of walking into a space, taking pictures, and uploading the data from your mobile device while you're still standing in the room.

Grush: Great! Can you tell us more about the second area of change you mentioned — interactive communications at the record level?

Stephens: Our number one most requested feature! Threaded discussions will now be attached at the record level. Having a conversation forum on the back end of the full collection was nice for general discussions but it didn't really gain a lot of traction. With 3.0, when you're viewing a space record, you'll be able to post a question or comment right there, in context, and the space owner will be notified of the post. All of this will be visible within the community. Imagine seeing a new tool or technology implementation and being able to chat with the space owner — or anyone else with similar knowledge. It's a really nice way to connect about emerging features and share ideas.

Imagine seeing a new tool or technology implementation and being able to chat with the space owner.

Grush: And the third area — revamped Idea Boards to boost collaboration?

Frazee: Another request we've heard loudly from users is to improve the Idea Boards — to make them more useful as a tool for curating and sharing the latest projects, interests, and hot topics. Idea Boards have always been private in the past, meaning that FLEXspace members could create private Idea Boards and share them with chosen collaborators, but they couldn't share them with the whole FLEXspace community. Only administrators could publish thematic galleries of spaces — hyflex rooms, maker labs, medical simulation spaces, eSports facilities, inclusive spaces, and so on. But with 3.0, members and partners will have the option to use Idea Boards to create and publish their own curated collections within the portal in order to share their ideas and innovations publicly with all other members. With 3.0 you'll have a way to follow your peers or those you consider to be thought leaders who are working on similar projects — it provides a window into what others are thinking and doing. And this is a great opportunity for our advisory team to be even more involved in sharing Idea Boards for spaces they seek feedback on or find particularly effective or inspiring.

Stephens: Another great thing about Idea Boards is that with 3.0, there is the ability to write notes on the Idea Board, improving the way that teams can use Idea Boards as part of the FLIPP (FLEXspace Integrated Planning Pathway) process. Users will be able to include external links on Idea Boards, enabling them to attach outside resources and even continue the conversation by linking to a shared cloud-based document the team may be using during their FLIPP planning process.

Grush: And the fourth area — global search?

Frazee: This is a big change in 3.0. Previously, if you were interested in hyflex or connected classrooms, for example, you'd have to go under the Spaces section and search on ‘hyflex,' then repeat the search under the Toolkit section. But with a more user-centric design in 3.0 you simply enter the search term ‘hyflex' (for example), and the results will display all relevant content on a single page. So you can explore hyflex spaces, or resources such as articles and white papers, or even Idea Boards with curated collections of hyflex spaces. You'll still be able to filter by content type or use a new advanced search feature to refine your results even further.

Grush: And that last category you highlighted — streamlined record creation?

Frazee: We're realizing an early vision we had when designing the current portal, making the task of uploading content much more elegant and streamlined. With 3.0 when you create a space record, you are guided through a few easy steps to upload images, tag features, and add descriptions and stories. The new interface indicates what information is required and then encourages users to include additional details to make the record more robust and useful for members. It even provides tips to improve the quality of photos being uploaded.

Grush: Tell us how some of your partnerships have influenced and are supporting you through the development of FLEXspace 3.0.

Stephens: I'll start by recognizing two of the institutions closest to FLEXspace over time. SUNY and the California State University's MERLOT have both built out significant open education resources to help bring the cost of education down. As such, they are both central to the culture and development of FLEXspace — with 3.0 and earlier.

The development of FLEXspace 3.0 was precipitated when Drupal 7, the hosting software, reached its end of life. We turned to trusted insiders to find out what the consequences of this would be. Regrettably, it meant a lot of rebuild investment on a platform that still functions reasonably well. We learned that this was not a matter of patches; it was more akin to a ground-up rebuild. But we realized that afterward we 'd be in good shape for many years to come, so, we accepted this reality and reached out to our old friends to seek further input on the best way forward.

The team at MERLOT and several others pointed us to KWALL, an agency for web design. We were impressed with that team's experience in higher education, as well as with the way they were able to grasp immediately both the complexity of the build (every FLEXspace member is a mini-administrator since any member may add content and control who sees their content), and the role FLEXspace is playing in helping to showcase and ideate new spaces around the world. We did all the due diligence and were pleased when we had the opportunity to work with the KWALL team.

KWALL's development team emphasized the importance of talking with all the different groups using FLEXspace. We had been on a tight budget and were reluctant to spend development time on focus groups. But in the end, the cost was minimal and the value received was incalculable. In fact, people shared information with the KWALL team that we suspect would not have been shared directly with us. The focus group reports allowed for some celebratory moments, as well as some much-needed critical feedback that helped inform the priorities for the growing user base.

Focus group reports allowed for some celebratory moments, as well as some much-needed critical feedback that helped inform the priorities for the growing user base.

Meanwhile, we were in the middle of a mini-crisis of "Oh-oh, how are we going to manage this expense, particularly post-COVID as many of our partners are just getting back on their financial feet and supply chains are still unpredictable? How can we expand our partner base?" We received an e-mail from our friend Samantha Becker, who has long history with FLEXspace through several initiatives. She asked how her new business, SAB Creative & Consulting could help. I could have leapt through phone and given her a big hug! Samantha and her team redefined color schemes, standardized messaging, and created a "pitch deck" that quickly gets to the value proposition of partnership with FLEXspace.org.

Samantha also sat in on several design meetings with the KWALL team to lend her creative and strategic insights, making sure we were staying on brand and aligned with our mission. Many of the new portal features will enable quicker links to partners like these who offer new ideas and outcomes in the marketplace.

Grush: Please tell us how community relationships with leading organizations like EDUCAUSE and SCUP, as well as so many others factor into and support the directions FLEXspace takes.

Frazee: We are grateful to a long list of organizations who have helped shape the portal functionality, amplify the FLEXspace message, and endorse FLEXspace use.

EDUCAUSE helped advise and support both development of the LSRS and FLEXspace. And EDUCAUSE has provided conference and other communication opportunities to share and publish integration stories of LSRS and FLEXspace — which led to the FLIPP (FLEXspace Integrated Planning Pathway) process. We look forward to continuing that incredibly synergistic relationship.

EDUCAUSE has provided conference and other communication opportunities to share and publish integration stories of LSRS and FLEXspace — which led to the FLIPP (FLEXspace Integrated Planning Pathway) process.

It is a very similar story with SCUP, the Society for College and University Planning, whose staff helped get us off the ground when FLEXspace was still just in the idea space. Along with hundreds of volunteers across the country and beyond, they jumped right in and helped develop taxonomies that describe most of the space elements from a design/architecture perspective. Lisa just presented the FLIPP process at the SCUP international conference in Cleveland last month, and there has been a lot of interest and follow up from the planning and design community.

Our partners at the Higher Education Technology Managers Alliance (HETMA), who publish the Higher Ed AV magazine (online) have also generously provided an opportunity to contribute via a monthly column to keep the AV community updated on upcoming developments.[https://higheredav.com/category/partners/partners-flexspace/] Similarly, our friends at AVIXA, SCHOMS, ETC, ISTE, EDspaces, EDmarket, and the Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) have helped us greatly with visibility and guidance.

We've also received invaluable guidance from our friends and partners from MillerKnoll, ShawContract, Sonic Foundry, Leo A. Daly, WolfVision, JaffeHolden, AVI-SPL, and Occuspace.

And our academic partners have long supported this mission financially and intellectually. Along with SUNY and the Cal State system, academic parters include Penn State, Foothill De Anza Community College District, and Drexel University.

Grush: How will the redesigned portal encourage potential new FLEXspace members, and what are your expectations of how this will affect participation over time?

Stephens: We suspect that a large part of our success has been our commitment to keeping FLEXspace freely available as a resource to all educators. This was the desire of SUNY and the CSU systems from the start: providing a resource that not only helped create better spaces by saving time, energy, effort, and money, but also by ensuring better equity among schools regardless of their postal code. We've had people tell us, "We don't have any nice spaces to share from our school, we don't have a lot of funds to do that." We're very quick to reassure people that FLEXspace is concerned with the exchange of ideas about space… and that it's a huge service to share ideas that engage students in spaces that don't have or require a lot of advanced or expensive technologies. We think the new Idea Board publishing is really going to help get this message out as well. For example, several members have suggested creating Idea Boards that showcase clever hacks with affordable active learning solutions. It will be great to see those come to life.

This was the desire of SUNY and the CSU systems from the start: providing a resource that not only helped create better spaces by saving time, energy, effort, and money, but also by ensuring better equity among schools regardless of their postal code.

Grush: FLEXspace has been going strong for about a decade. Do you find that its relevance is greater than ever?

Stephens: Yes, for sure, and that's coming from our community — not only the directors. The technologies are changing all the time. I was on a web call with a designer and IT manager just a few hours ago, and most of the conversation was about how to create more inclusion for neurodiverse students. When people hear that term, many may think of someone with a form of autism or other learning challenge. What we're starting to recognize is that most of us have some preference about how we engage and interact with others that can be best supported and encouraged in the right kind of space. So how do we learn and share more about this? Yes, FLEXspace has a ton of exemplars, but what continues to impress me most is the generosity of colleagues sharing white papers, references, and research resources that help us to understand these challenges and potential solutions better.

Our stats are holding strong with more than 6,000 members from about 1,400 institutions across 70-plus countries. The largest growth we're seeing is in the K12 demographic — a great way for those of us in higher education to see what the next wave of students will have already been exposed to!

Our stats are holding strong with more than 6,000 members from about 1,400 institutions across 70-plus countries.

Grush: Your leadership of FLEXspace is enriched by your roles at your home institutions. Could you remind us of your titles at your institutions and describe how you are able not only to "hold down the fort" for both FLEXspace and your home institutions, but actually make it possible for them to support and serve each other so nicely?

Frazee: When I first joined the FLEXspace team, I had been teaching in the learning design and technology graduate program at San Diego State University for many years. This year, after fifteen years wearing my faculty hat, I switched gears and took a staff position at UC San Francisco, working remotely from San Diego, as a digital equity education analyst in the recently formed IT Education Division. I am responsible for overseeing the portfolio of teaching and learning tools we provide centrally, working with my team to ensure equitable access to secure, accessible, high-quality learning tools and experiences to all schools across campus. Though I'm not directly involved in the design of physical learning spaces at UCSF at the moment, with my background in teaching, edtech, and the design of learning experiences and environments, I hope to serve as an influencer and sounding board to support my campus partners who oversee learning spaces at UCSF, and of course bring them into the FLEXspace community.

There are several renovation and building projects on campus, as well as curricular change in some programs and schools. It's an exciting time to be thinking about the future of health sciences and medical education, and how physical and digital learning environments can be designed to support inter-professional education, simulation and immersive learning, field-based experiential learning, and hybrid and hyflex learning — all with an eye on inclusion, individual well-being, and accessibility in addition to learning outcomes. I will continue to talk with my colleagues to see what UCSF learning spaces they'd like to share with the FLEXspace community.

Stephens: I'm the senior strategist for academic innovation in the office of the SUNY provost and assistant dean of the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

The University at Buffalo is an amazing campus where our office of online education within SEAS reports to a very forward-looking dean and academic affairs team who care intensely about equity and inclusion on all fronts.

In my SUNY role I'm very fortunate to be part of some large-scale projects that focus on innovation in education — which is how FLEXspace was launched, by the way.

Sharing ideas inside FLEXspace has helped several of our schools — a contribution that in turn gets back to the community.

My role in the FLEXspace community is complementary to my institutional roles. It's the type of collaboration we do well in higher education and a great recipe for moving ahead. As I've said many times in the past: What could be better than working in higher education?

[Editor's note: Image courtesy of KWALL]