Recently on AVNation’s EdTech Podcast, we had a discussion about standards for classrooms. After the discussion, I began to wonder more and more about standards, and how the concept and purpose has evolved over the years. Many of us developed standards to make financial arguments to add technology to our classrooms. This is going back 30 years when rooms had only chalkboards and tables and chairs (OK, and maybe a slide projector or 35mm film projector). As computers became more common, faculty began asking for projectors, computers, speakers and microphones. Monies for classrooms were mainly held in an annual maintenance budget that might replace a couple rooms worth of desks and some carpets each year. Within a few years that small budget turned into hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for technology installations. We needed to develop a standard that would give administrators a sense of what was being installed, and how much each “tier” would cost.
Today when we talk about standards, I question who we are setting these standards for? Is it for the administrators still? Is it a document for us to show to them and say — if you want to spend X amount of money, here is what can be done, but if you want to spend 5x amount of money, here is what can be done? If that is the case, is it also a CYA for our teams to say to faculty, “I know this room does not do what you need it to, but that is because you are only in a Tier 2 room, and what you want to do is a Tier 3 room.”
My belief is that an institutional standard should actually address how the room will work. It does not matter to the people using the room if this is a Tier 1, 2 or 3. They have a task to perform and they want to perform that task regardless of what type of room they are in. To me, this is more about the user interface and experience than it is about labeling a room. Perhaps instead of “standards” we should use the term expectations.
For example, in my environment every room needs a projector, a camera, a system for picking up audio in the room, and projecting audio to a room. This is something that any person using a classroom at my college expects. They also expect that they can walk into any classroom and know how the system works, because it looks and works just like the tech they used in every other room. Finally, they expect that the room and all the equipment in it is in working order, and if not they can call for and receive help in under five minutes. That is the totality of their expectations. They do not know or expect whether there will be ceiling mics or wireless mics. They don’t expect the camera to be a specific model, or resolution. They don’t expect that they will have to get a training session for each individual classroom they will be in.
Expectations can and do change over time. Pre-2020, some of our rooms had cameras, but it was not an expectation. Due to remote learning and zooming in guests, cameras and mics became an expectation. That is, faculty do not believe they should have to ask whether a room they will be assigned to has the ability to zoom. They expect that it will. At the same time, we have dealt with a changing expectation. Faculty are starting to expect the ability to record in a classroom. For a long time, recording has been something that was installed in our much larger lecture style classrooms. Now that many faculty have used the technology in those rooms, they are asking about it in other rooms. It is not yet an expectation — but is something that we need to consider as we upgrade and install rooms.
Standards are something us tech people worry about. We want to set a standard for projector resolution, for camera capabilities and for communication protocols. We do this to make our positions more efficient, and our spaces easier to support. But our customers in higher ed don’t want to talk about standards. They simply want their expectations met.