Some of the conclusions and observations of the study

There are many issues of detail emerging from this study, some of which are addressed in the Guidelines for Managers.

Some of the broad issues identified are:

• Ambitiously conceived open-plan technology-rich learning space aims to break new ground. Such space aims to enable major change in our education system. That intent, which should be articulated in the strategies of the organisation, needs to be promulgated widely and understood by all those units that service the space.
• Basic issues such as heating and ventilation in all spaces, are fundamentally important. In spite of the careful planning that goes into the development of space, getting this right seems incredibly difficult as individual preferences vary widely, and working in an environment where the air quality is controlled remotely by others is a source of frustration.
• There is often a tension between the ownership of the space (by the local manager) and the central control of heating and ventilation systems.
• Concerns with basic human needs such as heating and ventilation need to be 'satisfied' in order to ensure that they do not impede the understanding of the higher level strategy for the space. If the basics are not working then this will preoccupy those using and managing the space and undermine 'buy in' to the strategic intent.
• Noise and behaviour are often a major issue with open-plan spaces. The report is clear that carefully planned space making good use of design, colour, graphics, furniture and zoning does provide a means of achieving a self-policed space.

A note on evaluation (again) This report identifies the need for careful consideration of how we measure the success of new spaces. The measures that we have previously used to assess the success of a space, and define our view of its use and usefulness, are, in the view of the authors, inadequate. Much of current space has a strong tradition of data collection on numbers of users and their activities. However, new open-plan space is about learning and learning behaviours. In the view of the report authors behavioural observation and tools such as social network analysis could be used to inform the design and development of these spaces and to evaluate their effectiveness. New measures of success need to be developed that relate to students and their activities and behaviour, communication and connectedness. The danger is that we use the old measures to measure new space and thereby find it wanting.