The Chronicle of Higher Education, the No. 1 source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators, recently launched a new section called Re:Learning. Re:Learning is a series of stories driven by the curiosity of The Chronicle’s readers. They’ve received hundreds of suggestions, and regularly put the best of them up for a vote. A few months back I posed a question that NAC has been reflecting on: “Is the residential-education experience going to go away? If not, what will it look like in 10, 15, 20 years?” Our question was picked up for a vote, and won. So, The Chronicle set out to investigate. The result is an article that discusses boundary-blurring buildings and a vision of the future campus if the Internet of Things is leveraged to connect and enhance the student experience. Take a look at the article here.

What lead to that question? Why are we interested in the answer? Here’s a look at what’s been on our minds, and how we arrived at the popular question that won over The Chronicle readers.

Using Personal Data to Improve UX

A recent Ellucian survey conducted by Wakefield Research polled some 1,000 college students on the subject of personal data (see inset infographic). An overwhelming majority of respondents felt that schools should use their personal data to create an optimized college experience.

Essentially, students are okay with sharing their personal information if it means that that information is used to strategically design and strengthen their entire spectrum of interactions with their institution – from academic to social. Learning is part of a larger environment; imagine if we better understood how students act and react in that environment in order to better serve them?

The Internet of Things on College Campuses

Due to dropping costs and the development of smaller processors, computer-embedded ordinary objects that are connected to the Internet are becoming an everyday phenomenon. These “things” can communicate with users and other devices seamlessly, collecting and transferring data without human involvement. This is the Internet of Things (IoT).

Most of us are already familiar with IoT devices – our computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones and smartwatches all fall into this category. These devices are swiftly being joined by more commonplace objects such as cars and household appliances. Some people predict that by 2020 there will be anywhere between 20 billion and 100+ billion connected devices. At NAC we’re thinking about the devices that could have a direct impact on the residential education experience - residence halls, study lounges, desks, whiteboards, dining halls, parking lots, etc. – what if they were all in that group of 100+ billion? What if the data extracted from these devices could be triangulated and used to improve student success and completion?

A group of higher education institutions that includes Carnegie Mellon University has already agreed to turn their campuses into “living laboratories” for a Google-funded expedition to create a platform that will enable Internet-connected sensors, gadgets and buildings to communicate with each other. The goal of the project is to improve human-to-human and human-to-computer interaction so we can create “smart” environments that help users be more proactive.

Is Disney World A Window Into The Future?

Maybe one of the more plausible uses of IoT is a version of Walt Disney World’s MagicBand. If you haven’t recently visited Orlando and experienced a MagicBand for yourself, here’s a quick rundown. The MagicBand is a wearable device that acts as:

• Park Admission
• Room Key
• FastPass+
• Payment Method
• Location Tracker (think: lost child)
• Photo Album (it links to PhotoPass accounts)

It’s plausible that in the next 10 years a single device could be developed that:

• Notifies faculty when students are disengaged in class;
• Replaces cash, room keys and meal plan cards;
• Pings the campus health center when a student has a fever;
• Sends an alert to the RA if a student hasn’t left their room for three days;
• Provides entry to events and buildings afterhours;
• Tracks which campus events get the most attendance and where students like to study most on campus;
• Tracks how students work in collaborative workspaces;
• Notifies students ahead of time when a bike rack is full.

The list could go on, but you get the point. We could essentially create a frictionless residential education experience.

Concluding Thoughts

What is the future of the residential experience? What’s possible when technology becomes the vehicle for an improved college experience?

There are a host of issues we haven’t yet addressed, cybersecurity and protecting students’ personal privacy being at the top of the list. But these are some of the questions NAC is grappling with and foresee upending the traditional higher education experience over the next several decades. What do you think?

We'd love to hear your thoughts. Send us an email: NACLab@nacarchitecture.com.

References

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Levi Snow, Specifications Sales, JC Wright Lighting Sales — February 16, 2017