In May 2011, Provost Rod Erickson charged the Instructional Space Task Force with the instructions “to develop and communicate a shared set of norms and expectations for scheduling classes” at Penn State. These norms and expectations should “serve students, meet the needs of faculty, and make effective use of our classroom facilities.”
The Provost also invited us to address the following challenges:
- creation of a course schedule that facilitates students’ timely progress toward degree completion
- flexibility to accommodate 21st century teaching and learning models such as hybrid courses and collaborative learning spaces
- balance and fairness in access to instructional facilities
- balance between centrally and departmentally managed spaces
- effective utilization of instructional facilities
- creation of a balanced schedule that distributes courses throughout the day and across the week
The task force includes a broad cross section of members, including faculty, staff and administrators. We list the members below.
Recognizing the degree to which course scheduling and instructional space impacts the entire Penn State community, the Task Force has determined that we should open a wider dialogue about the complex issues involved by holding town hall meetings with various stakeholders around the University.
In the spirit of openness and in the hope that one result of our work will be to begin to change the ways we as a University community talk with one another about issues related to instructional space, we have created this blog.
We hope that you will join us here to learn more about the issues of Instructional Space @ Penn State and to lend your voice to the discussion of how we can meet the goals the Provost set before us.
Members of the Instructional Space Task Force
- David Bender
- Ginger Breon
- Diane Burpee
- Paula Hogard
- Deborah Howard
- Julie Evak
- Yvonne Gaudelius
- Christopher Long
- Salvatore Marsico
- Karen Schultz
- Margaret Sebastianelli
- Careen Yarnal
- John Zang