“In many cases, the plans that colleges made over the summer have to change – and will keep changing,” said Elliot Felix, Founder and CEO of brightspot strategy. "The right tool can prompt critical thinking, coordinate institutional responses, and build the skills and processes to keep adapting.”
NEW YORK (PRWEB) August 25, 2020
brightspot strategy, which helps colleges and universities excel and adapt by improving connections among their people, places and programs, today announced the “Adaptive Campus Planner” tool, a free resource already in use at more than 50 colleges and universities, to help education leaders plan for an uncertain and dynamic fall term and beyond.
“In many cases, the plans that colleges made over the summer have to change – and will keep changing,” said Elliot Felix, Founder and CEO of brightspot strategy. “We are seeing how the right tool can prompt critical thinking, coordinate institutional responses, and build the skills and processes to keep adapting during this time of uncertainty.”
The Adaptive Campus Planner (ACP) is a free, interactive worksheet organized by “offerings” – the services, functions, or programs at a college/university scale (i.e., courses, libraries, student life, etc.), a school/division scale (i.e., housing, dining, and student health within student life) or a departmental/team scale (i.e., counseling, immunizations, and wellness programs within student health).
For each offering, it presents a planning and examination pathway through the “6 Ps” that colleges should consider. They are:
- Places: The physical spaces, such as residence halls, libraries, and classrooms, as well as student home environments for those online.
- Policies: The institutional requirements, such as grading policies, temperature checks, and late-drop policies.
- Procedures: The processes, such as booking a room, sanitizing a space, or facilitating service triage.
- Products: The tools and supplies, such as signage, promotional materials, and learning equipment and resources.
- People: The university stakeholders and logistics, such as staff roles, work hours, clients, and users.
- Platforms: The digital resources, such as reservation systems, contact-tracing tools, virtual collaboration tools.
In each area, the ACP anticipates the need for planning to pivot by prompting campus leaders to analyze and outline four considerations: defining the situation, focus on principles, adaptation and predicting roadblocks.
To date, more than 50 campuses, across all types of institutions and regions, serving every variety of student, have used the brightspot tool.
“The Adaptive Campus Planner has prompted us to think differently about the fall. We are focusing on how students will be impacted, how to best support them, and focusing our efforts where it's needed most,” said David Clark, AVP Campus Life, Emory University. “As we rethink what we'll offer and how we'll operate, we're mindful of the remote students learning without the environment or resources they'd have on campus. Or the transfers and first-year students who need orientation and connection. Or the students struggling to study amidst two pandemics. Or the student athletes who now can't play or practice – and many more.”
“This is the tool we wish we had four months ago,” said Ralph Horgan, AVP Campus Design and Facility Development, Carnegie Mellon University. “A simple way to plan ahead without overthinking it.”
The Adaptive Campus Planner was developed by brightspot based on their work on several reopening plans, past projects creating better aligned, more adaptable institutions, and conversations and strategy sessions held with leaders from 38 institutions in student affairs, professional schools, campus architects, libraries and other disciplines and departments. The sessions and insights were distilled into the flexible and scalable ACP resource.
brightspot strategy’s Adaptive Campus Planner tool can be downloaded, for free, please visit: https://bit.ly/Adaptive-Campus-Planner
About brightspot strategy
For nearly a decade, brightspot strategy has reimagined higher education by working with more than 90 universities and colleges to transform their student experience by better connecting their people, programs, and places. To solve complex problems like enabling active learning, integrating student services, and accelerating innovation, their expert, interdisciplinary team brings an inclusive, participatory process that gets results. For more information visit: brightspotstrategy.com or follow us on Twitter @brightspotter or Linkedin.
The ACP can be downloaded, for free, please visit: https://bit.ly/Adaptive-Campus-Planner
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