As administrators of institutions of learning, lower, middle and higher, start planning their “back to classroom” sessions, one item will dominate that agenda: The health, wellness and security of staff, students and faculty. It’s very likely that some forms of protective and distancing protocols will still be the mandate, at least for the foreseeable future. Planning, in this environment is impossible without some automated help. A robust resource booking system is the only way to ensure everyone’s safety.
Unlike some one-facility commercial businesses, many educational institutions are multi-facility operations. Typically, because it also makes good business sense, these facilities are often geographically dispersed to offer the benefits of learning to the largest set of the learning public. What’s more, as administrators schedule classes and courses institution-wide, staff, students and faculty members may even require to travel between campuses throughout the day.
Why is it important to keep those facts in mind? Because, in such an environment, scheduling gets even more complicated! Without a state-of-the-art online booking system, it’ll be extremely challenging to plan, organize and implement a multi-campus safe learning environment.
Once in-person learning does resume, the safety and wellness challenges won’t necessarily be restricted to ensuring appropriate distancing between seating. It goes way beyond that. In fact, especially in a multi-campus environment of shared resourced and faculty, many other ancillary questions need addressing:
The only way to address these challenges is through proper planning and scheduling, and by ensuring timely communication between all parties – staff, students, administrators, faculty, maintenance crews. Using a resource scheduling and booking system is the best – and safest – way to implement protocols that address all these challenges.
As a faculty administrator, you’ll likely see ideas pitched to you about how “clever” spreadsheets are at scheduling. You may also come across various dazzling apps and workflow websites that promise to solve your resource booking and scheduling challenges. The questions that you must answer are:
Right now, under the current climate that most learning center administrators face, your utmost priority should be on the safety and wellness of everyone that uses your campuses. Using an online booking system that understands and addresses these issues will likely ease, your “back to school” planning.