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Will interfaces take over the physical workplace in higher education? A pessimistic view of the future

Dóra Horváth (Department of Marketing, Media and Design Communications, Institute of Marketing, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary)
Tamás Csordás (Department of Marketing, Media and Design Communications, Institute of Marketing, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary)
Katalin Ásványi (Department of Marketing, Media and Design Communications, Institute of Marketing, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary)
Julianna Faludi (Department of Marketing, Media and Design Communications, Institute of Marketing, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary)
Attila Cosovan (Department of Marketing, Media and Design Communications, Institute of Marketing, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary)
Attila Endre Simay (Department of Marketing, Media and Design Communications, Institute of Marketing, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary)
Zita Komár (Department of Marketing, Media and Design Communications, Institute of Marketing, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary)

Journal of Corporate Real Estate

ISSN: 1463-001X

Article publication date: 13 August 2021

Issue publication date: 5 April 2022

341

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the sustained need for the physical workplace and real-life encounters in higher education even in the digital age despite being seemingly transformable into the virtual sphere as seen during the COVID-19 situation.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on a collaborative autoethnography by a group of seven higher educators with an overall 2,134 student encounters during the study’s time span. The authors then connect these practitioner observations with relevant COVID-19-related studies thereby adding to research on higher education as a workplace.

Findings

The data suggest that the physical workplace strongly bolsters the personal experience and effectiveness of higher education through contributing to its dynamics. Spaces predetermine the scope and levels of human interaction of teaching and learning. In a physical setting, all senses serve as mediators, whereas, online, only two senses are involved: vision and hearing. The two-dimensional screen becomes a mediator of communications. In the physical space, actors are free to adjust the working space, whereas the online working space is limited and defined by platforms.

Practical implications

Although higher education institutions may indeed fully substitute most practices formerly in a physical setting with online solutions, real-time encounters in the physical working space belong to its deeper raisons d'être.

Originality/value

This paper highlights the necessity of the physical workplace in higher education and describes the depriving potential of the exclusively online higher education teaching setting.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and publication of this article.

Citation

Horváth, D., Csordás, T., Ásványi, K., Faludi, J., Cosovan, A., Simay, A.E. and Komár, Z. (2022), "Will interfaces take over the physical workplace in higher education? A pessimistic view of the future", Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 108-123. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRE-10-2020-0052

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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