Classroom Utilization, Online Learning and Retail Store Closings: How should we think about these trends? - Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

I’m trying to make sense of the relationship between two trends. Maybe you can help. The first trend is retail store closings. The second trend is classroom utilization. The question I have is if the first trend tells us anything about the second? According to a recent report, The Higher Education Scheduling Index put out by Ad Astra Information Systems, higher ed classrooms are significantly underutilized. Do we expect that classroom demand, and utilization, will increase in the next decade? Are the same forces that are driving the closure of retail stores also important in understanding why physical classrooms are so underutilized? Or are these separate and distinct trends, without any shared underlying causes? https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/classroom-utilization-online-learning-and-retail-store-closings