- Location:
- Capacity: 40 students
- Type: Active learning lab
Alignment with principles for designing Teaching and Learning Spaces
Academic Challenge
Promote individual, active engagement with content.
Layout
Flexible furniture allows students to work individually or in teams of three to six people. Each table has ample work surfaces for classroom materials (e.g., notebooks, laptops, and textbooks). Ten moveable tablet chairs also permit increased capacity and individual or group work.
Furniture
Comfortable, adjustable-height chairs on wheels permit students to work individually or in groups. Whiteboards on the walls facilitate group work.
Technologies
Access to resources: LMS, internet (via student laptops, local PC, and SMART boards), wireless display, five out of ten tables have outlets for student laptops. Multiple SMART boards and monitors for simultaneous display of different learning materials.
Lighting & colour
Natural and overhead lighting permits individual work during or outside of laboratory and class sessions. Blue and yellow accents brighten the room.
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Learning with peers
Promote active engagement with one another.
Layout
Flexible furniture promotes face-to-face communication and group work. Students can easily circulate in the lab due to sufficient passing space between tables and discrete rooms for scientific equipment. Unobstructed sightlines.
Acoustics: Sound zones support multiple simultaneous conversations among students.
Furniture
Chairs on wheels permit students to turn and discuss with those nearby, supporting a variety of collaborative learning approaches. Tables and tablet chairs allow students to work together collaboratively in small groups of up to six.
Technologies
Shared workspaces with six moveable whiteboards and four fixed whiteboards on the walls.
Lighting & colour
Different lighting patterns and levels support different learning activities.
Experiences with faculty
Promote interaction and communication.
Layout
Instructor’s podium has plenty of space for all equipment and for the instructor’s materials. The room is also equipped with a small, mobile podium. The instructor has access to all students due to a layout that permits ample passing space, and clear sightlines.
Acoustics: Sound zones ensure that not only are students able to hear the instructor, but that the instructor is also able to hear the students. Audio amplification (i.e., gooseneck microphone) is also available for instructors.
Furniture
The podium does not interfere with sightlines or movement, and has a large surface for instructional materials.
Technologies
Multiple classroom technology sources (document camera, local PC, wireless display etc.), two monitors, and two SMART boards permit display of different learning materials.
Lighting & colour
Lighting patterns support multiple types of teaching tasks.
Contributions to the campus environment
Labs that incorporate elements of active and collaborative learning are part of a vision for a variety of flexible campus learning spaces. This room is designed for all populations using the space: well-lit, with a standardized room control panel that simplifies instructors’ use of equipment in classrooms across campus. IT is consistent with teaching and learning needs, and durable furniture contributes to sustainability efforts.ÌýBoth physical and virtual affordances help maximize High Impact Practices (HIPs) for student learning within and beyond this classroom.
