Never Settle: A Cross-Campus Collaboration Designing Instructional Spaces for Active Learning and Transformative Library Environments

Presentation Type

Presentation (20 minutes)

Presentation Theme

Transform physical library spaces and places

Start Date

11-8-2015 11:15 AM

End Date

11-8-2015 12:15 PM

Description

Many academic libraries have undergone or are undergoing renovations to convert space to open, collaborative, technology-rich environments that augment formal classroom learning and support 21st Century teaching modalities. In August 2014, the University of Arizona Libraries (UAL) participated in a collaborative campus-wide partnership to support faculty from the Colleges of Science and Engineering who recently redesigned five lower-level core STEM courses as part of an American Association of Universities (AAU) Undergraduate STEM Education Project.

Participatory design processes were used to transform the existing Science-Engineering Library’s journal and reading room to support these changes in pedagogy. Within two short months, a pilot project was designed and implemented creating a 260 seat collaborative active learning classroom.

Many of the existing SCALE-UP and Active Learning Classroom (ALC) approaches were utilized in the planning and implementation of this newly transformed library space that also supported out-of-classroom experiential learning. By day the Science-Engineering collaborative classroom was used as an active learning classroom, by evening the room was active with students studying and engaged in small group activities, and as often as possible the room was transformed to host weekend events such as entrepreneurial workshops, faculty and graduate student presentations, and hackathons (both in the Science and Social Science disciplines).

Based on pre and post analysis of the pilot, observational studies, and student survey results, the decision was made to permanently convert the space which opens August 2015. This presentation will share information regarding the campus-wide partnerships, participants, costs in the design process, management issues as well as lessons learned and next steps.

Comments

Keywords: collaborative, experiential, active-learning classroom, flexible, transformative, innovative library spaces

Note: this could also fall under the presentation theme "Reflect Community Values and Needs"

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Aug 11th, 11:15 AM Aug 11th, 12:15 PM

Never Settle: A Cross-Campus Collaboration Designing Instructional Spaces for Active Learning and Transformative Library Environments

Many academic libraries have undergone or are undergoing renovations to convert space to open, collaborative, technology-rich environments that augment formal classroom learning and support 21st Century teaching modalities. In August 2014, the University of Arizona Libraries (UAL) participated in a collaborative campus-wide partnership to support faculty from the Colleges of Science and Engineering who recently redesigned five lower-level core STEM courses as part of an American Association of Universities (AAU) Undergraduate STEM Education Project.

Participatory design processes were used to transform the existing Science-Engineering Library’s journal and reading room to support these changes in pedagogy. Within two short months, a pilot project was designed and implemented creating a 260 seat collaborative active learning classroom.

Many of the existing SCALE-UP and Active Learning Classroom (ALC) approaches were utilized in the planning and implementation of this newly transformed library space that also supported out-of-classroom experiential learning. By day the Science-Engineering collaborative classroom was used as an active learning classroom, by evening the room was active with students studying and engaged in small group activities, and as often as possible the room was transformed to host weekend events such as entrepreneurial workshops, faculty and graduate student presentations, and hackathons (both in the Science and Social Science disciplines).

Based on pre and post analysis of the pilot, observational studies, and student survey results, the decision was made to permanently convert the space which opens August 2015. This presentation will share information regarding the campus-wide partnerships, participants, costs in the design process, management issues as well as lessons learned and next steps.