Location
Capacity
30 students
Alignment with Principles for Designing Teaching and Learning Spaces
Academic Challenge
- Layout: Students can work individually or in groups at rectangular tables.
- Furniture: Mobile furniture (including tables and comfortable, adjustable, ergonomically approved chairs with wheels) permits rapid room reconfiguration for different learning activities.
- Technologies: Access to resources: Learning Management System, internet (via student laptops). Multiple sources (projector, SMARTBoard) for display of different learning materials
- Acoustics: Acoustic design mitigates distraction from outside and inside sources.
- Lighting/colour: Windows and overhead lighting support individual work during or outside of class time.
Learning with Peers
- Layout: A flexible layout with rectangular tables permits students to collaborate with one another and configure the space in multiple ways, moving easily from small group (2-4 students) to whole class activities. Students are able to move about easily in the classroom due to sufficient passing space between tables. Sight lines are unobstructed.
- Furniture: Comfortable, adjustable-height chairs on wheels permit students to turn to discuss and work with those next to or behind them. The chairs and the flip-top tables on wheels allow for multiple configurations of the classroom to support a variety of collaborative learning approaches.
- Technologies: Shared workspaces include multiple blackboards and a SMART Board.
- Acoustics: Sound zones support multiple simultaneous conversations among students.
- Lighting/colour: Natural and overhead lighting gives ample light for group work.
Experiences with Faculty
- Layout: Instructor is not limited to the “front of the room” and instead has access to all students due to easily mobile furniture and a small mobile instructor podium, allowing them to move around the room with greater ease.
- Furniture: The small, mobile podium provides space for instructional materials and is height adjustable. Mobile furniture for students supports different teaching strategies. Cabinets and closets provide ample storage space for materials.
- Technologies: A data projector and SMART Board permit display of different learning materials.
- Acoustics: Sounds zones ensure that not only are students able to hear the instructor, but that the instructor is also able to hear the students.
Campus Environment
- University standards have been applied: IT is consistent with teaching and learning needs, and durable furniture contributes to sustainability efforts.
- 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.
- Classrooms that incorporate elements of active and collaborative learning are part of a vision for a variety of flexible campus learning spaces.
High-Impact Practices
- Both physical and virtual affordances help maximize HIPs for student learning within and beyond this classroom.
