Anticipation

University of Warwick, Learning Grid

Other Sections

Imagination

Implementation

Evaluation

Resource Collection
inc. case studies, flickr photo library, virtual campus and further resources

Spaces For Engaged Learning

As educators we recognise the wide diversity of students that we now have on our campuses and we wish to enable student choice and to empower students to make choices. An important aspect of such choice is where, when and how students study. Providing a wide variety of study options is important and many institutions have woken up to the fact that it is better to provide such facilities and enable choice (especially for those students who may not have their own place of study) with spaces that are welcoming, inspiring, technology-rich, and that also provide the human support for learners. However, choice is not empowering if the options provided are only specified and developed by the learning provider - learners need to be part of the design process as considered in the section Implementation: Working With Others.

'It is increasingly important that colleges and universities engage learners in a dialogue to better understand their perspective. Institutions make massive investments... for the sake of meeting students' wants and needs, basing these decisions on assumptions is risky'.

'Only by understanding the Net Generation can colleges and universities create learning environments that optimize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.'

Diana and James Oblinger, Is It Age Or IT¹⁴

If institutions fail to provide engaging learning environments then students will vote with their feet - and at one level this may be fine for the competent experienced learner. But HEFCE, supported by the Higher Education Academy, recently conducted research into the student experience of learning in HE which showed that a large number of students appear to take a surface approach to learning; that is that they engage in learning in ways that are opposite to those that tutors are trying to encourage.

'It is often as students are leaving their classrooms that important conversations begin; conversations that have the potential for reinforcing new concepts or ideas that may have been presented in the classroom as students discuss their own understanding.'

Jo Dane, Monash University¹⁵

Our aim should be to design learning spaces in such a way so as to encourage learning that is:

continuous from formal classroom-based work to informal study areas for individual or group study,
situated close to student learning support (for example by locating tutors' office space nearby and having learning resources staff, IT support staff available) and
supportive of students engaging in deeper learning.

This view is supported by JISC research that shows that students who are using a variety of technologies in flexible ways to support their learning do adopt a deep approach to learning. For example, whilst reading through their lecture notes students follow up references online. This online activity often leads to further reading and many of students verify website information against books and e-journals. Students also frequently share and test this new information with their peers using these discussions to modify their understanding, adopting a researcher/collaborator model of learning.

At the heart of this activity is a conversational, collaborative model of learning that we should strive to nurture, not just support, in our learning environment development. Diana Laurillard has done much research in this area and gives a brief overview in the Explanation of the Conversational Framework. The importance of conversation in the process of learning is illustrated in the figure below which has been modified from a talk by Professor Stephen Heppell. The diagram is interactive - use the sliding scales to profile where you are now, print this out and then profile where you want to be.