University of Cumbria, The Learning Gateway, Carlisle

This Case Study was undertaken in early 2007, at which point the institution was known as St. Martin's College - now part of the University of Cumbria, formed in August 2007.

Background & Context

St Martin's is a Higher Education College, accredited by Lancaster University, based in Lancashire, Cumbria and London. It has recently achieved taught degree awarding powers and is planning a new University for Cumbria as proposed by Sir Martin Harris.

The College's emerging academic strategy, envisioned in St Martin's Corporate Plan 2004-9, aspires to move from a traditional delivery mode to more flexible forms of learning and teaching in order to attract, retain and sustain a diverse student body. This strategy recognises that formal teaching space may not necessarily be the best way to support student achievement, or to support a variety of student learning styles. In response to this challenge, the Learning Gateway (LG) at the Carlisle campus (Fusehill Street) was conceived, designed and built as a catalyst for change, to further implement the College's flexible and distributed learning goals in Cumbria and more widely. In addition, the embedding of technology was seen to be pivotal to the project thereby promoting its adoption by staff which might then support a change in their teaching and learning practice. Promoting independent learning and transferable skills, using collaborative learning principles was central to the concept.

Consequently the Learning Gateway is very different from other College physical spaces. It offers an exciting opportunity to draw together a completely new community of learners with diverse support needs. The LG also supports learners, tutors and support professionals in ways that foster independent learning. A set of pedagogial principles underpins its design. It is based on the assumption that 'the relationship between the physical environment and the student experience is vital and that the latter can be enhanced if it is designed in right from the start.' The building opened on April 3rd 2006.

The vision for the Learning Gateway is based on the College's Corporate Plan, its Learning and Teaching Strategy and a set of pedagogical principles that put learners and learning first. These recognise that learning is complex; it does not take place in a vacuum and that space combined with technology and appropriate support can provide the optimum conditions for active learning.

In 2005, the College won a place on the Higher Education Academy/Leadership Foundation Change Academy programme. The challenge - to produce an action plan to further implement flexible and distributed learning across the College. Together with the Learning Gateway project, these initiatives provided the synergies needed to begin to effect emergent, cultural change. It was recognised that only by fully engaging College staff in the changes, would a long term impact be achieved, transforming the learning culture at St Martin's.

The Learning Gateway is space to learn in. It is much more than a building - it is an experimental learning environment. It is both a physical learning space and a metaphor for a new learning paradigm-connecting current and future learners - across the campuses of St Martin's. It combines physical and virtual space that is owned jointly by students, tutors and supporters.

It is therefore unlike any other teaching space traditionally provided by the College; it provides complete flexibility so that the space can be adapted spontaneously to support a variety of learning needs. In the sector, a number of institutions are re-examining their learning spaces. However, the Learning Gateway demonstrates how learner needs can be built into the design from the outset to form a flexible and innovative learning environment, working in partnership with other design and support professionals, academic staff and students.

It offers space for active and social learning; its furnishings, services and facilities are portable, easily accessed and use visual clues to suggest, rather than impose, how they might be used. For example, the furnishings have been purposively chosen to support conversation, collaboration and easy movement between modes of learning. Colour has been carefully applied to guide learners across the spectrum of reflective learning, to include conversational and peer approaches. There are few rules in the Learning Gateway and students are encouraged to be in control of their own learning experience. So far students have welcomed the responsibility to care for their own space.

New terminology has been devised to describe the various zones in the learning spaces - required to sell the space as different and also to accurately describe what the space is for. The space therefore espouses a constructivist mode of learning, with the learner at the centre. The learner is not passive in this process. Learners and tutors are learning together supported by the space's flexibility and the technology that affords differentiated interactions.

A new team of staff and a new job role - Learning Facilitator - has been created to support the activities of learners and tutors.

The Learning Gateway provides a safe and supportive place for students to engage in learning and study - independently and more formally as part of their course. A number of 'learning scenarios' have been developed to envision how it might be used and these, in turn, have been adapted into the Learning Guides available to users.

Students can drop-in and use the flexirooms during advertised opening hours or book ahead if they wish. The building is open until 9pm in term time and is open at weekends. The Learning Gateway is attracting students to the campus and use is increasing during non peak times even though most teaching currently ends at 6pm. A wi-fi laptop loan service is provided so students can use any areas in the LG, interacting with others as they desire.

The design of the building is such that each of the three floors appeals to a variety of learning styles and learner/tutor formations:

• The space assists students to actively construct new knowledge as they interact with their environment and encourages student-student communication as well as teacher-student communication. Of the ten flexi rooms, six are bookable by students who use these for group work, practising presentations, role play, drama and discussion. The College has a blended learning model, with a mixture of distance and face to face learning.
• The open community spaces support student learning in different ways. Students use the space as a meeting space for relaxing with friends, using a laptop, eating and drinking, conversation, working on an assignment etc.
• A number of external events have been held, conferences, training sessions, open days, learning and teaching symposia.
• North West Academic Libraries (NoWAL) held their first conference called Designing Space for Learning in Sept 06.
• The space is very positive and lends itself to a variety of uses. Delegates at the conferences can circulate, socialise and very quickly move between parallel sessions, refreshments and the lecture theatre.
• It has been designed to be attractive and aesthetic to motivate learners. The colours on the floors are co-ordinated to have visual impact and create a mood that promotes social groupings for example hot colours on the ground floor and cooler colours as you move up the building. Students use the top floor for quiet study.
• The 140 seat lecture theatre provides formal teaching space. Its location alongside the informal spaces is offering new alternatives for tutors to 'break out' into other parts of the building and then re-group easily. The interactive technology is described below. This connected behaviour facilitates more interactivity between tutors and learners and allows tutors to try out new methods of teaching and learning. It also means that participants in a course can be teacher as well as learner.
• The space is adaptable to a diversity of learning styles (solo work, working in groups and using ICT). We are noticing that students are making informed choices about their learning situations and adapting the physical environment accordingly, for example moving the furniture, carrying out a variety of structured and non-structured learning activities.
• Quiet study areas are provided in the form of single 'pods' on the top floor in recognition that for some, a solitary space is required.
• Students may be attending a more formal teaching session organised by tutors, using a flexi-room or they might be organising their own activities with peers.
• The LG is also supporting the implementation of the 'new academic team' concept. The Centre for the Development of Learning and Teaching and the new Learning Technology Development Unit have been relocated to the Learning Gateway in order to provide critical underpinning of the College's Learning and Teaching Strategy and be on hand to support staff wishing to adapt their teaching practice. This multi-professional approach has been afforded by the space in both practical and strategic terms.