I’m passing along the latest invitation for a webinar from the Learning Spaces Collaboratory (LSC). There is a fee for participation. Many of you have told me how useful you have found these sessions.
–Joan Lippincott
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We invite your participation in the November LSC webinar: Connecting the Dots between Planning and Assessing 21st Century Learning Spaces: Lessons Learned from the Field on Thursday, November 20th at 3:30 p.m. EST.
In this webinar, we will step back from exploring specific “built” spaces—libraries, common spaces, teaching labs, etc. With three thoughtful practitioners as our guide, we will explore some dimensions of learning space research:
· What it is
· Why it is difficult to do, albeit critical to planning spaces that are transformative over the long-term
· How does it inform the planning process
· How to start on a small scale, small budget (critical first steps)
Each of these facilitators—Elliot Felix, Dana Gierdowski, and Bonnie Sanborn—brings distinctive expertise to this exploration:
· Elliot works with leading higher education, cultural, and corporate organizations to create strategies that improve the experiences of their people. He’ll contribute expertise on post-occupancy evaluations to measure the success of spaces to improve them and inform the next ones.
· Dana, from her work (also at NCSU) in researching how innovative, technology-rich learning spaces impact users—faculty and students alike. Her portfolio of research on learning spaces incorporates attention to diverse types of spaces. She teaches writing-intensive courses in higher ed and her most recent work focuses on writing classrooms.
· Bonnie, trained as an anthropologist, puts her lens on how learning from a space can help understanding all kinds of user needs and behaviors. Her current research emphasis is on social behavior in collaborative or informal spaces.
No matter the stage of your planning or the scope or intent of your project, the explorations in this webinar are designed to challenge participants to embrace assessment more readily, understand who needs to be involved, translate what they are learning from assessment to enhance the physical, social, and intellectual learning environments for all undergraduates.
New ways of thinking about learning spaces are happening across the continent, as illustrated by a story in The Globe and Mail. Thanks to Bruno Gnassi, University Librarian, Bishop’s University in Quebec.
Please visit the LSC home page for reflections on the October webinar and other LSC resources.
Jeanne
