A group of associations in the UK have issued The UK Higher Education Learning Space Toolkit www.ucisa.ac.uk/learningspace
I have taken a quick look at most of the sections and believe that many in North America and other regions will find the advice contained here useful. Sections include working in partnership, effective learning by design, evaluation, and many others. Note that the final item on the menu allows you to download the full PDF, and the resource is freely available. The authors state that one of their inspirations was the FLEXspace repository, which I have described in posts and in presentations (http://flexspace.org/ You need an account, which is free, to access FLEXspace.) In addition, the Learning Space Toolkit, hosted at North Carolina State University, is an excellent resource http://learningspacetoolkit.org/ and it also has been very interesting to see some implementations of the Learning Space Rating System http://www.educause.edu/eli/initiatives/learning-space-rating-system at the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative(ELI) annual conference.
If you are working on a building or renovation project, you’ll want to check out this new resource from the UK.
–Joan Lippincott, CNI
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Dear colleagues
I am writing to announce the publication of the UK Higher Education Learning Space Toolkit: a SCHOMS, AUDE and UCISA collaboration www.ucisa.ac.uk/learningspace
The UK Higher Education Learning Space Toolkit provides guidance for Audiovisual, IT and Estates teams, and demonstrates why the provision of excellent learning spaces should be a strategic, institution-wide concern.
Constructed from interviews from eleven experienced professionals, the Toolkit explores pedagogical principles and their place in learning space design, and gives an honest insight in to the realities of cross-professional working in universities and colleges.
The Toolkit includes advice on: managing a learning space project, working with professional advisors, considerations for particular types of learning space, using learning technologies, the evaluation of learning spaces and changing working practices.
The Toolkit was authored by Dr Gill Ferrell, with guidance from Caroline Pepper, Learning and Teaching Space Manager, Loughborough University and Simon Birkett, IT and Learning Manager, University of Staffordshire (for SCHOMS); Eleanor Magennis, Head of Space Planning, University of Glasgow (for AUDE); and Anna Mathews, Head of Policy and Projects (for UCISA). We have been overwhelmed with the support we have received from colleagues across the sector in the drafting process – publishing the Toolkit truly has been a community effort.
Best wishes
Anna
Anna Mathews
Head of Policy and Projects
UCISA
University of Oxford
13 Banbury Road
Oxford
