Learning Spaces Collaboratory

Work-in-Progress: LSC Assessment Rubrics

As a first step in developing the LSC protocols, we are drafting an assessment rubric for STEM learning spaces, anticipating its use by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) for their June Conference.

We share with you the first two parts of this draft. We invite your critique and comments.

The full document can be viewed here.

An excerpt:

I. Premise. Robust learning happens when students are:

actively engaged in evaluating, constructing, and re-evaluating their own knowledge
actively engaged in a social and supportive community
encouraged to assess, reflect, and build on prior knowledge
empowered to address problems that are meaningful, of importance to the world beyond the campus.

…

III. Premise: Robust learning empowers learners. Students who are empowered learners are becoming agents of their own learning. They are adventurous, tolerant of ambiguity, eager to ask new questions, testing the boundaries and limits of what is known, not known.

…

VI. Premise: Learning spaces that work in the service of robust learning:

accommodate the wide range of programmatic and pedagogical approaches proven to support robust learning by today’s students
are open to changing hierarchical structures with ease
support social, affective, and cognitive aspects of learning, enabling students to explore and practice behaviors essential for learning
are aesthetically pleasing, open to the natural world
are viewed by students as safe and comfortable for learning
“facilities should enable and empower people to do their best.” (Leadership is an Art. 1989 Max DePree, Chairman emeritus of Herman Miller, Inc.).

Join us on facebook:

LSC Webinar: The Athenaeum at Goucher College

Facilitators:
Sanford J. Ungar, President
Marc Roy, Provost

March 21, 2012
4:00 p.m. EDT

Marc Roy will discuss The Athenaeum at Goucher College - the centerpiece of Goucher’s campus and community. This is "a signature building that the college envisions will become a vital point of connection between the academic, cultural, and social pursuits for community members — both on and off campus."

LSC Webinar: Anticipating Renovating and Renewing Learning Spaces

Facilitator:
Jeanne L. Narum, Principal, Learning Spaces Collaboratory

April 19, 2012
4:00 p.m. EDT

The AIA 2011 National Convention and Design Exposition

May 17−19, 2012
Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.

MARM 2012: Chemistry on the Chesapeake

May 31- June 2, 2012
UMBC, Baltimore MD

Sponsored by the Maryland Section of the American Chemical Society

CUR National Conference (Collaborating Partner Event)

Leveraging Uncertainty: Toward a New Generation of Undergraduate Research
14th CUR Conference
June 23-26, 2012

Hosted by:
The College of New Jersey
2000 Pennington Road
Ewing, NJ 08628-0718

SCUP–47 (Collaborating Partner Event)

Society for College and University Planning's Annual, International Conference & Idea Marketplace

July 7–11, 2012
Chicago, IL

2012 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE)

July 29- August 2, 2012
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA

Sponsored by the American Chemical Society

Resources from the Field: Assessing Learning Spaces

As you may know, with NSF support, the focus of the LSC during 2012 is on developing protocols and resources for assessing learning spaces. At this stage in our work we are gathering relevant materials from a wide range of sources, recognizing that some significant similar work has been or is being done by others. Throughout the year we will be sharing these with you for your use and comment.

We begin with two comprehensive documents: one is an assessment toolkit from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the second a report from an assessment undertaking at St. Olaf College.

The ARL document, Assessment Jumpstart Tools, presents synopses of space programming and planning assessment tools to assess spaces that serve as libraries and/or information commons. You will find it invaluable no matter what kind of space you may be planning or renewing. The St. Olaf story, Connectedness by Design, gives attention in a post-occupancy review of how making science visible serves the goals of the planners.

Thanks to: Crit Stuart, ARL (retired); David Van Wylen and Mary Walczak, St. Olaf College.

Working through the complexity of the process of planning 21st century learning spaces is difficult, sometimes keeping people up night in wrestling with immediate challenges and imagining new opportunities. When asked 'what keeps him up at night?', Phil Long, Director of the Centre for Education Innovation & Technology at The University of Queensland, responded:

Thinking about the value of “place” in future learning environments.
Asking myself “where the passion in today’s students is and how can we cultivate & support their search for it?”
Thinking about learning as risk-taking.
Thinking about learning as tinkering.
Thinking about reconfiguring learning environments so that their special nature as vessels through which the next generation of inventors. social crusaders, scientists and civic leaders is not lost, value-engineered out because we as planners failed to convey the essential nature of learning environments as both preserves of our heritage, and incubators of our future.

Read More >>