Rethinking learning spaces

Anglia Ruskin UniversityChelmsford

18 February 2014

Andrew Harrison

Keynote speaker

Andrew Harrison

Andrew is the Director of Spaces That Work Ltd, an independent consultancy specialising in learning environments, which he established in early 2011.

Prior to this he was Director of Learning and Research at DEGW, an international design practice based in London.

He is also Deputy Chair of the British Crafts Council.

Andrew has led many learning-related research and consulting projects nationally and internationally, exploring the impacts of technology and pedagogy change on school and higher education institution design.

His latest book (with Les Hutton), Design for the Changing Educational Landscape: Space, Place and the Future of Learning was published by Routledge in October 2013.

Clare Aitken

Case study 1: A research library

Clare Aitken

Clare is a chartered librarian with experience in specialist libraries in the UK and Australia, and is currently the Manager of Tellus, Schlumberger's virtual Library and Information Service. Schlumberger is an oilfield services company employing over 123,000 people of 140 nationalities in 85 countries.

Clare is a past membership secretary of the Cambridge Library Group, chair of the Special Libraries Association Division of Petroleum & Energy Resources, and secretary of the South Australian Special Libraries section of ALIA, the Australian Library and Information Association.

Diane Hilton

Case study 2: An HE library

Diane Hilton

Diane is a Customer Services Manager in the Library at the Chelmsford Campus of Anglia Ruskin University where she has been in post since April 2008. Prior to that she was an Academic Liaison Librarian for almost 7 years. She had previously worked in Further Education for 12 years.

Her current role covers the library as place and has involved various building projects, refurbishment and managing new areas and zones.

Kathryn Wallis

Case study 3: An FE library

Kathryn Wallis

Kathryn Wallis is the Learning Resources Co-ordinator at Library+, which serves the students at Peterborough Regional College and University Centre Peterborough.

Among other responsibilities, she co-ordinates curriculum liaison with staff and students. This includes developing and using customer feedback to help to bring in service developments.

Kathryn Wallis Learning Resources Co-ordinator

Library+Peterborough Regional College

Group Study Area

Once upon a time…

• Group Study Area

• Silent Study Area

• PC Centre

• Student Feedback / Comments board

• New Build

• OFSTED!

Then one day…

• Demolition

• Our new area

Our new area

Our new area

Our new area

Our new area

Our new area

Art Student Mural

…happily ever after?

• Queues!

Queues!

Queues!

Usage

The table below shows the usage of the group study area with a count of individual students booked onto a table or PC in the group study area. Of these sessions, 3,272 involved the student borrowing a Library+ laptop to use on their table

Laptop No. 12-131 5182 4733 4464 4325 3786 3117 2508 1799 161

10 124Total 3272

A colleague writes…

• I’ll try not to be totally negative. It’s certainly given the students far more options for ways to do their work. Presentations were always an issue, as they are generally required to perform in front of Powerpoint and the lack of group PCs made that difficult for them to plan. The big screens have worked great for this but are rarely used. From comments this is mostly due to anxiety of others seeing their work. I have seen some great discussions break out over work being displayed on the big screens however, like small more productive board meetings.

• The increased group IT has led to a far more comfortable working environment in the PC centre, for us and students. Unfortunately, due to occasional behaviour issues and simply the sheer number of people all talking at once, the noise level can become very overbearing. I have honestly considered requesting a decimetre be installed so I can judge when I’m just feeling grumpy or my ears really are dealing with the equivalent of a bad dubstep concert.

A colleague writes…

• Which leads to the big issue with the area, behaviour… The layout is a lot like a classroom and through my extensive reading (well most of one book anyway), chair layout plays a big part in behaviour. Unfortunately the only way to fit a reasonable number of people onto a table is how we already have it, which leads to ‘blind’ areas where students aren’t facing the staff desk. We almost need a circular desk in the middle of the room fitted with a turret, er I mean swivel chair. And they can be incredibly nosey. It is very hard to work on anything private while down there.

• It also feels a little like a dumping ground for when teachers are off ill or have other things planned. I’m sure it isn’t as often as it feels to us, but there are occasions where regular classes will come in when they likely could really be in a classroom.

• The students however really like it, outside of wanting more space and computers. They always want more space and computers. I think they’re stuck with what we have until anti gravity is invented. There are a lot of students who come in on days off and between classes to work together in there and they generally keep on task. And no one has damaged the laptops, which is incredible considering how highly they are used.

What did we learn?

• New software• ‘Suck it and see’• ‘Combat conditions’

Kathryn Wallis Learning Resources Co-ordinator

Library+Peterborough Regional College

Group Study Area

Thank you for coming!

Contact us

arlgeastern@gmail.com

@ARLGEastern

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