For student David Lawrence, there is “no escape” from the chairs one is likely to find in the stereotypical lecture hall. As someone who admits to fidgeting, Lawrence says he quickly loses focus in the traditional lecture setting because his time is spent trying to get comfortable rather than absorbing the information being presented.

However, this changed for Lawrence when he took one of Petra Watzlawik-Li’s seminars lead in room 431 of the Tory Building last year.

Equipped with moveable tables and chairs, adjustable lighting, and multiple audio/visual centres, the room is one of two active learning spaces in the Tory Building. Lawrence says he was “really impressed” with the resources in the room, specifically the number of screens.

“I didn’t have to strain to look at a large screen high above my head. I could freely choose which screen I wanted to pay attention to,” he says.

Watzlawik-Li, who has taught first-year seminars in both the active learning classrooms, says she feels the spaces “create a better community feel” amongst the students and allows them to fully engage with the material, rather than “passively listening.”

The attendance rate was very high for her class in 431 Tory, which Watzlawik-Li says she feels is needed to begin the learning process.

“I think the students felt comfortable and the room had a ‘living room’ feel,” she says, adding that 431 Tory has a carpet, sofa, stools and nice windows.

She continues that the presence of large video monitors around the room was well-suited to her class as she uses a great deal of video when teaching.

“No matter where someone sits in the room, or which way they are facing, they can easily view one of [the monitors],” Watzlawik-Li says. “It also made for a more relaxed atmosphere because students are not all sitting stiffly in rows, facing the front.”

The space also features individual white boards which Watzlawik-Li says “helped [students] focus on what they would say” before presenting their discussion points to the rest of the class.

While the room was clearly not designed with the traditional teaching format in mind – it’s long and narrow without a natural “front” – Watzlawik-Li says this was only an occasional problem given the seminar nature of her class.

She adds that the room even continued to benefit students outside of class time as it quickly became an unofficial study space when they would stay behind to ask her questions.

Once it became apparent there was no class right after hers, Watzlawik-Li says they “created a community of academics working on whatever each individual needed to get done.”

By winter term, Watzlawik-Li says she had made these impromptu study get-togethers an official session called “Procrastination Buster Study Room”. She invited students from both of her classes as well as other students from the Centre for Initiatives in Education, student employees, and colleagues to use the room. And now, the “Procrastination Buster Study Room” is part of the program.

If Watzlawik-Li’s experience in ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´â€™s active learning classrooms has inspired you to teach a course in one of the spaces, please contact Teaching and Learning Services at oavptl@carleton.ca to discuss the possibilities.

For industrial design professor Chantal Trudel, there was no better way for her third-year students to “get their feet wet” than by evaluating active learning spaces on their very own campus.

Already a hands-on course, her Research Methods class focuses on being open to different solutions, Trudel says, which made studying the newly renovated spaces in the Tory Building and the Discovery Centre a natural fit.

Trudel’s aim was to give her class of 50 students the chance to have “real world experience related to design.” This led to a project that split the class into two groups, the first studying the Discovery Centre and the second examining the two new active learning classrooms in the Tory Building. The groups were divided further into smaller factions of about two to four students per classroom.

Over the course of only three hours in the classroom, the students needed to collect data through fly-on-the-wall observance and interviews prior to behavioural mapping and stakeholder analysis, Trudel says.

“It was funny to be studying active learning while actively learning,” says Arwan Madhoun, a student in Trudel’s class.

The students produced three reports of their findings, in which they focused on how the professor interacted with the space, as well as the usability of the products and the level of accessibility presented in each room.

A common issue between the spaces was organization of the furniture. Trudel’s students agreed that the setup of the tables and chairs in the various classrooms was not conducive to easy mobility throughout the room. Depending on whether students needed to work independently or collaboratively, they would need to readjust the layout of the room.

Sam Astles, another student in Trudel’s class, added that the instructors tended to struggle with the various smart technologies in each room, such as smartboards placed throughout a space that were connected through a single network.

However, fellow classmate Josh Miller added that he feels the difficulties professors may have experienced with the technology were a result of the novelty of the products, and will naturally improve over time.

Classmate Maya Chopra agreed that the usage of the space will be optimized over time as both the students and the instructors get familiar with the classroom and its properties.

Another interesting discovery from the students’ reports was that their findings differed depending on the subject being taught in the spaces. One of the classes they observed was a first-year psychology course that was focused on group-oriented learning. This class operated well in the active learning space, compared to a fourth-year law class, which was taught in a lecture style.

Chopra and her peers concluded that the classes best suited to the space are theory-based lectures and discussions that allow the students to engage with each other.

With the initial project completed in the Fall 2016 term, Trudel had her students write a final reflection in addition to their reports so that she could adapt the project for the next crop of students. She says student opinions allow her to improve the assignment each subsequent year, which she says is “important in the long run to enjoy design at a different level.”

Trudel adds that faculty have a “different lens,” which is why it is so important to seek the student perspective. By prompting students for feedback, she says, the process becomes more productive and engaging for both the teacher and the pupil.

Combining a collaborative learning environment with several tech tools, this presentation will introduce you to the tools available and give you some ideas on activities to encourage collaboration between students in their pursuit of knowledge.

Activities include:

• Exploration of the classroom and the tools available
• Team challenges involving unique configurations of the space

The session runs from 2 – 3 p.m. Space is limited, so please .

It was 8:35 a.m.

Anne Bowker’s first-year psychology seminar had just begun. The first several minutes were spent reorganizing students into groups for discussion. Chairs were awkwardly formed around unmoveable desks until something like “groups” emerged.

It was not ideal.

That’s one of the reasons why Bowker is excited for ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´â€™s new Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) which will have round tables and interactive technology. The Educational Development Centre and Instructional Media Services are converting two classrooms in Tory into ALCs which are expected to be ready in May.

Each room offers a different style active learning. 213 Tory is what IMS assistant director, John Strickland, calls the “tech-heavy room.” It consists of seven tables, each with a large flat panel monitor, a computer and a control system for students to use. The instructor has a desk at the front and a mobile cart to travel from table to table. The room also has a large interactive whiteboard.

431 Tory will be a “tech-light room.” All of its furniture is moveable, including the triangle desks which can fit together to form a large or small group table. The instructor has an interactive flat panel monitor at the front of the room (which can be written on with one’s finger) and repeater monitors throughout the room. The room also contains several whiteboards (which are not interactive but can be taken off the wall and used at desks). Another unique feature of this room is the lounge area with couch and chairs.

The cost of the rooms was approximately $150,000 each, according to Strickland (a traditional classroom costs $50,000). The project has been in the works at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ for a year and a half, after three years of research. There are ALCs at more than 40 universities across North America.

Why Active Learning Classrooms?

“[They] seem to excite a certain type of student that may not otherwise be excited by their learning… So they’re very nice for students who are at risk or struggling. It gets the students thinking in ways that they don’t normally think,” says Strickland.

Bowker agrees that these rooms can help students engage with their learning.

“You want them to feel that this is a safe environment to express [themselves] but it’s hard to do if you’re in a classroom with rows,” she says.

She was one of many instructors—from a diverse range of faculties—to express interest in the rooms. She hopes to use the room for group discussion on readings and videos, case studies, and for group quizzes/challenges. She thinks having one monitor per table will help students work together rather than just working on their own laptops.

Martin Geiger, who teaches migration studies, is also interested in using the new rooms. One of his classes this past year connected via Skype with a class in Germany. He says the technology in the ALCs would help in facilitating transnational collaboration. It would also allow him to more easily integrate video clips, Pinterest assignments, and “speed briefings” (a speed dating style of presentations).

He, too, sees the importance of diverse teaching methods.

“You have to have different formats and this increases the likelihood that you’re going to reach all kinds of students,” he says.

Strickland says IMS will be collecting feedback from instructors and students once the rooms are in use. If ALCs are successful, they hope to convert more classrooms in the future.

The bottom line is helping students succeed, says Strickland.

“I think it says to students, especially at-risk students, that you are valued and you are wanted here and we will work with you until you succeed,” he says.

If you are interested in teaching in one of these rooms during the Fall 2016 term, please contact oavptl@carleton.ca to discuss the possibilities. 

While these rooms are still under construction, the ALCs should be ready for visitors later this month and are expected to be available for classes in the Fall 2016 term. If you are interested in teaching in one of these rooms, please contact oavptl@carleton.ca to discuss the possibilities.

For a dynamic and engaging description of this project, we invite you to watch this month’s episode of Stricktly Speaking with John Strickland, Assistant Director, IMS.

These two classrooms rooms will be completed by mid-April 2016. If you are interested in scheduling your Fall 2016 and/or Winter 2017 courses in either of these spaces for the duration of the term, please send an email to oavptl@carleton.ca.

Both rooms will be available to experiment in throughout the summer and substantial support will be available for instructors interested in teaching in these spaces. This includes both technological and pedagogical support.

See below for more information regarding these two classrooms, including their capacities and technology.

Tory 213

Tory 213 will be a 42-seat classroom that features student collaboration tables and incorporates a rich technological infrastructure. This includes flat panel displays at the student collaboration tables, wireless connectivity for both students and instructors to display materials, and interactive display screens.

Tory 431

Tory 431 will hold 51 students and will include all mobile furniture. This classroom will also feature significant technology, but it will be less intensive as compared to Tory 213. It includes a number of flexible writable surfaces that are spread around the room.