Centre for Teaching and Learning Seminar Room
Professor Gail Huon
University of Newcastle
The University of Newcastle’s new generation learning space is located in the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) within the Auchmuty Library building of the University’s Callaghan campus.
This learning space is primarily accessed by academic and teaching staff at the University of Newcastle.
The space consists of a seminar room with cutting edge educational technology, flexible seating and desk space and kitchenette facilities. The technology includes an interactive whiteboard, data projector, videoconference screen, wireless connectivity, Genesis interactive technology, and 20 laptops combined to create an ‘e-interactive’ classroom.
Recently the CTL was repositioned within the University of Newcastle to improve support for fostering quality teaching and learning. One component of the centre’s responsibilities is to design and deliver workshops and courses designed to model, support and enhance teaching and learning for and with academic staff. This learning space, through the application of multimedia technologies, complements the following aims of the overall program:
• to model activities that engage learners, particularly those that utilise interactive technology and facilitate collaborative or peer-based learning;
• to provide programs at different levels of sophistication for academics with different levels of teaching experience;
• to foster scholarship of disciplinary teaching and learning; and
• to evaluate the quality of learning using educational technology.
The CTL Seminar Room provides a space for experimental learning facilitation to take place, grounded in recognised pedagogy theories in combination with the use of innovative multimedia technology. CTL staff and faculty members who facilitate courses and workshops in this teaching space are able to model sound pedagogical practices to participants, primarily academic and teaching staff at the university. This is done in ways that provide opportunities to engage with authentic learning experiences, which can then be applied to specific student learning and teaching contexts.
The CTL seminar room is designed for seminar and workshop-style events for up to 20 people. Emphasis is placed on facilitating engaging activities that enable participants to examine their teaching and learning styles that introduce and demonstrate collaborative learning activities, and that model best practice use of cutting edge educational technology, such as the wireless interactive technology of Genesis.
The initial conceptualisation of the learning space included a large focus on showcasing collaborative learning possibilities. Embedding the multi-media technologies in workshop planning has enabled this to be realised. As a result, learning activities take place which provide participants with a combination of interactive collaboration between participants, independent of the facilitator as well as collaboration between participants and facilitators. This is able to occur through the use of Genesis.
How is the facility evaluated?
The space is systematically evaluated as part of participant surveying, which occurs at the end of each workshop or course. Unsolicited informal feedback provided by participants, such as through emails sent post-event, are also being collated to inform evaluation and future planning for both the use of this space and future learning spaces.
Specifically, the physical landscape of the environment is evaluated through the following type of question (adapted depending on the workshop held) in the survey tool, with responses marked on a 5-point Likert scale:
1. I rate the physical environment of the workshop (for the context of learning) as:
2. I rate the convenience of the location of this workshop as:
3. The infrastructure of the classroom (such as computer technologies) enhanced my learning experience:
4. The lay out of the classroom (eg desks, chairs) was conducive to providing good learning opportunities:
Plans are currently being considered to implement this style of innovative use of teaching space, through interactive video conferencing, with satellite campuses in Ourimbah (NSW Central Coast), Port Macquarie and Singapore. Additionally, planning is currently underway for another innovative learning space, to be accessed primarily by students seeking to use Learning Support services.
Evaluation is ongoing. A staged synthesis of this will be presented at the conference.