Lab 2
Dr Geoff Mitchell, Greg Winslett and Dr Gordon Howell
QUT
QUT is currently constructing a space loosely described as ‘Lab 2.0’. The design of this space has been informed by the affordances that Web 2.0 culture provide within physical spaces. The characteristics we are seeking to reflect include:
• Moving from a perspective of the lab as an information access space to the lab as a participation/interaction space
• Providing students with some sense of ownership and control of the space
• Designing the space around architectures of participation
• Installing fittings and technologies that allow the space to evolve rather than ‘be designed’
It is hoped that the space will encourage exploration of pedagogical ambitions that reflect key areas of QUT teaching and learning strengths. These areas include:
- Real World Learning and Work Integrated Learning
- Peer Partnering and Peer Assessment
- Transitions into University
- Problem Based and Inquiry Based Learning
- Reflective, Creative and Critical thinking
Given these ambitions, the space is being designed around principles informed by both institutional experience and history as well as recent research literature in future space design:
• Embracing Lab 2.0 design philosophies
– Guided by principles of participation
• co-design with students
• focus on student learning
• Ensuring physical and technological flexibility
– De-emphasing the technology
– Creating spaces with a memory
– Tools for (collaborative) remediation of digital content
– Leveraging student technologies
• mobile devices
• Ensuring the space is zoned for sound and activity
• Ensuring space is supported by ongoing experimentation and evaluation that can guide ongoing institutional adoption.
The evaluation of the space will adopt a series of complementary and compounding evaluation methods allowing for both triangulation of key issues and analysis in depth of potential findings. The approaches, to be lead by the University Teaching and Learning Support Services Department are:
- Space utilisation and adoption evaluation – facilitated by time lapse recording of the way in which the space is configured and reconfigured by students
- Technology utilisation and adoption evaluation– facilitated by analysis of system logs to provide an overview of technology use and preference
- Student experience evaluation– facilitated by an ongoing space users survey to gather meta data about student attitudes to the space and its contribution to their learning experience.
- Learning outcomes evaluation – facilitated by student focus groups designed to unpack trends identified in each of the previous evaluation approaches and ratified by a broader range of evaluation instruments such as discipline specific mapping of the curriculum with the space as well as drawing upon the data generated by the above approaches. This approach will build upon the Flashlight methodology of evaluation.
The space will be implemented and the first round of evaluation completed by the time of the Next Generations Learning Spaces Colloquium in October and QUT is keen to share its experience.