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Learning Studio Classrooms at UNM
Classroom environments designed for collaborative learning in any discipline
In Spring 2012, Dane Smith Hall 224 changes from the view on the left to the view on the right (see illustrations below). Do you want to teach here? You must talk with OSET Director, Gary Smith (277-2229; oset@unm.edu) before requesting DSH 224 for your Spring 2012 or Fall 2012 schedule. Read on for more information.
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Features of the DSH 224 Learning Studio:
For more information about the general features of studio classrooms, check out this 2010 article in Campus Technology. |
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Why would I want to teach in the DSH 224 Learning Studio?
Learning studios are designed to enhance and enable collaborative learning that is centered on the students rather than the instructor. This is obvious the moment that you walk into the room – there is no “front”. The instructor works from the middle of the room, lecturing sparingly, and with easy access to all students. Provided computers enable opportunities to access online resources, use simulations and animations, and for paperless team-generated assignments to be completed and submitted for instructor assessment. While many of these functions can be accomplished to varying extents in traditionally furnished classrooms, research at other universities demonstrates much better collaboration and learning that are facilitated by the 9-seat, circular tables. Although classrooms of this type were originally designed to improve student learning in college-level science courses, they have now been introduced at more than 100 campuses and are used for teaching physics, biology, geology, management, chemistry, literature, psychology, mathematics, writing, foreign language, music, engineering, sociology …
Why not have a computer at every seat?
Learning studios are not computer classrooms; they are collaborative learning classrooms. Individual computers generally support individual in-class work rather than collaboration. For many collaborative-learning exercises a computer is unnecessary and the three notebook computers can be closed and moved out of the way to the center of the table.
Why 9 seats at a table?
Research at North Carolina State University has demonstrated the ideal learning opportunities afforded by having nine students seated at each table; this model has been followed at almost all subsequent implementations of learning-studio classrooms. Instructors are encouraged to use a system of 3-person teams with 3 teams per table. Proximity of teams permits synergy to address learning challenges during exercises, so that students help to teach one another – at the University of Minnesota, a single instructor (without teaching assistants) ably manages a learning studio with as many as 126 students.
What other universities use learning studios?
To date, more than 100 campuses have introduced these classrooms. The original learning-studio classrooms were called SCALE-UP classrooms (Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs) and were developed at North Carolina State University (NCSU) for physics instruction. NCSU maintains a website that links to a variety of resources at other institutions, too. At MIT, learning studios are called TEAL (Technology Enabled Active Learning); at the University of Iowa, these spaces are called TILE (spaces to Transform, Interact, Learn, Engage); at the University of Minnesota they are known as ALCs (Active Learning Classrooms). To learn more about the development and assessment of learning in studio classrooms, check out this 38-minute video from the Rice University Scientia Conference On Research and Innovation in Undergraduate Natural Science and Engineering Education.
How can I get a better feeling of what it is like to teach in a learning studio?
Check out videos (links below) that show “learning in action” in learning studios along with interviews with students and faculty. Some of these examples show rooms where each student table also has access to it’s own wall-mounted, flat-screen monitor; these screens will not be available in DSH224 but are a goal in the next phase of learning studios at UNM, which will appear in the Collaborative Teaching and Learning Building that opens in Fall 2014.
ALC, biology, University of Minnesota
TILE classrooms, many disciplines, University of Iowa
ALC, many disciplines, McGill University
SCALE-UP, psychology, Virginia Tech
Where do I obtain ideas, resources, and support for teaching in DSH 224?
OSET holds occasional Brown-Bag Briefings to engage with instructors who are interested in teaching in DSH 224. Contact us at 277-2229 or oset@unm.edu for dates, times, and places.
OSET is also planning web-page resources to assist learning-studio instructors to plan and implement their courses. In the meantime, consider using these valuable resources:
Successful Teaching in Active Learning Classrooms, University of Minnesota
Student Centered versus Teacher Centered Classrooms, Considerations for Teaching, Specific Challenges, Converting Your Course, UMN Research on Active Learning Classrooms, Teaching Resources
SCALE-UP, North Carolina State University
“The purpose of this website is to share designs for state-of-the-art learning studios, teaching methods, and instructional materials that are based on more than a decade of discipline-based education research.” Request website membership (see link on website) to gain access to innumerable resources.
TILE Teaching Strategies, University of Iowa
Overview, Course Design, Facilitating TILE, Assessment
Collaborative Learning, California State University – Los Angeles
You must talk with OSET Director, Gary Smith (277-2229; oset@unm.edu) before requesting DSH 224 for your class.
