By Lauren Sproule, TLS freelance writer
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.