Snapshot of Flexible Learning Classroom in HAB

Friday, February 18 marked the Open House for the first flexible learning classrooms in our campus General Assignment Classroom pool! More than 50 people turned out to to see the transformation in person, meet the faculty who imagined the space, the staff who put it together, and feel the impact that these new classroom environments have on our undergraduate students.

Rooms 148, 152 and 154 in Henry Administration Building are general assignment classrooms utilized by the Rhetoric department. The Rhetoric Program Director, Dr. Catherine Prendergast, received a grant from the Library/IT Fee to renovate these classrooms to meet her program needs and pilot a new approach in classroom design that brings flexibility and new models of technology implementation to general assignment classrooms.

Supporting a curriculum that is highly collaborative and relies on a digital eBook platform, this space is designed to enable easy transitions into group work modes, multiple displays for better student access to technology, improved sight lines to engage with the electronic materials, and an easy-to-use control system for the instructor to manage the classroom.

Spring semester 2011 is the first semester these rooms are being used. As we learn from the experience in all stages of design, construction, and teaching in flexible spaces, we are better able to work with faculty and students to meet the needs that technology, new approaches to teaching and learning, and emerging curriculums bring to the daily life of our campus community.