Webinar:

Active Learning Classrooms—Enhancing Education With Integrated Technology

Original Broadcast: September 26, 2012

I. Background / Overview

Discussion of recent pedagogical research that demonstrates significant improvements in learning when students engage course content in an active manner and work collaboratively with instructors and peers.
What prompted the UMN to explore this specific alternative style of classroom?
What are the key teaching and technology elements in an Active Learning Classroom (ALC)?
- How the physical classroom setting, including classroom seating arrangement, plays a crucial role in active, student-centered teaching.
- Gives the students the ability to collaborate and to have available the necessary technology to collect and analyze information on demand.
- Provide the students and instructor the ability to manipulate audio and video to further the shared learning process.
- Flexible use of technology for ease of communication of ideas and concepts between students and instructor is implemented through:
  - Use of "student" projectors adjacent to each student table for display on a writing surface.
  - "Instructional" projectors for display on large roll-down screens.

II. Prototype Classroom Development

Coordination and integration of academic and administrative considerations to design the prototype ALC.
Assessment of instructor and student attitudes and expectations regarding teaching and learning in these new spaces.
Examine faculty development and support services to highlight emerging issues such as pedagogical and technical support and technology needs.

III. Science Teaching & Student Services Center (STSS)

Study how research data gathered in the prototypical study was applied to the design concept for this new integrated facility.
Demonstrate several instructional techniques used in the ALCs to enhance student understanding.
Examine the collaborative team efforts and challenges to integrate multiple technologies into a single facility with multiple departmental users and requirements.
Construction of STSS—a review of how many individual pieces were pulled together to complete the facility including:
- Use of raised floor design while maintaining acoustical isolation of adjacent classrooms. Operable partitions are also utilized to create smaller ALCs while maintaining acoustical separation for independent simultaneous instruction.
- Classroom design that controls interior room acoustics for good speech communication between instructor and students while meeting flexible room orientations and utilizing sustainable materials.
Active Learning Classrooms (2012) video.

IV. Assessing Performance and Looking Ahead

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the first year of use from faculty and student perspectives.
Positive data on improved grades in upper division biology courses after implementation of the student-centered teaching model relative to teaching via a lecture-based model
Design team lessons learned during this process that can be applied to future facility designs.
Future plans and initiatives for the next generation of Active Learning Classrooms.