Ï㽶ÊÓƵ

Centennial Centre 150

Location

Capacity

48 students

Alignment with Principles for Designing Teaching and Learning Spaces

Academic Challenge

  • Layout: Students can work individually, in pairs, or in teams of up to six peopleÌýat movable rectangularÌýtables. Each table has ample work surfaces for classroom materials (e.g., notebooks, laptops, and textbooks).
  • Furniture: Wheeled chairs and adjustable-height chairs allow individuals to set their seat to their preferred position. Whiteboards by the student tables facilitate group work.Ìý
  • Technologies: Networked printing. Access to resources: LMS, internet. Multiple sources and screens for simultaneous display different learning materials.
  • Lighting/colour: Appropriate overhead lighting permits individual work during or outside of laboratory and class sessions.Ìý

Learning with Peers

  • Layout: The tables can be moved to accommodate group work, in groups of up to six students. Students are able to easily circulate in the classroom due to sufficient passing space between tables.
  • Furniture: The table layout permits collaborative approaches to coursework, and improved communication (both verbally and line-of-sight). Chairs on wheels permit students to easily move their attention from small-group to larger group activities.
  • Acoustics: Sound zones support multiple simultaneous conversations among students.

Experiences with Faculty

  • Layout:ÌýInstructor’s podium is located towards the centre of the room and has plenty of space for all equipment and for the instructor’s materials. A second small, mobile podium allows the instructor to move around the room with even greater flexibility. The instructor has access to all students due to a layout that permits ample passing space, and clear sightlines. A partial partition permits preparationÌýof lab materials for the next course without distracting the students and instructor.
  • Furniture:ÌýTables are easily accessible and have sufficient space surrounding them for the instructor to check in with a given group. Standing-height tables and adjustable-height lab stools reduce hierarchy between instructor and students.
  • Technologies: Two projecting surfaces display of different learning materials at the same time (e.g., from the document camera, instructor’s computer).
  • Acoustics: Sound zones ensure that not only are students able to hear the instructor, but that the instructor is also able to hear the students.
  • Lighting/colour: Lighting patterns provide a bright, pleasant environment and support multiple types of teaching and learning tasks.

Campus Environment

  • University standards have been applied. IT is consistent with teaching and learning needs, and durable furniture contributes to sustainability efforts.
  • Designed for all populations using the space: well-lit; coat-hooks provided for outerwear; room controls and equipment meets the needs of the students and instructors.
  • Standardized room controls permit instructors to become familiar with a system for managing the technology used in multiple classrooms.

High-Impact Practices (HIPs)

  • Both physical and virtual affordances help maximize HIPs for student learning within and beyond this teaching lab.

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IT Instructions

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Ï㽶ÊÓƵ is on land which has served and continues to serve as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. Teaching and Learning Services acknowledges and thanks the diverse Indigenous peoples whose footsteps mark this territory on which peoples of the world now gather. This land acknowledgement is shared as a starting point to provide context for further learning and action.

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