Finland is often looked to for leadership in how to create great educational experiences and outcomes for students. Here’s a brief article from 2012 in Education Week around some of their schools design.
Seven Principles for Classroom Design: The Learning Space Rating System
The Learning Space Rating System is one of the resources available in the Toolkits/Benchmarking section of this site. It allows institutions to score a formal classroom’s design to see how well it supports active learning, though assessing the performance… Continue Reading
5 Tips for Active Learning Space Design
A short but on-the-money video from University of Oklahoma (via EDUCAUSE) about designing active learning spaces. Key tips are: Identify your vision Don’t design towards a budget Identify your non-negotiables Real-estate is important – but don’t cram them in… Continue Reading
Energy Pods at Edith Cowan University
How cool is this idea! Edith Cowan University has installed two “Energy Pods” in their Joondalup Library for their students to take a power nap. Image: 720 ABC Perth: Emma Wynne More information at: http://www.ecu.edu.au/news/latest-news/2014/08/study-area-siesta http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-03/perth-university-introduces-sleeping-pods-for-students/5715742 Curtin University is… Continue Reading
NMC Horizon report – impact on physical learning spaces
The annual NMC Horizon Report identifies and describes “emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in education”. This is one of the most keenly anticipated documents of each year with several versions (including one focusing specifically… Continue Reading
Victoria University – Footscray Nicholson Informal Space
Institution Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia Architect Cox Architecture Opening Date January 2015 Context Pre-occupancy evaluations at 6 of Victoria University’s Campuses revealed that a key issue for students was a lack of informal and social space. A scheduled refurbishment of 2 levels of… Continue Reading
The “Transformer” instructor’s station
I’m fascinated by how difficult it is to design an instructor’s desk/podium so that it does not present a barrier between the instructor and the students, but has sufficient space for instructors to put whatever they need. I came across… Continue Reading
What messages are our corridors giving to our students
It’s always a great feeling when you are sitting at a conference and a speaker really makes you stop and go “why haven’t I thought of that before?” This happened to me recently at the 2 day IQPC 2015 Learning… Continue Reading