As an alternative to lecture, imagine engaging your students in a collaborative activity during your next class meeting. You divide the class into five small groups and ask each group to solve a problem and present a solution. Anyone who has attempted such a feat can attest to the inadequacy of most college classrooms for supporting group work and the importance of the physical environment in determining the success of collaborative learning. What would the ideal collaborative learning place look like? Brufee (1999) describes it in these terms: "A level floor, movable seats, chalkboards on three or four walls, controlled acoustics (acoustical-tiled ceilings and carpeted floors), and no central seminar table (or one that can be pushed well out of the way without threatening an attack of lumbago). An alternative is six to ten movable four-or five-sided tables of roughly card-table size" (p. 259).Although common sense should guide the design of collaborative learning places, the notion that meaningful and efficient collaboration can occur anywhere ignores the important role of the physical environment in shaping human social interaction. This chapter explores the issue from a psychological perspective, drawing on literature from environmental and social psychology. It begins with a discussion of the predicted shift from expository lectures to collaborative activities as the primary function of fixed-site classrooms. Next, three environmental issues are explored: attitudes and place attachment, lighting and temperature, and density and noise. The chapter closes with two specific examples of effective collaborative learning environments, a physical classroom called the Studio and an online collaborative application called Lotus QuickPlace.

During the period from October 1999 through December 2000, the Placement Service of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society distributed announcements describing 233 new positions available for human factors engineers and ergonomics professionals. This paper describes placement opportunities for HF and ergonomics professionals in industry and government/military (N=220). The attributes of the position descriptions examined include: employment sector, major field of study, degree requirements, required work experience, salary, geographic location, travel, and areas of expertise. The type of industry seeking most employees was Internet based at 33%. The most frequently specified major field of study was human factors (N=124). Fifty-three percent of the positions describe the master's degree as the minimum requirement. The geographical areas with the most jobs were California (N=48) and the Northwest (N=23). Finally, the area of expertise most frequently requested by employers was usability testing and design (N=99) and Human Computer Interaction (N=42) was the most commonly specified job expertise/function.