Mapping the campus learning landscape

Abstract

Despite its practical and symbolic importance, the role of space in higher education remains underresearched. This study develops an understanding of student experience of the campus as a learning landscape. It is based on 28 participatory walking interviews with students, including the hand drawing of a campus map. Participants tended to see learning as about individual study or working alongside others, and rarely mentioned lectures. The choice of space to study was often shaped by convenience, and appeared to be somewhat static and habitual. There was a lack of exploration and only a limited sense of the benefit of fitting the learning task to the space. Yet students felt a sense of ownership and safety on campus. They actively used the characteristics of space to manage their own attention through studying where there were visible cues to study and controlling distraction.

The assessment of the quality of campus public spaces as key parts of the learning landscape: experience from a crowdsensing study on the Third Campus of Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

“…The concept of the learning landscape (or knowledgescape) refers to the changing context of the functioning of university spaces, which reflects recent shifts in research and education (Dugdale 2009 ; Winnicka-Jasłowska 2012 ; Backman et al 2019 ; Cox et al 2020 ; Soares et al 2020a ). These shifts involve the emergence of various learning and research tasks and their settings that combine individual and collaborative efforts, formal and informal knowledge exchange, self-education and interactive co-learning and co-creation with the use of both digital and physical resources and means (Nordquist et al 2013 ; Asher et al 2017 ; Whyte 2018 ; Backman et al 2019 ; Cox et al 2020 ). In this context, the spaces of learning and research go beyond typical closed classrooms and laboratories.…”

“…These include outdoor areas of intensive socialising, both planned and serendipitous, that favour the sharing of ideas and transdisciplinary cross-fertilisation. Furthermore, these areas also function as spaces that allow one to recover from mental fatigue and restore psychological well-being (Griffith 1994 ; Biddulph 1999 ; Aydin and Ter 2008 ; Matsuoka and Kaplan 2008 ; McFarland et al 2008 ; Thody 2011 ; Speake et al 2013 ; Seitz et al 2014 ; Lau et al 2014 ; Liprini and Coetzee 2017 ; Göçer et al 2018 ; Cox et al 2020 ; Sikorski et al 2020 ; Soares et al 2020a ; Yaylali-Yildiz et al 2022 ).…”

“…Thus, higher education institutions need to redefine existing configurations of university and campus spaces of learning and discovery and adapt them to respond to the changing expectations of students and researchers (Biddulph 1999 ; Dugdale 2009 ; O’Rourke and Baldwin 2016 ; Özkan et al 2017 ; Schwenius et al 2017 ; Göçer et al 2018 ; Cox et al 2020 ; Sikorski et al 2020 ). Moreover, the concept of learning landscape calls for more connections between university and campus spaces and the urban fabric around to create a ‘univer-city’ (Maurrasse 2001 ; Jones 2017 ; den Heijer and Curvelo Magdaniel 2018 ; Yu et al 2018 ; Čibik and Štěpánková 2020 ).…”

“…In this context, there is a noticeable shortage of studies on campus public spaces (Speake et al 2013 ; Schwenius et al 2017 ; Cox et al 2020 ; Sikorski et al 2020 ; Soares et al 2020a , 2020b ), despite “their critical role in learning and community life” (Göçer et al 2018 , p. 126). If universities want to focus on implementing the idea of the learning landscape, they should thoroughly examine whether their public spaces meet the needs and expectations of their academic and non-academic users, and what could be done to strengthen their role in supporting the exchange of knowledge and skills between them.…”

The Worlds of UCL: teaching, learning and institutional histories

“…Moreover, the module treats the UCL campus itself as a 'learning landscape' (Cox et al, 2022). One seminar activity involves a scavenger hunt in which students form small teams to visit a series of sites across the Bloomsbury campus, with close observation required to answer questions, and bonus points for taking photographs of unusual features.…”