Transforming the twenty-first-century campus to enhance the net-generation student learning experience: using evidence-based design to determine what works and why in virtual/physical teaching spaces

Abstract

The twenty-first century has seen the rapid emergence of wireless broadband and mobile communications devices which are inexorably changing the way people communicate, collaborate, create and transfer knowledge. Yet many higher education campus learning environments were designed and built in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries prior to wireless broadband networks. Now, new learning environments are being re-engineered to meet these emerging technologies with significant challenges to existing pedagogical practices. However, these next generation learning environments (NGLEs) have not been evaluated thoroughly to see if they actually work as they are scaled up across the higher education system. Whilst there have been a range of NGLEs designed globallywith Australia leading in the past five years or soit is timely that a more rigorous research methodology drawing from health facility evidence-based design is taken to evaluate their effectiveness in improving the student experience and learning outcomes.

Why do they study there? Diary research into students’ learning space choices in higher education

“…Fisher and Newton (2014) argue that both quantitative and qualitative methods should be used to study the usability of learning spaces in order to collect data that support the development of new learning environments. A common limitation of diary research methods is that they mainly produce correlational data and hardly establish causal mechanisms (Iida et al, 2012).…”

“…In the past two decades, developments such as the increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT) in higher education (Prensky, 2001;Collis & Van der Wende, 2002), new social constructivist learning approaches (Foster, 2008;Marais, 2011) and the phenomenon of learning communities (Smith & Bath, 2006), have led to new ideas about the university in the third millennium. These developments have resulted in many experiments with new physical learning environments such as Social Learning Spaces (SLS) (Matthews et al, 2011), technology-rich experimental learning and teaching environments (Salter et al, 2013), Technology Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) environments (Fisher & Newton, 2014) and Active Learning Classrooms (ALC) (Park & Choi, 2014).…”

“…Research into higher education shows an increasing interest in the physical learning environment (Matthews, Andrews & Adams, 2011;Jessop, Gubby & Smith, 2012;Salter, Thomson, Fox & Lam, 2013;Fisher & Newton, 2014). In the past two decades, developments such as the increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT) in higher education (Prensky, 2001;Collis & Van der Wende, 2002), new social constructivist learning approaches (Foster, 2008;Marais, 2011) and the phenomenon of learning communities (Smith & Bath, 2006), have led to new ideas about the university in the third millennium.…”

Attraction factors into space as a required element of physical learning environment. A review

“…They have been given greater importance to the third space located on the Internet to promote student interaction with these new experiences; in which the control or management of the teacher is not always required, since many activities can be resolved looking for tutorials on the network (Duta & Martinez-Rivera, 2014). Immersed in this new technological world the key question is then the extent to which the physical space is still relevant; and even whether it is, what fundamental attributes or features should it have to attract students (Fisher & Newton, 2014).…”

Introduction of Reusable Learning Objects in a First-year Materials Science and Engineering Course

“…More university level courses are emphasizing concepts with the help of technology, thus better targeting student "culture"; these are often referred to as next generation learning environments (NGLE) [1,2] . Use of screen-capturing and other video capturing software is becoming the norm in higher education for supplementing traditional lectures [3][4][5] .…”