Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

Libraries redefining spaces for student instruction

November 8th, 2011

Over the summer the Hicks Undergraduate (HIKS) and Siegesmund Engineering (ENGR) Libraries each converted large reading rooms into cutting edge classrooms and group collaborative study spaces for students.

In HIKS, room B848 has become the Hicks Learning Studio; a classroom for four classes as part of the Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT). IMPACT’s goal over the next three years is to incorporate in up to sixty courses an enhanced student-centered approach to learning with the aim of increased student success and retention.

Tomalee Doan, head of the Libraries’ Humanities, Social Sciences, Education and Business (HSSEB) Division, has served on the IMPACT steering committee, and it is through her knowledge of learning spaces that B848 has been selected as a classroom for IMPACT courses. As part of the active learning and innovative teaching and technologies that will be integral to the IMPACT courses, the room is equipped with thirteen movable round tables (seats 117) and three high tech projectors with accompanying mobile Smart Boards. Also, in the planning stages for evenings in Learning Studio is supplemental instruction offered through Student Access, Transition and Success Programs (SATS). When the classroom is not in use it is available for general use.

The Informed Learning Studio, POTR 141, is modeled after the LearnLab in the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management and Economics. It features three projectors; a Smart Board, several white boards and tables arranged in a way to encourage active learning (seats 60) and small group work.

During the2011 fall semester four classes committed to working in the new classroom, two of which are design courses that require extensive small group work, one Great Issues course and a blended learning course, where students listen to lectures before class and spend their time in class working problems and presenting solutions to their peers. The collaborating instructors have expressed appreciation for the Libraries proactive approach to incorporating new learning techniques and are looking forward to having the library resources handy, especially for the design classes, to encourage students to better incorporate authoritative information in their projects.