2012 may jcu_ls

Distributed places and
spaces for learning in
Higher Education

Professor Mike Keppell

Director, The Flexible Learning Institute

Professor of Higher Education

Charles Sturt University

1

Overview

!  Distributed spaces

!  Assumptions

!  Ecological university

!  Principles

!  Diversity of spaces

!  Aligning with curriculum

2

Distributed Spaces

!  Growing acceptance that learning occurs in different
places

!  Proliferation of approaches emerging including
ﬂexible , open , distance and off-campus that assist
the ubiquity of learning in a wide range of
contexts (Lea Nicholl, 2002).

!  Growing acceptance of life-long and life-wide
learning also have a major inﬂuence on distributed
learning spaces.

3

Assumptions

Universities value and seek to enhance the skills
! 

essential for lifelong and life wide learning,
developing graduates who will continue to develop
intellectually, professionally and socially beyond the
bounds of formal education.

!  Universities believe that programs, services and
teaching methods should be responsive to the
diverse cultural, social and academic needs
of students, enabling them to adapt to the demands
of university education and providing them with
the cultural capital for life success.

4

Barnett, R. (2011). Being a
university. New York: Routledge.

5

Ecological University

!  Global connectedness and dependence on world around
them

!  Instead of having an impact on the world which can be
both positive and negative ecological universities seek
sustainability

!  They are self-sustainable in their multiple levels of
interactions.

!  They adopt a care for the world as opposed to an
impact on the world approach (Barnett, 2011).

6

Higher Education Principles

Access and Equity

ethical obligations

Equivalence of Learning Outcomes

traverses physical, blended and
Student Learning Experience

virtual learning spaces.

place of learning is diverse

learning outcomes, subject,
Constructive Alignment

degree program, generic
attributes

Discipline Pedagogies

speciﬁc needs of disciplines

7

Key principle
throughout the
presentation is
‘design’

9

Question 1

Is there discussion that the student learning
experience encompasses physical, blended and
virtual learning spaces?

Yes or No?

10

Learning Spaces

!  Physical, blended or virtual areas that:

!  enhance learning

!  that motivate learners

!  promote authentic learning interactions

!  Spaces where both teachers and students
optimize the perceived and actual
affordances of the space (Keppell Riddle,
2012).

12

Distributed Learning
Spaces

Physical

Blended

Virtual

Formal

Informal

Formal

Informal

Mobile

Personal

Academic

Professional
Outdoor

Practice

13

Physical Learning Spaces

14

Seven principles of
learning space design

!  The SKG project has established seven principles of
learning space which support a collaborative and
student-centred approach to learning:

! Comfort: a space which creates a physical and mental
sense of ease and well-being

! Aesthetics: pleasure which includes the recognition of
symmetry, harmony, simplicity and ﬁtness for purpose

! Flow: the state of mind felt by the learner when totally
involved in the learning experience

16

Seven Principles of Learning Space
Design

•  Equity: consideration of the needs of cultural and physical
differences

•  Blending: a mixture of technological and face-to-face
pedagogical resources

•  Affordances: the action possibilities the learning
environment provides the users, including such things as
kitchens, natural light, wiﬁ, private spaces, writing surfaces,
sofas, and so on.

•  Repurposing: the potential for multiple usage of a space
(Souter, Riddle, Keppell, 2010) (http://www.skgproject.com)

17

Albury-Wodonga Learning Commons

18

Comfort

Aesthetics

Flow

Equity

Blending

Affordances

Repurposing

19

Apple – Cupertino Training Room

20

Wallenberg Hall - Stanford University

21

Affordances? - Blending

22

Comfort

Aesthetics

Flow

Equity

Blending

Affordances

Repurposing

23

MIT – STATA Center - EDDY Spaces

24

Technology-enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) Centre

Affordances - Blending

25

Harvard University

26

Discipline
Pedagogies

‘Plasma to
Chalkboard’
for Physics
Professors

27

Seven Principles - Questions

30

Question 2

What learning space design principles are most
important to you?

A.  Comfort Aesthetics

B.  Flow and Equity

C.  Blending and Affordances

D.  Re-purposing

33

Virtual Learning Spaces

34

Virtual Learning Spaces

!  Virtual learning spaces provide unique opportunities
that are unavailable in physical learning spaces

!  These affordances or action possibilities allow a
richer range of learning interactions

35

Formal Virtual

Informal Virtual
Learning Spaces

Learning Spaces

36

Facebook

!  Online and ofﬂine worlds are clearly coexisting

!  Face-to-face friendships from home have been
developed and sustained through continued
online interactions

!  Newer online relationships have ﬂourished at
university and developed into face-to-face
indepth relationships (Madge, Meek, Wellens
and Hooley 2010, p. 145).

38

Blended Learning Spaces

39

Flexible learning

!  Flexible learning provides opportunities to
improve the student learning experience through
ﬂexibility in time, pace, place (physical, virtual,
on-campus, off-campus), mode of study (print-
based, face-to-face, blended, online), teaching
approach (collaborative, independent), forms of
assessment and stafﬁng. It may utilise a wide
range of media, environments, learning spaces and
technologies for learning and teaching.

40

Blended Flexible Learning

!  Blended and ﬂexible learning is a design
approach that examines the relationships
between ﬂexible learning opportunities, in
order to optimise student engagement and
equivalence in learning outcomes regardless of mode
of study (Keppell, 2010, p. 3).

41

Mobile Learning Spaces

42


!  Learning when mobile means that context becomes
all-important since even a simple change of
location is an invitation to revisit
learning (ALT-J Vol 17, No.3 p.159)

43


!  With its strong emphasis on learning rather than
teaching, mobile learning challenges educators to try
to understand learners needs.

!  Understanding how learning takes place
beyond the classroom, and

!  Intersection of education, life, work and
leisure (Kukulska-Hulme, 2010, p.181).

44

Academic Learning Spaces

45

Academic Learning Spaces

!  Physical, blended or virtual areas that:

!  enhance academic work

!  that motivate academic work

!  enable networking

!  Spaces where academics optimize the perceived and
actual affordances of the space.

46

Academic Spaces

!  Barnett (2011) suggests that today s university lives
amid multiple time-spans, and time-
speeds (p. 74).

!  Constant email...

!  Committee meetings......

!  Historians who focus on the past

!  Researchers who may focus on the future

47

Academic Spaces

!  Universities may need
to be conscious of the
24/7 existence of
their students across
the globe, each in their
own unique time-span.

!  Virtual spaces

!  Residential students

48

Academic Spaces

!  Barnett (2011) suggests that academics may be active
in university spaces that may include:

!  Intellectual and discursive space which focus
on the contribution to the wider public sphere.

!  Epistemological space which focuses on the
space available for academics to pursue their own
research interests (p. 76).

49

Academic Spaces

!  Pedagogical and curricular space focuses
on the spaces available to trial new pedagogical
approaches and new curricular initiatives.

!  Ontological space which focuses on academic
being which is becoming increasingly multi-faceted
beyond the research, teaching and community
commitments. In fact the widening of
universities ontological spaces may bring
both peril and liberation (p. 77).

50

Question 3

Do you regularly contribute to a professional blog?

Yes or No?

56

Personal Learning Spaces

57

Personal Learning Spaces

!  Personal learning environments (PLE) integrate
formal and informal learning spaces

!  Customised by the individual to suit their needs
and allow them to create their own identities.

!  A PLE recognises ongoing learning and the need
for tools to support life-long and life-wide
learning.

58

Connectivism

!  PLE may also require new ways of learning as
knowledge has changed to networks and
ecologies (Siemens, 2006).

!  The implications of this change is that improved lines
of communication need to occur.

!  Connectivism is the assertion that learning is
primarily a network-forming process (p. 15).

59

Outdoor Learning Spaces

64

Outdoor Learning Spaces

•  These pathways, thoroughfares and
occasional rest areas are generally
given a functional value in trafﬁc
management and are more often
than not developed as an after
thought in campus design. As such
the thoroughfares and rest
areas are under valued (or
not recognized) as important spaces
for teaching and learning (Rafferty,
2012).

65

Putting it
all
together

72

Conclusion

!  A global revolution is taking place in tertiary education.
The traditional concept of the lecture room is being
redeﬁned as digital and distance education
becomes the new normal (Mark Brown, Dominion
Post).

!  It is time that we begin changing our thinking about the
place of learning for both learners and staff.

!  We need to let go of the tradition of universities as
being a singular place where learning and teaching
occurs.

!  Distributed learning spaces are the future.

73

Further Information

!  SKG Report:
http://documents.skgproject.com/
skg-ﬁnal-report.pdf

!  Book Chapter:
http://www.slideshare.net/mkeppell/
distributed-spaces-for-learning

!  Mike s Blog:
http://mike-keppell.blogspot.com.au/

74

2012 may jcu_ls

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