Reflections on Day 1 - University of Queensland

It has been an interesting day – UQ had some very different spaces to show us. I particularly liked the Advanced Concept Teaching Space.  I appreciated Luke Angel’s candour in telling us what worked and what didn’t.  I made a note of your comments throughout the day and summarise here the key learning points from today:-

·         The model for teaching and learning space design looks the same now as it did 100 years ago.  Very little else in the world has resisted change quite so much.

·         The best way to engage staff in new designs is to identify programs that are already targeted for redesign for some other reason.

·         Too much technology can be terrifying!

·         Innovation can be very expensive and it is difficult to ascertain whether there is a good ROI

·         A framework for evaluating spaces needs to be developed

o   A national framework would be better for benchmarking

o   How do we assess the impact of spaces on student learning as part of the evaluation of the space?

·         Innovative things can be simple changes to existing formats (changing the design of a raked lecture theatre to allow students to turn round and collaborate with others)

·         Exciting spaces can be a great marketing tool but the ‘window of wow’, as Lisa put it, is growing rapidly shorter.

·         Consistency of user interfaces is very important – academic staff find it difficult to move from 1 set up to a completely different setup

·         Getting the engagement from a key group of academics is essential for ensuring that the space is well utilised

·         Radical new approaches to space design need a corresponding change in curriculum (e.g. the new UQ engineering building is using active learning spaces and this is being supported by a new approach to teaching)

·         Be very careful what you build into the walls!  Consider more carefully how you can enable people to bring their own technology with them