Design of Informal Learning Spaces

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Why

Much of a student’s learning—and the interaction that is critical to a student's overall academic success—occurs outside the classroom. These informal learning spaces—libraries, lounges, labs, and cybercafés—are emerging as an important complement to formal learning environments. Increasingly, campuses are creating informal spaces to encourage students to mingle, collaborate, share, and network with other students or faculty. As one institution put it:

"In our shared corridors, lobbies, and outdoor spaces, our architecture should say, 'learning happens here.'" (Nancy Chism, IUPUI)

We invite you to help us explore the design, diversity of use, and impact of informal spaces. Join us as we examine how they can promote student engagement, inquiry, collaboration, and problem solving.

What

Our 2005 Fall Focus Session will bring you together with faculty, administrators, designers, and students to explore the design of informal learning spaces. Among the types of environments we will explore are those designed for:

• group and project work
• individual study between classes
• student-faculty contact outside class
• spontaneous discussions ("think stops")
• multimedia studios and/or production areas
• information commons

All of these spaces enable interchanges between learners, but, more importantly, they allow students to remain engaged between classes—to continue their learning in settings that invite interaction and collaboration.

Session Goals

• Explore the types of informal learning spaces that encourage student interaction and engagement
• Identify the characteristics of these spaces that attract and retain students
• Clarify the technological requirements of such spaces
• Describe the process by which such spaces can be designed
• Explore ways of linking physical and virtual environments, and/or between formal and informal learning

Who Should Attend

This focus session is designed for key campus stakeholders in learning space design and planning. Faculty, staff, and administrators who are interested in exploring the connections between established learning principles and evolving learning spaces are especially encouraged to attend. Participants may include representatives from:

• Information technology
• Planning and finance
• Architecture and facilities management
• Faculty
• Libraries
• Academic administration
• Other areas as determined by your campus or institutional context

We encourage you to attend as a team. Institutions that send a team to a focus session derive the greatest value from the meeting. These teams find ample opportunities for collaboration and are able to better implement what they learn from the focus session on returning to their home institution.

Outcomes

As a result of the focus session we expect that participants will:

• Have an opportunity to explore the principles of informal learning space design in use at their own institution and others
• Identify designs, components, principles, and processes they should consider incorporating into their own informal learning space projects
• Create a shared conceptual framework that:
• guides the development of informal learning spaces
• identifies when and how to incorporate technology
• guides the planning process for informal space
• Establish a community that builds on individual and collective practice