LBCC: Active Learning Classrooms Proposed

Photo courtesy of Steelcase

Imagine a classroom with wheeled desks and chairs, rolling whiteboards, personal tablets, and multiple projection points for instructor presentations. This month, LBCC will find out if requests for Active Learning Center Grants will be approved.

Gone are the days of row seating facing an instructor podium - at least in the six active learning classrooms proposed. Designed with "U" shape seating and moveable instructor stations, the classrooms will encourage communication and group work. 

Liz Pearce, department chair for education/child family studies, has the support of administration and 31 fellow faculty to develop these interactive and collaborative environments. Instructors will soon have the choice of a classroom without rows. 

"When you walk into a room and you see the setup it tells you how to behave. It has to do with setting a tone when people sit in the room," said Pearce.

The idea behind the structuring of these classrooms is to encourage greater effort from students and better learning outcomes. Some instructors design their classes to involve discussion among students, and active learning classes are arranged to support that teaching style. With moveable white boards, podiums and desks, instructors can choose the setup best suited for their curriculum. 

For over a year, Pearce has been working to get funds for these enhanced classrooms. On April 15, LBCC will find out if a $50,000 grant from Steelcase will fund transformation of three classrooms. A second $50,000 grant requested from Strategic Initiative, a department inside of LBCC, will determine if additional classrooms will follow.

Fifteen schools will be selected to receive the Steelcase grant. LBCC was one of 548 to apply. If granted, it will pay for the movable furniture needed to get classrooms ready for use by fall of 2016. The Strategic Initiative grant will be decided this term, and if approved, will pay for 30 tablets for each of the six proposed classrooms.

LBCC currently has 56 general purpose classrooms for arts, humanities, communication and social sciences. Many of them have evolved little to none in the last few decades. Lecture classroom IA-231, for example, had out-dated aesthetics and chunky furniture making rearrangement and group discussion difficult. 

This term IA-231 got it's debut as the prototype for the first collaborative learning environment on campus. Mark Urista, communication department chair, has already noticed change using the classroom for his Interpersonal Communication class. Not only does he observe more talking among students before class begins, he also notices a change in discussion dynamics.

"Overall, students appear engaged during lecture, small group discussions and our large class discussions," said Urista. 

If approved, the grants will give LBCC the means to update floors, paint, and lightening in proposed classrooms to compliment the modern makeover. Digital tools help minimize student cost with personal tablets giving them access to online textbooks.

"Our tablet and device use in the classroom puts us in real-time connection with every article in every journal our library subscribes to," Pearce wrote in the grant proposal. "We plan to use the flexible environment to support the creation of socially and intellectually interactive community."

Multiple projection points in the classrooms will assure that no matter where a student sits they can see the instructor's presentation. An instructor tablet controls the presentation allowing teachers to walk around the classroom during lecture. 

"Some students may be in seats that make it difficult for them to see the whiteboard I’m writing on. However, this challenge has been addressed by adding multiple whiteboards that can be moved around the classroom," said Urista.

Pearce is hopeful that requests for financial support will help LBCC create tailored learning spaces.

"I really think LBCC can be a cutting-edge college this way, we just don't have the finances to support us."