Oregon State’s Learning Innovation Center (LInc) is featured in the “Designing for the Active Classroom” article that is authored by Andrea Wilkerson and Robert Davis with the Pacific Northwest National lab and Amy Donohue with Boora Architects. (click to view full article)

Posted on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy’s Energy.gov site, this article is based on work that was sponsored by the DOE SSL (Solid State Lighting) Program.

This article highlights The Active Learning Classroom as the new direction in pedagogy, which is intended to “move students beyond passive lower order thinking skills, such as remembering and understanding information, to active higher order thinking skills, such as analyzing, critiquing and creating.”  This new direction in pedagogy focuses on fostering student-faculty engagement, maximizing time for learning and anticipating change.

As the authors state, “In this article, we will explain how new architectural approaches that embody these three traits are being implemented in the new Oregon State University (OSU) Learning Innovation Center (LINC). The focus will be on the 600-seat arena classroom and the 72-seat active learning studio at OSU.

• “In the 600-seat arena classroom at OSU, a round configuration collapses the distance typically separating student from instructor in a large lecture hall. In this teaching space, one is never more than eight rows or 30 ft from the professor, trumping Laurence Olivier’s classic rule of acting within 65 ft of the last row of the audience. “
• “Facial modeling and the direction of light are critical factors for facultystudent engagement, and accomplishing this in the 600-seat arena classroom where students are looking at a speaker from every direction elevates the difficulty. Dynamic lighting that tracks the presenter can facilitate student focus and engagement, making barely perceptible adjustments as the speaker moves around the room. Adequate vertical illuminance on the face of a student who raises a hand to ask a question helps the presenter quickly notice the student and more easily read the learning curve required for new presentation technology and classroom layouts such as the arena classroom. In fact, the arena classroom at OSU will not be used for classes during the first semester so that the Instructional Resource Center can train professors how to effectively use the new space. “
• “The learning studio at Oregon State University supports a class of 72 students in a wide array of coursework, often working in groups of three or nine. The instructor has a home base but often moves about the room working with small groups on problem solving. Like an architecture studio, the lecture time is minimized while individual or small group discussion is the focus. Interactive boards surround the room, connected to each round table of nine students. Results from small group efforts can be broadcast to the room, enabling students to learn from one another while guided by the instructor.”