The Learning Spaces Working Group takes on a life of its own

Our group came into existence as the working group for the Spring Lane Building, but we’ve since had input on early stages of the Piazza Building development (due for completion in 2017 on Heslington East) and other individual room refurbishments where the opportunity (and funding) has been available.

The Pro Vice-Chancellor for Teaching, Learning and Students, Professor John Robinson, recommended (and the working group agreed) it would be valuable to have a group that continued into the future and led and co-ordinator our learning spaces improvement works, especially as the York Pedagogy implementation moves forward and our learning and teaching styles may alter as a result.

The York campus will undergo significant redevelopment over the next decade and as such the opportunity to modernise our learning spaces. Every year money is spent on renewing the technology, decor, furniture and other elements of learning spaces - and this group will now act as the vehicle to consult, agree and lead this programme of works.

Recommended for inclusion as a sub group of University Teaching Committee:

Scope

“A learning space should be able to motivate learners and promote learning as an activity, support collaborative as well as formal practice, provide a personalised and inclusive environment, and be flexible in the face of changing needs.” - Jisc Designing Spaces for Effective Learning 2006

At the University of York, ‘learning spaces’ includes formal teaching space, dedicated learning space, social learning spaces, IT classrooms and other space whose primary purpose is designated as learning.

Terms of Reference

1. To monitor new developments in learning space within the HE sector and reflect on these in the University of York learning space design principles and recommended standards
2. To understand the needs of teachers and learners in relation to learning spaces to enable and support delivery of and innovation in pedagogy and learning 
3. To inform the campus development plan, ensuring that there is a consistent and coherent approach to learning spaces across the University
4. To develop and maintain a set of learning spaces design principles and recommended standards for use in new or refurbished learning space across the University
5. To work with colleagues across the University, advocating and advising on best practice in learning space design
6. To contribute to the management of learning space across the institution in collaboration with the Head of Space Management and other relevant colleagues
7. To contribute to the annual programme of learning space development in an advisory capacity, including the application of the rolling teaching equipment fund
8. To act as the working group for the Spring Lane and Piazza Building projects
9. To report to University Teaching Committee on development of learning space across the campus

With the Membership

Head of Space Management (Chair)

Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching, Learning and Students

Deputy Director, Information Services

President, Graduate Students Association (GSA)

Academic Officer, University of York Students’ Union (YUSU)

Six members of academic staff (two members from each Faculty), representing the three faculties, as appointed by University Teaching Committee:

currently:

Cathy Dantec (Languages and Linguistic Science)

Simon Sweeney (Management)

Jan Hardman (Education)

Jeanne Nuechterlein (History of Art)

Roddy Vann (Physics)

Vacant (Sciences)

In attendance as required:

Learning Spaces Designer and Project Manager (DECS)

Facilities Manager (DECS)

Project Manager(s) (DECS)

Business Manager (DECS)

Interior Design Consultants

Head of Academic Support Office

Secretary: Space Administrator (DECS)

We welcome your regular feedback and, as we move forward, commit to regularly consulting, via different channels, so that you may directly influence our future learning space design too.

Matt Burton

Chair, Learning Spaces Working Group

New Spring Lane photos and visuals

These great photos by Eve Firth from the Audio Visual team and visuals by Race Cottam show just how quickly the Spring Lane Building building team is starting to bring the designs to life.

The building's circulation areas have an open layout...

...which will be flooded in light thanks to the building's glass roof

The building has a large, open entranceway...

....which will feature bright pops of colour

The lecture theatre is starting to take shape...

...with striking autumnal colours planned for the seating

We have more site visits planned soon, so we'll make sure to keep posting photos as we take them.

Our brief for the Spring Lane Building’s learning technology (audio visual)

The working group has spent some time discussing the type of technology and supporting provision that should be within each space. In an earlier article I covered the lecture theatre but by far the largest provision of technology will be within the seminar rooms: 26 of them in total, representing 520 seats’ worth of space.

Big ideas: the seminar rooms will feature large 'think walls', ensuring there is plenty of board space for group work

Taking on board earlier feedback from academic members of the group, the brief included:

• an integrated workstation that should be part of the furniture provision in the room (ie staff and students in rooms will be in a circle together)
• ample (and maximum) writing board surface at the front of the room, able to operate with the (requested 2.5mtr) screen in the middle
• continuous ‘think walls’ (whiteboards) at the rear of the rooms, allowing group work to take place with lots of board space to use
• future provision for, and integration with, the Lecture Recording (Replay) service as standard
• high-quality hearing loops in the ground and top floors
• more experimental technology within the three seminar rooms above the lecture theatre
• high-quality digital signage around the building, including a welcome/video wall for both University messaging and student use
• suitably ‘bright’ projectors that are fully legible and compliant to recommended viewing standards in the room (size/dimension and distance from front to back of the room)

The AV provision should also be:

• secure by design
• high quality and durable 
• low energy usage (incorporating occupancy detection, etc)

This tender has now concluded and Universal AV were successful in their bid. Steve Jackson (Learning Spaces Projects Manager) and colleagues are now actively engaging with UAV and the builders of the Spring Lane Building, to make sure everything is where it needs to be for successful ‘1st fix’ to commence soon (that’s the cabling, brackets and other bits that go in before the actual hardware).

I’m sure Steve will provide you with more technical detail soon.

All the best,

Matt

Spring Lane Building furniture procurement exercise

As mentioned in previous posts, the Learning Spaces Working Group is passionate about transforming the learning spaces we have on campus - and making a huge wave in this effort through the introduction of the Spring Lane Building.

I often see that furniture is often one of the last elements to a) be decided upon for a building and b) arrive at a building and but also c) be an easy option to cut when money starts running short.

We have a commitment from the Steering Group that both a) and c) will not happen.

As a working group, we have spent a long time exploring what makes a good learning space. Often it is easier to say what doesn't, or what you didn't enjoy. We also received great feedback through the Autumn Term Learning Spaces Roadshows and the direct feedback canvassed for the D/056 and V/044 full refurbishment consultation.

Our Spring Lane learning spaces, in particular the seminar rooms, will be the new generation of size and dimension (applying our new Space Norms). Already the early visitors to the spaces believe they feel ‘large’. Well, without anything in them they are big empty boxes, but, they’re our empty boxes and purpose designed. The furniture will be too.

We have a limited budget but are determined to get the best out of it. After many months of discussion the working group generated the following brief for the procurement exercise. We hope you agree (but if not, please do reply so we keep track of this feedback):

The building and fit out should:

• Be high quality and durable
• Use inspirational design: not institutional or corporate and avoid the traditional (price-driven) table and chairs that are usually bought
• Be esigned for/fit for purpose first, over considerations of flexibility (movement) of furniture
• Encourage people movement rather than furniture movement and thus reduce both time lost in-session and on-going facilities costs
• Fit with the building’s overall natural feel - including the walnut of the doors

We should avoid these features:

• Flip-top chairs
• Plastic backed (non-upholstered) - mesh may be suitable subject to testing
• Centre pivot flip tables
• All the same (even on one floor)

Seminar rooms should:

• Seat (min) 20 people comfortably that allows the whole group to converse together, without any backs to the ‘front’ of the room
• Allow free and easy movement around the room by both student and tutor - eg not have a cluster within a cluster
• Aim to be progressive as far as possible. It is suggested we may pitch for:
• Ground floor ‘traditional’ with more ease of furniture movement - with a view to supporting non-teaching activity eg conferencing or other events we may run
• Middle floor ‘traditional/progressive’  - may be harder to re-arrange furniture, but not impossible
• Top floor ‘progressive’ - fixed furniture design, does what is advertised
• Demonstrate larger capacities without compromising the above
• Where possible, integrate the AV console into the design, so the tutor is part of the discussion in addition to the ability for stand-up presentation
• Where possible, offer integrated power solutions and safely tether to the provided power in the room

Experimental learning spaces

Further to the main seminar rooms, the three learning spaces above the lecture theatre are our opportunity to support new learning styles. We welcome truly creative opportunities that embrace technology - for example, interactive workshop space with technology enabled group working.  For these the capacity should be around 30 student.

Social learning spaces

The Deputy Director of Information is leading this area of the design - utilising the recent years of developments in the Library, and success therein, to build on.

The furniture tender is now live and we will be engaging with the successful company over the next few months, including open sessions, to select the products that will define York learning spaces and your experience. Your feedback will be invaluable in this process.

Matt

Hendrix Hall and Vanbrugh V/045 Lecture theatre board upgrades

As part of the work to define the teaching and learning provision within the Spring Lane Building, we spent a lot of time working through the lecture theatre design. In particular, Dr Roddy Vann (Natural Sciences Programme Director) has been extremely active - especially within the Sciences community - to canvas views, test existing facilities and input into the type of provision required.

A genuine challenge that we were unable to overcome within the Spring Lane Building theatre, given the size, was the writing board provision at the front of the theatre and visibility/legibility at the back.

The working group concluded that it would not be possible to provide a high-quality learning experience with traditional writing boards that move up and down. Instead, we will pioneer new camera and board technology in the Spring Lane lecture theatre and project this using the two six metre wide projection screens that will be installed. A smaller ‘scribble’ board (a few meters in size and mobile) will be provided for smaller lectures where this may be useful.

Many of our lectures that would ideally like a lot of teaching board real-estate are around the 150-250 size range and housed in other lecture theatres on campus. Feedback in some of these - notably the Exhibition Centre P/X/001, Derwent Hendrix Hall and Vanbrugh V/045 - is not always great for a number of reasons such as board surface wear, manual handling issues or lack of free movement (pressing a motorised button instead), or not enough board space.

Acting upon this feedback, the Steering Group has recommended that these theatres are upgraded.

We are happy to say, in adjusting the investment programme for this year, we will upgrade the boards in Hendrix Hall and install new boards in V/045 by the Summer! P/X/001 is a much bigger project, given the size of the room and the existing facilities. As such, it has been recommended to include this in the major works/capital programme for the next financial year as a ‘focused estates investment’ - looking at every element of the fabric of the space with a view to transforming the learning and teaching experience.

Thank you for your feedback on this - and particular to Dr Vann who has passionately championed the cause.

Matt

Spring Lane Building update - April 2016

It has been a while since our last update, but we have lots to report!

The Learning Spaces Working Group has been meeting regularly to firm up lots of design issues, including:

• Colour scheme of the building and finishes - we’re opting for neutral and natural, introducing autumnal colour via the furniture scheme and to define each level of the building
• Ensuring adequate power provision in each seminar room (sockets across two walls), the lecture theatre (one socket between two seats) and around the building in the informal spaces
• Choosing suitable floor coverings - carpet swatches galore!
• Preventing disturbance to the seminar rooms by relocating hand dryers in the toilets to adjacent walls
• Acoustic ‘baffle’ design (these stop the building from echoing on the various levels)
• Lots of Audio Visual Technology input for each type of learning spaces (keep an eye out for a future post on procurement)
• Recommending to the steering group we allocate three ‘experimental’ learning spaces on the top floor of the building (adjacent to the informal study/library space) to support the next generation of delivery
• Defining the brief for the furniture procurement exercise (there is lots of it, so just like the technology we invite competitive tenders to achieve best value for money for the University)
• Defining which rooms will have full blackout (1/3rd of them), and agreeing internal blinds/viewing panels on doors and windows - allowing good visibility of the vibrancy of the building, but also supporting classes that need a blackout for their function
• Agreeing dual projection for the lecture theatre, the sizing of the screens and to introduce our first ‘writing surface’ capture (rather than big boards at the front which may be hard to see from the back)
• Discussing the relocation of a sculpture by Barbara Hepworth to the street level of the building (more on this in a future blog post)

We’re putting the building’s look, feel and function at the heart of every decision that we make, and learning from what works well (or doesn’t) on campus to achieve the best possible outcome for the staff and students.

There's lots to see from the outside of the building - the brickwork is looking great and the full glazed walls down the side of the building are being hung - and things are really starting to take shape inside too:

The glass roof is in place, and floods the building with lots of natural light

The lecture theatre (housed in the brick-clad portion of the building)

A 'social learning area' with a view!

A sneak peek at the impressive views above the tree tops

As always, we’d love to hear your comments and feedback. You can reach us on learning-spaces@york.ac.uk.  

Matt Burton Chair, Learning Spaces Working Group

Your thoughts on V/N/044 and D/056

I thought it would be nice to share some statistics with you relating to some feedback we received after our surveys on V/N/044 and D/056. 

Over a week-long period, we emailed all users of the rooms, asking them to complete an online survey of their experience in the room on that day and give their feelings on our concept designs for the room.

D/056 (Derwent)

We want to replace the rows of traditional and worn-out tablet chairs with two levels of tiered seating and larger tables to aid a collaborative style of learning.

D/056 as it looks now

How it could look

Survey feedback

The pie charts show that our proposal is favourable compared to the current space, although it has raised some comments which we will take on board for the next stage of design.

V/N/044 (Vanbrugh)

Our concept design for V/N/044 keeps a similar table layout to the existing configuration, but introduces diagonal tables to create an open horseshoe shape.

V/N/044 as it looks now

Our proposed layout

Survey feedback

Again, the pie charts look positive, although we did have fewer respondents to this survey.

What next?

The refurbishment of these rooms is scheduled for after Easter and into the Summer Term, so there’s still time to have your say and help to shape these learning spaces. Just email your thoughts to learning-spaces@york.ac.uk.

Steve Jackson Learning Spaces Designer/Project Manager

Space Management