Revise

Through our design philosophy, we were able to convey our goals and beliefs to a variety of stakeholders. In many instances, people involved went out of their way to help us build a collaborative learning classroom. We found that the stakeholders were almost as excited as we were about the prospect of having a new kind of teaching and learning space on campus, a space that could be a model for other renovated classrooms in the future. This section references not only the return of the gaming area to the project, but also the inclusion of Sound Domes and ClassSpot (two firsts at our university) to facilitate collaborative learning.

Our Communication Studies department had initially been informed that the video game breakout room could not be built due to cost concerns. Months later at a March meeting, Media Services provided us with a sketch that reinserted the gaming area (with couches, tables, and divider screens). In an email, I asked Media Services for clarification on how this decision had come to pass.

View from Media Services: James Wilson, Director and Chief Engineer, and Justin Fowler, Engineer

“We heard that the breakout rooms would not happen because of cost. The initial idea was to build a separate room which would require building walls and re-doing the HVAC system. It was off the table for a while and we brought the idea back by saying 'why does the game room have to be completely closed off? Can't we just keep an open concept and use moveable dividers to section off the room?' We thought some sort of wall was necessary to block off the students in the game room to keep from distracting the rest of the class but didn't feel you needed to construct a completely sectioned off room to do it.

This is also a key reason the Sound Domes were implemented so students could have a game room, in an open concept, without distracting others around them. Again it came down to doing what we could to meet the requests of faculty while staying within budget” (Wilson and Fowler 2013).

At the early spring meeting we were also told that our classroom could feature ClassSpot, a system that encourages collaborative work spaces and file sharing. We had been looking at this system for years, but it had always proved cost prohibitive. In an email, I asked David Lees, executive director, Academic Technology and Distributed Learning for details.

View from Academic Technology and Distributed Learning: David Lees, Executive Director

“We began looking at Tidebreak’s ClassSpot a few years ago for collaborative class spaces. Unfortunately, at the time ClassSpot was too expensive to purchase and maintain. The university has experimented with some other options for collaboration, ranging from basic hardwired switching devices to an experiment with WOWvision this upcoming summer. The university decided to use ClassSpot in 174 because it was the best match for the faculty members functionality and the pricing structure of the product can now be supported by the university. The decision is usually made by IT trying to meet faculty needs with products that are affordable and can be affordably maintained. Annually, IT requests capital funding to upgrade existing classrooms. The university will continue to add collaborative learning spaces in the future. These rooms are much more expensive than traditional classrooms. We are considering that about 10% of the university teaching spaces will need to incorporate collaborative teaching technologies in the not too distant future” (Lees 2013).