Learning Spaces: A Unique Approach at

Carleton College

VRA ConferenceMarch 18, 2010

Heidi EyestoneVisual Resources Curator

Curricular Uses of Visual Materials: A Mixed-Method Institutional Study

Andrea Lisa NixonHeather Tompkins

Paula Lackie

http://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/support/research/CUVMStudy/

Research Question

• Are the sources of support that the College provides well suited to the work demanded of students and faculty as they make curricular use of visual materials?

Standing on the Shoulders...• Studying Students: The Undergraduate

Research Project at the University of Rochester (Foster & Gibbons, 2007)

• Mapping diary

• Photo survey

• Co-Viewing/Co-Listening exercises

• Flip-Chart exercise

• Detailed and authentic feedback

• Film Short Creation - 100 level course experience in visual storytelling through the creation of a video

• Group Presentation - 200 level course required two-person teams about species in Carleton’s arboretum

• Film Analysis - 100 level course with enrollment limited to first-year students during their first term

• Science Writing - 200 level course included term-long project culminating in writing a scientific article that relied on color-coded maps student created.

Student Hours Logged Across Cases

Case Study Recommendations:• Curricular support is not just for students who

are struggling

• Communication

• Course-specific instruction

• Supplemental training for high-end tools

• Identify and advertise sources of support

• Support students in places and times they work

• Careful design of work environments

Survey Results

Where Students Work

Student Reported Sources of Support

Support for a Challenging Assignment by Class Year

Support for a Challenging Assignment by Class Year

When Students Work

When Students Seek Assistance by Class Year

Sources of Support by Times of Day (Scale Change)

Aligning Learning Space Design and Student Work: Research

Implications for Design Processes and Elements

Andrea Lisa NixonAndrea Lisa NixonEducause Quarterly Vol. 32, No. Educause Quarterly Vol. 32, No.

1, 20091, 2009

• Effective learning space design should be rooted in an understanding of the ways in which students engage a campus.

• Research suggests that there are significant differences in the ways students report seeking curricular support based on their class year. This finding has important implications for learning space design.

• Students seek different characteristics of learning spaces depending on the type of assignment they are working on.

• Campus learning space design must align with the curriculum and student work.

Characteristics of Study LocationsCharacteristics of Study Locations

Implications for Study Spaces

• Writing assignments (text analyses, essays, research papers, & short essays) sought comfortable furniture, solitary, quiet spaces, and wireless access at greater rates

• Other assignments (problem sets, image creation, lab assignments, exams, presentation) reported seeking study spaces with “help nearby” at a greater rates

Departmentally-Based Support Communities

• Departmental space with desks allocated to seniors

• Support community that extended beyond the class for using high-end tools “where you go and wait for a senior to come who knows how to use Illustrator.”

• Implications for thinking of both campus-wide spaces and departmentally focused ones

Outcomes for Staff at Carleton

• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, in part, for implementation of coordinated support model

• Considering metaphors: project management to production meeting

• Professor develops a new assignment

• Teams of staff assembled to discuss and plan support with the professor

• Support teams schedule and program assignment support throughout the term

Framing the Conversation

• Creative collaborations between faculty and staff members in the development of assignments are the points at which the curriculum meets the support structure of the College.

The Arts Union and Idea Lab

Arts Union and Idea Lab

• Track changes in assignment type

• Plan assignments with professors

• Track your users use of your facility and ask them what they want

• Cross train staff to support technical or visual assignment projects

• Have students staff later hours when students want to work

• Collaborate with other staff and your trained student workers on your own production meetings

• Foster your department support hubs

• Replace office furniture with comfy chairs, large flat panel video screen or whiteboard

• Ask your users what their favorite places are to study and why

For Further Information

• Full research report and materials: go.carleton.edu/cuvm

• Aligning Learning Space Design and Student Work: Research Implications for Design Processes and Elements. EDUCAUSE Quarterly Magazine, Volume 32, Number 1, 2009

• Andrea Nixon: anixon@carleton.edu