Abstract:

Large class sizes in lecture halls or traditional amphitheaters with fixed seating in rows is the everyday life of many students and teachers in higher education. The physical learning environments, learning landscape, thus includes several dimensions besides classrooms, such as buildings, campus, and the surrounding society (Nordquist & Laing, 2015). Furthermore, students often have access to digital learning platforms/ virtual classrooms, where students and teachers for a specific course can communicate with each other and exchange information, documents and media. Many courses combine physical and virtual classrooms and adjust learning strategies to cope with large class sizes and traditional lecture halls.

However, there are emerging new classroom designs and learning strategies to support classroom interaction, active learning or collaborative learning often combined with elements of blended learning or flipped classroom. Active learning strategies are based on the idea that students are involved in more than listening (Prince 2004) supporting inclusion and group discussions, sharing thoughts and analyzing rather than memorizing. The design of active learning classrooms (ALCs) often includes tables with moveable seating, whiteboards, sufficient power outlets and screens to promote sharing and collaborative problem solving (Baepler et al., 2014; Hyun et al., 2017; Rands & Gansmer-Topf, 2017).

The aim of this paper is to explore the implementation and use of ALCs in higher education to identify the experiences of students, faculty, library and university. A case study methodology approach is applied and focused on library-faculty co-designed media and information literacy sessions in ALCs in a bachelor’s programme in business administration at University West, Sweden. Qualitative methods will be applied. Skills in collaborative learning and media and information literacy are of importance in professional life and affect students’ lifelong learning, hence in this paper viewed as applications of the work-integrated learning, WIL, approach of University West where teachers and librarians interact in the new generation classroom.

References:
[1] Baepler, P., Walker, J. D., & Driessen, M. (2014). It's not about seat time: Blending, flipping, and efficiency in active learning classrooms. Computers & Education, 78, 227-236.
[2] Hyun, J., Ediger, R., & Lee, D. (2017). Students' Satisfaction on Their Learning Process in Active Learning and Traditional Classrooms. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 29(1), 108-118.
[3] Nordquist, J., & Laing, A. (2015). Designing spaces for the networked learning landscape. Medical teacher, 37(4), 337-343.
[4] Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of engineering education, 93(3), 223-231.
[5] Rands, M. L., & Gansemer-Topf, A. M. (2017). The room itself is active: How classroom design impacts student engagement. Journal of Learning Spaces, 6(1), 26.

Keywords:

Active learning, ALC, higher education, information literacy, library-faculty collaboration, business administration, WIL.