COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IN SPACE AND TIME: BRIDGING THE GAP WITH ALINA

Current research literature in higher education clearly shows an evolution towards innovative teaching and learning methods such as active and collaborative learning, hereby proving the effectivity of these methods in comparison to more traditional lecturing. At the same time, Next Generation Classrooms (NGC) have been appearing worldwide, where teachers and students can interact with each other in a flexible way. However, the link between innovative teaching methods and learning spaces is often missing. Additionally, not all teaching staff are aware of the didactic and organizational possibilities of NGC to support, enrich and empower the learning process. Moreover, the traditional design involved in new buildings and refurbishments, often focusing on classical lecture halls, forces teaching staff to use traditional didactic methods. In Flanders this has led to a vicious cycle: the lack of use of innovative teaching practices reduces the demand for new and flexible rooms, which reinforces the traditional habits of teachers.

The Flanders-wide project ALINA aims to break this vicious cycle by bridging the gap between didactic methods and learning space and creating a framework and inspirational material. Hereby ALINA wants to inspire and change the management and teaching staff of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) and the associated university colleges. In order to do this the project started with a broad survey among teaching staff. This survey shows for instance a tremendous demand of NGC, one that is not met by the current educational facilities. Fed by examples from all over the world, a literature study and several pilot projects, ALINA tries to answer the question on how teaching and management staff can be stimulated to facilitate, create and use next generation classrooms and next generation teaching. A clear vision, well-defined ownership and the collaboration of all involved stakeholders seem to be the keywords for success. Additionally, ALINA developed a model and an accompanying proof-of-concept tool to assist teachers in choosing the right learning space for their didactic method and vice-versa. For management staff, the tool can help to develop a consistent policy about learning spaces by collecting data on the needs of teachers and the available learning spaces. Currently ALINA is disseminating the project results internally, hereby impacting policy decisions concerning educational (re)building projects and inspiring didactical teams to use active learning methods in different contexts. ALINA dreams of expanding this impact and inspiration far beyond the borders of Flanders and Belgium.