paper -
63 Innovative Engineering Learning Center: Design Concepts and Outcomes
Anthony
Jones, University of Pittsburgh
John Murphy, University of Pittsburgh
The Chemical & Petroleum Engineering Department at
the University of Pittsburgh has implemented a new learning center designed to
facilitate and promote team-based classroom activities, support computer
facilitated classroom exercises consistent with active and collaborative
learning pedagogies and ensure good visibility and interactivity between
students and the professor.
The Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department at
the University of Pittsburgh established the following design and operational
goals for a new learning center:
1. Facilitate and promote team-based classroom
activities.
2. Support computer facilitated classroom exercises
consistent with active and collaborative learning pedagogies.
3. Ensure good visibility and interactivity between
students and the professor, as well as between students.
4. Provide a central "hub" for all classes
offered by the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department.
5. That the facility be a distinctive and unique
asset.
The path to achieving these goals started with
extensive benchmarking of other universities who had built advanced classroom
facilities. While many institutions
helped form the database of "best practices", a special thank you is
due to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) [1], the Chemical Engineering
Department-University of Massachusetts at Amherst [2], and Arizona State
University [3]. The willingness of
these institutions to share concepts, designs and their experiences was most
helpful in the superb outcome for the Learning Center that is described in this
presentation.
The positive results from team-based and active
learning assessments that were emerging from the National Science Foundation
sponsored trials with the Foundation Collation [4] and the experience at RPI
[5] dictated that the learning center layout and the audio/visual and computer
systems support these pedagogical strategies.
The presentation will address the effectiveness of the learning center in achieving the design goals, and summarizes student and faculty feedback and performance based on their experiences in the learning center.
Keywords: team-based activities, collaborative learning, active learning, networking.