CHANGING LANDSCAPES OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS IN JAPANESE UNIVERSITIES Prospect Environment-behavioral Studies of Informal and Formal Learning Spaces

摘要

The learning environments in Japanese universities areinevitably changing. Such a change includes both formal andinformal learning spaces. Qualitative methods were used tostudy several learning commons spaces in Japanese universitiesand two Problem Based Learning (PBL) courses in MieUniversity. The results showed that a learning commons needsto cater for the emerging needs of a new generation ofmultitasked users. Traditional classrooms are outdated andinappropriate to conduct PBL. Effective new learning spacesneeds to be innovative, flexible, collaborative and IT Enriched.