(770) WHAT IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FLIP? WE PUT THE SPOTLIGHT BACK ON THE CLASSROOM TO EXPLORE THE PHYSICAL SETTINGS THAT WILL SUPPORT MEANINGFUL AND MEMORABLE CAMPUS EXPERIENCES FOR TODAY’S STUDENTS

摘要

Like most educational institutions, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia was grappling with what ‘the other side of the flip’ means in a blended learning environment. What will the on-campus learning experiences be, and what kind of learning environments will be required to facilitate them? As a general trend the demand for large capacity tiered lecture theatres is decreasing and being replaced by smaller class sizes that allow richer student-to-student interaction and more teacher-to-student engagement. Architectus was commissioned by Monash to document and categorise a range of these possible future learning spaces. A physical framework was created that directly responded to the University’s pedagogical framework. It became clear early in the process that language descriptors of the physical settings was impeding communication between academics, time-tablers and the facility planners. Subsequently, Architectus established a common language to describe all the types of future learning settings and these became the Monash specific learning space 'modalities'. In parallel another team set out to audit 675 spaces across four campuses - Architectus was able to create a 3D data bank of all spaces. The models generated floor, ceiling and wall square meterage as well as occupancy numbers and condition ratings. The third step was to test the developed modalities against the existing spaces. Architectus developed 3D templates of each of the twelve modalities and proceeded to apply 'test fits' over every existing learning space. More than 8,100 modality tests were completed by this process and the result was a vastly expanded data bank for Monash. Monash used the data generated to develop an online tool for the University. This tool has been utilised by the Buildings and Property Division for future planning, by the timetabling team for suitable room allocation and by the academic team for the development of new course curriculum.