Active Learning Classrooms

The majority of the GA classrooms at UC Berkeley assume that the primary mode of course delivery is through the lecture. This is maintained most often through fixed seating, the installation of a blackboard, presentation screen and a stage or lectern at the "front" of the class, and no technology support for the students. With the addition of technology, we have greatly enhanced the ability for faculty to easily integrate rich media such as videos or the internet, but the classroom delivery and "design" essentially remains the same, constraining faculty and students alike.

Active learning classrooms (ALC) are teaching and learning spaces that allow faculty to move their course design beyond the lecture. The room design, flexible furniture, writing surfaces, and technology, support professors in engaging with their students through the integrated use of media and collaborative learning activities. Active learning classrooms facilitate diverse sizes and groupings of students, creating a flexible and supportive environment for a class to transition seamlessly between a professor's lecture and facilitated student group work. These rooms enable options for supporting the myriad of ways in which professors teach and students learn.

ETS is presently embarking on designing two ALCs for fall semester, supported by the Campus Classroom Committee on Policy and Management. The first room is located in Evans Hall, room 340, in the Statistics department. Statistics is partnering with ETS to create this new learning environment that includes the installation of a/v technology, adding flexible furniture, new lights, ceiling, and a fresh coat of paint. Professor Nolan, who was the chair of the report "The Case for Active Learning Classrooms" related to the Moffitt Library redesign (there are 4 general assignment classrooms in Moffitt), has committed her teaching practice to embrace active learning principles. She will be just one of the champions for active learning principles in her department.

The second classroom is the renovation of ETS' aging videoconference room, Dwinelle 127. In 1995 the facility was the state-of-the-art videoconference and distance education classroom. With changing technologies and priorities, the classroom will be transformed into a collaboration "test kitchen" where technology is easy to-use and intuitive to the end user, and the physical space is inviting and flexible providing more substantive opportunities for instructors to be innovative in their teaching, and students to engage actively in the teaching and learning process.

Based on the results of these pilot ALC projects, ETS will partner with instructors trying out new technologies, evaluate their effectiveness for various teaching and learning formats, and the campus will learn more about learning space configurations that may be applied to departmental and general assignment (GA) spaces in the future. The transformation of these classrooms greatly reflects the ETS values around "leading with teaching and learning", "innovation with purpose" and "partnering for impact."