Announcing the publication of the UK Higher Education Learning Space Toolkit: a SCHOMS, AUDE and UCISA collaboration www.ucisa.ac.uk/learningspace.
Co-authored by one of our FLEXspace Core Members, Simon Birkett, the UK Higher Education Learning Space Toolkit provides guidance for Audiovisual, IT and Estates teams, and demonstrates why the provision of excellent learning spaces should be a strategic, institution-wide concern.
The authors note:
"Two excellent international resources inspired the creation of the Toolkit. The first, the audio visual design guidelines from the Association for Audio Visual and Education Technology Management (AETM), Australia, contain a wealth of well researched material on integrating AV systems into learning spaces3 . The second, FLEXspace (the Flexible Learning Environments eXchange), is an open access repository populated with examples of learning space images and related information from institutions worldwide.
Constructed from interviews from eleven experienced professionals, the Toolkit explores pedagogical principles and their place in learning space design, and gives an honest insight in to the realities of cross-professional working in universities and colleges.
The Toolkit includes advice on: managing a learning space project, working with professional advisors, considerations for particular types of learning space, using learning technologies, the evaluation of learning spaces and changing working practices.
The Toolkit was authored by Dr Gill Ferrell, with guidance from Caroline Pepper, Learning and Teaching Space Manager, Loughborough University and Simon Birkett, IT and Learning Manager, University of Staffordshire (for SCHOMS); Eleanor Magennis, Head of Space Planning, University of Glasgow (for AUDE); and Anna Mathews, Head of Policy and Projects (for UCISA). We have been overwhelmed with the support we have received from colleagues across the sector in the drafting process – publishing the Toolkit truly has been a community effort.
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