Hybrid learning environments in universities : how to manage the co-creation process from design to use

An identified need to promote hybrid practices in education puts pressure on transforming university learning environments. Current teaching and learning models and approaches include e.g. hybrid and blended learning, flexible scheduling, and attendance, and the learning environments are changing accordingly. To manage these requirements and processes, siloed practices must be overcome, and this requires the engagement of stakeholders such as faculty and facilities management as well as end-users. The goal of this paper is to understand the transformation processes of hybrid learning environments in universities. The method is crosscase analysis. 6 learning environment transformation-to-hybrid cases are analysed. The case studies are conducted in three Finnish universities in 2018-2020. The results indicate that there are three critical factors in the successful transformations towards technology enriched learning environments: 1. The participatory design process which is integrating the digital and physical architecture to serve user needs 2. The training of users to new learning environments 3. Management of support in the use phase. The research provides practical examples and process descriptions of transformation towards hybrid learning environments for the user-centric design experts, facilities managers, and education designers. The research contributes to user-centric design theories as well as learning environment research. Future studies can be conducted by gathering user experiences of hybrid learning processes in new hybrid learning environments and the challenges residing in them.Peer reviewe

Vorsprung durch Technik: multi-display learning spaces and art-historical method

The trajectory and heuristic success of Art History as a discipline has always been inseparably linked to the technical means of visualizing the material that is at its core. When in the late 19th century first analogous, then double-slide projection was introduced, associated methodological opportunities were identified and formalised through debate within the discipline. This led to a profound change in the discipline’s analytical rhetoric, installing vis-à-vis or comparative viewing as the primary mode of art-historical inquiry throughout the 20th century. In contrast, the more recent move to PowerPoint or equivalent linear digital presentation has not received the same form of attention within Art History. Whilst the impact on disciplinary rhetoric is undeniable, the affordances these technologies offer to the analytical frameworks of Art History are not well understood, nor have they been used to develop the discipline’s methodology further. In this paper we examine the intricate relationship between analytical method and mode of visualisation. We begin by examining two types of inquiry prevalent in contemporary art-historical scholarship — semiotics-based visual culture studies and critical iconology — and focus on their specific affordances with regard to subject matter and mode of inquiry. Next, drawing upon our experiences of using Multi-Display Learning Spaces (MD-LS) within postgraduate visual arts education, we consider two types of current digital presentation tools: PowerPoint, which is commonly associated with the linear presentation of sequences of single slides, and Multi-Slides, a multi-display system designed to allow the shared viewing of multiple visual materials simultaneously. We propose that MD-LS, which encourage critical reflection upon displayed material by generating spatial configurations which afford orchestrated interaction between audience and materials, are better suited to facilitate contemporary modes of art-historical inquiry than linear presentation systems, which foster excluding forms of analytical rhetoric. We conclude by proposing the informed use of digital presentation tools to engage actively in the deliberated authoring of perception. We wish to stitch what we term ‘multiple perspective inquiry’, in which the presentation of multiple pieces of visual evidence creates the conditions for complex argumentation within learning and research, into the discipline’s use of visual presentation technology. Finally we explore the implications of this technological shift for thinking about and practicing some of Art History’s most fundamental methods

Vorsprung durch Technik:Multi-display learning spaces and art-historical method

This chapter considers the potential of multi-display learning spaces for mediating art-historical discourse in the context of visual culture studies and postmodern iconology. The discussion examines contemporary 'display ecologies' and their use for knowledge production and presents a comparison to lantern-slide projection and other historical display techniques; it probes the relevance of technological tools for presenting, analyzing and interpreting and their affordances regarding audience participation and construction of a shared analytical experience based on valuing and nurturing multiple perspectives. The discussion is based on an investigation into the use of presentation technologies in ancient art-historical graduate education and emphasizes how technological mediation, analytical method and knowledge production are closely intertwined within disciplinary practice

Affordances of presentations in multi-display learning spaces for supporting small group discussion

Learning and teaching is often supported using presentation software to display pre-authored slides in sequence over time. We wish to consider the pedagogic implications of Multi-Display Learning Spaces (MD-LS), where multiple partitions of presented information overlay a larger area within the physical environment. We discuss the use in university teaching of the Multi-Slides plug-in for popular presentation software, along with multiple projectors, to cascade multiple slides of information simultaneously across two walls of a seminar room. We use examples derived from postgraduate teaching to argue that MD-LS allow for enabling juxtapositions of visual materials — such as evidence, results, conceptual frameworks and task specifications — which can be used by students and tutors as cognitive tools to promote reasoned, argumentational dialogue. We consider the spatial implications for learning, and relate MD-LS to attempts within the literature to conceive classrooms of the future

Decoding learning: the proof, promise and potential of digital education

With hundreds of millions of pounds spent on digital technology for education every year – from interactive whiteboards to the rise of one–to–one tablet computers – every new technology seems to offer unlimited promise to learning. many sectors have benefitted immensely from harnessing innovative uses of technology. cloud computing, mobile communications and internet applications have changed the way manufacturing, finance, business services, the media and retailers operate. But key questions remain in education: has the range of technologies helped improve learners’ experiences and the standards they achieve? or is this investment just languishing as kit in the cupboard? and what more can decision makers, schools, teachers, parents and the technology industry do to ensure the full potential of innovative technology is exploited? There is no doubt that digital technologies have had a profound impact upon the management of learning. institutions can now recruit, register, monitor, and report on students with a new economy, efficiency, and (sometimes) creativity. yet, evidence of digital technologies producing real transformation in learning and teaching remains elusive. The education sector has invested heavily in digital technology; but this investment has not yet resulted in the radical improvements to learning experiences and educational attainment. in 2011, the Review of Education Capital found that maintained schools spent £487 million on icT equipment and services in 2009-2010. 1 since then, the education system has entered a state of flux with changes to the curriculum, shifts in funding, and increasing school autonomy. While ring-fenced funding for icT equipment and services has since ceased, a survey of 1,317 schools in July 2012 by the british educational suppliers association found they were assigning an increasing amount of their budget to technology. With greater freedom and enthusiasm towards technology in education, schools and teachers have become more discerning and are beginning to demand more evidence to justify their spending and strategies. This is both a challenge and an opportunity as it puts schools in greater charge of their spending and use of technolog