Design of the Learning Space: Learning and Design Principles

W hen asked to define t h e “ s p a c e s f o r learning” on campus, most in higher education identify the classrooms or laboratories. These “formal” spaces are usually controlled via parameters such as scheduling requirements, set hours of use, set number of seats, and predetermined learning activity patterns such as lectures or discussions. Though classrooms and laboratories come first to mind, auditoriums, performance rooms, computer labs, and studios are other examples of campus spaces that, under these parameters, can be defined as formal learning spaces. But what about all the other spaces on campus? As Malcolm Brown, of Dartmouth, states in Educating the Net Gen, “Net Gen students, using a variety of digital devices, can turn almost any space outside the classroom into an informal learning space.”1 What, then, becomes the role of spaces such as faculty offices, hallways, plazas, courtyards, dormitories, and food service areas? Designers have traditionally studied courtyards, plazas, and hallways for usage and flow patterns. Learning space designers must now consider the instructional implications of these spaces. Although discussions about these spaces still need to be concerned with usage patterns, a more important issue is: What types of learning activities should be facilitated in these spaces, and what type of infrastructure is needed to support these activities? As students become increasingly digitally literate, higher education also needs to be concerned about the creation and support of virtual learning spaces. Anyone who has stood outside of a class as it is dismissed has witnessed the number of students using