Creating Connections in Higher Education

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Creating Connections in Higher Education

Gatto, Amanda

URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10429/2063

Date: 2020-09-14

Abstract:

Educational developers are the root system of higher education; not often seen, but they keep teaching and learning alive and healthy. They do this by creating connections between people, places, and ideas. Their methods are research-based and experimental. They act as counselors, colleagues, and confidants to faculty members. Educational developers study pedagogy and implement this into how we learn each day as students on campus. They work with faculty and students to ensure that learning is optimized. This thesis investigates how learning creates connections, who educational developers are, and what their spatial needs are. Focusing on the University of Windsor campus located in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, a new hub was designed to house educational developers and encourage a variety of learning types. To acquire this information, literature review, campus studies, interviews, questionnaires, tactile installations, and workshops were used. Key issues that were identified were lack of identity, lack of connections, lack of space, and lack of collaboration. The goal of the design is to create an identity on campus for educational developers and to create a stronger connection to campus.

Description:

innovative teaching techniques through a variety of methods. At the University of Windsor, located in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, educational development occurs between the Centre for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Open Learning. This thesis learning through asking who, what, where, when, why, and how. Based in theories of learning by Vygotsky and Piaget, learning defined as is both an individual experience, driven by one’s own curiosity and self-motivation, and a social experience, driven by those around us. Learning is a multi-disciplinary occurrence; we gain knowledge and connect it to past experiences which expands what we know. Learning occurs in spaces that can be grouped in 3 categories defined by Thornburg, a learning theorist, as the campfire, the watering hole, and the cave. The campfire is a place where knowledge is shared by a person, originally through storytelling and now often through lectures. The watering hole is a place where collaboration occurs, and thoughts are shared among equals. The cave is a place where one can isolate themselves to reflect on their findings, ask questions, and work through information. Currently around the world the COVID-19 pandemic is closing schools to reduce gathering sizes. This puts more strain on professors to teach effectively Online. It is educational developers who help ease this strain by providing platforms for new teaching techniques both Online and in person. They bridge the gap between professors and students by facilitating new teaching techniques. To understand the current climate on campus, human movement was mapped, spaces were studied, meetings, questionnaires, and workshops occurred with educational developers, and models were built. As class sizes grow larger and the number of professors grow smaller, along with rapid leaps in technology used in teaching, the need for educational developers is high. Experimenting with boundaries of public, collaborative, and private space required for learning, the educational development centre makes connections between staff, faculty, and students. Located at an entry to campus, the building creates a connection and focus on the importance and value of learning. Expressing the architecture representations of learning through signage, visible work areas, flexible rooms that can adapt to a variety of learning scenarios begins to show how architecture can enhance learning. Connections are emphasized throughout the building and the campus. Architectural representations of space can change the way we teach and learn and improve the way we pass knowledge onto others. Although the current political climate challenges the pedagogy of individual learning, by offering a centre to unify faculty, staff, and students to challenge standard higher education practiced and encourage flexibility and collaboration, opportunities for improved learning can still be implemented.

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