ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app

Raymond 1-042

  • Location:
  • Capacity: 40 students
  • Type: Active learning lab

Alignment with principles for designing Teaching and Learning Spaces

Academic Challenge

Promote individual, active engagement with content.

Layout

Flexible furniture allows students to work individually or in teams of three to six people. Each table has ample work surfaces for classroom materials (e.g., notebooks, laptops, and textbooks). Ten moveable tablet chairs also permit increased capacity and individual or group work.

Furniture

Comfortable, adjustable-height chairs on wheels permit students to work individually or in groups. Whiteboards on the walls facilitate group work.

Technologies

Access to resources: LMS, internet (via student laptops, local PC, and SMART boards), wireless display, five out of ten tables have outlets for student laptops. Multiple SMART boards and monitors for simultaneous display of different learning materials.

Lighting & colour

Natural and overhead lighting permits individual work during or outside of laboratory and class sessions. Blue and yellow accents brighten the room.

Photograph of a classroom in Raymond 1-042
Row layout, facing front of the classroom (photo by Owen Egan).

Ìý


Learning with peers

Promote active engagement with one another.

Layout

Flexible furniture promotes face-to-face communication and group work. Students can easily circulate in the lab due to sufficient passing space between tables and discrete rooms for scientific equipment. Unobstructed sightlines.

Acoustics: Sound zones support multiple simultaneous conversations among students.

Furniture

Chairs on wheels permit students to turn and discuss with those nearby, supporting a variety of collaborative learning approaches. Tables and tablet chairs allow students to work together collaboratively in small groups of up to six.

Technologies

Shared workspaces with six moveable whiteboards and four fixed whiteboards on the walls.

Lighting & colour

Different lighting patterns and levels support different learning activities.

Photograph of a classroom in Raymond 1-042
Group work layout (photo by Owen Egan).


Experiences with faculty

Promote interaction and communication.

Layout

Instructor’s podium has plenty of space for all equipment and for the instructor’s materials. The room is also equipped with a small, mobile podium. The instructor has access to all students due to a layout that permits ample passing space, and clear sightlines.

Acoustics: Sound zones ensure that not only are students able to hear the instructor, but that the instructor is also able to hear the students. Audio amplification (i.e., gooseneck microphone) is also available for instructors.

Furniture

The podium does not interfere with sightlines or movement, and has a large surface for instructional materials.

Technologies

Multiple classroom technology sources (document camera, local PC, wireless display etc.), two monitors, and two SMART boards permit display of different learning materials.

Lighting & colour

Lighting patterns support multiple types of teaching tasks.

Photograph of a classroom in Raymond 1-042
View from instructor's podium (photo by Owen Egan).


Contributions to the campus environment

Labs that incorporate elements of active and collaborative learning are part of a vision for a variety of flexible campus learning spaces. This room is designed for all populations using the space: well-lit, with a standardized room control panel that simplifies instructors’ use of equipment in classrooms across campus. IT is consistent with teaching and learning needs, and durable furniture contributes to sustainability efforts.ÌýBoth physical and virtual affordances help maximize High Impact Practices (HIPs) for student learning within and beyond this classroom.


McGill University is on land which has served and continues to serve as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. Teaching and Learning Services acknowledges and thanks the diverse Indigenous peoples whose footsteps mark this territory on which peoples of the world now gather. This land acknowledgement is shared as a starting point to provide context for further learning and action.

Back to top