Research+Findings

Our research goals are to:**
 * Summarize the key ideas from your readings and add your name in brackets after each comment.
 * **Identify specific methods to integrate service delivery across the LRCs**
 * **Identify specific examples of and opportunities for collaboration with Faculty & Student Services**
 * **Note best practices for learning commons**
 * **Note best practices for marketing of learning commons**
 * **Note best practices for space design**
 * // Please add your summary notes under each of our six "major deliverables" below: //

1. REDESIGN OF LRC SERVICE & RESOURCE DELIVERY

A. Process we might use to do this **

1. Make our SLC leaders' meetings more about **creating/developing** rather than just reporting out/sharing, focusing on "developing clear policies & procedures for spaces, operations, and services; determining LC needs for everything from space & equipment, opportunities for collaboration, staff training and development, solutions to problems, new or additional resources, to program and service priorities; updating and reporting on emerging trends and patterns; undertaking joint planning to ensure that programs are integrated when feasible; fill unanticipated needs; make suggestions for continued evolvement . . . " [Heather]

2. Looking to the goals & desired outcomes of this project, conducting a self-assessment to **identify & assess effectiveness of current services and collaboration** (see "Current LRC Services & Collaboration" wiki page) Begin to identify redundancies, opportunities to merge functions or collaborate more closely, take advantage of special expertise, etc. Identify service gaps and/or deficiencies. [Sharon]

3. Redesign LRC service & resource delivery.

4. Develop a staff training & development program. Our roles will likely change as we begin to merge, or better align, our services. We need to anticipate these changing roles, and get out in front of them with appropriate professional development. [Rachel]

Continue to try to do some **retreat/cross training** between programs, in addition to what we've started. Increase the flexibility of our staff to move up and downstairs and help in different places? One source mentions "staff-driven re-organization that involved numerous workshops, activities, retreats and meetings and consequently resulted in a shared vision and values statement." That would be a pretty large change for us, but perhaps what is needed to **truly integrate**. Our "reception" folks ar the ones who see our students first, and they are, perhaps, the least knowledgable about other programs' functions. [ Heather] 10% cross-training rule makes me a little nervous (with such turnover, perhaps the one 10% that has a specific knowledge area leaves . . . but I like the idea that not everyone needs to know everything, but that there are **pockets of knowledge**. AT least, they should know who the contact folks are who do know. [ Heather]

Have greeters at a general location to help student navigate where they can go to get the help they need. Have staff walking around working areas for the same purpose. [Shannon]

5. Consider administration of LC. Recommend staffing levels & realignments across the LRC division. A couple of interesting ways at looking at admin of the LC: "operational management group," "unit managers/leaders," and "co-directors" [Heather]


 * B. Specific Examples of and Opportunities for Collaboration with Faculty & Student Services **

1. Redesign and/or realign existing physical spaces and proposal for new spaces. //(major deliverable)// Development of space that allows for more **casual interactions between students/faculty/staff**, preferably with food and/or coffee: " A learning commons would most likely also provide food service, maintaining the strong customary association of food with sociability and dialogue" (Sommerville). Learning Commons Java Lounge? [Heather]

2. Part of redesign of LRC service & resource delivery.
 * Work with faculty to address pedagogy issues:** The delivery model at Guelph includes **Supplemental**: outside course context; generic study, research, etc. skills, **Integral**: course-related; tailored to discipline, ** Embedded ** : skill building embedded in the curriculum AND use of **student peer educators** “students helping students fosters student growth and academic development and provide opportunities for students to become engaged in meaningful ways with their peers and with the institution” In addition, 21st Century Learning Principles are outlined in the WA Facilities of the Future draft and the Learning Pyramid (explaining active learning concepts, e.g. that learners better assimilate by saying and doing rather than passively reading) is outlined in The Information Commons Handbook. [Sharon]


 * Bring together in one place resources for student and faculty learning: integrate a faculty center ** into a new learning commons building; in the interim, look for ways to **collaborate with Professional Development Coordinator**. See details in “The Learning Commons at Colorado College” article. [Sharon]

Encourage Faculty to have their office hours (or part of them) in our spaces. Maybe students would be more likely to visit their instructors if the meeting location was more informal (not an office) and it was in a location they are use to visiting already. Maybe we could have a reservable area for faculty to sit, work and talk with studnts. [Shannon]

Also as part of a larger discussion - perhaps we need to evaluate the "Agrarian Educational Model", i.e., 5 day a week, 50 minute class session delivery minimizes everybody's availability. [Roberto]

Bring events, exhibits,etc. into our spaces. Is a certain class doing a fun/interesting project? Can we display them for other classes to see and learn from? [Shannon]


 * C. Best Practices from the Literature...** //guiding principles for "Redesign of LRC service & resource delivery"??//

LC as primarily being about students: a place for "student learning/peer collaboration," reciprocal teaching opportunities, cognitive apprenticeships. . . [Heather]

A place where Universal Design for Learning drives practice (they didn't use this concept in the readings, but the following reflects the same thing to me: **“**All students should be able to access facilities and fully participate in learning, formally and informally, in face-to-face formats or with the use of technologies." [Heather]

Using the "**Educational Model"** (as opposed to the "counseling" model): the educational **model is** proactive and holistic, encouraging student independence and self -directedness."(Schmidt). [Heather]

The “Condition of the physical facility is subordinate to the programmatic changes” (Diggs) [Heather]

A learning commons must be capable of **accommodating frequently changing learning tasks** that students define for themselves - "like an academic playground of sorts." Great concept--but how do we do that? how do we create spaces that feel like this? [Heather]

The University of Guelph (Schmidt) avoids the "tutoring" word and instead has several programs like "Supported Learning Groups" (absolutely intriguing to me, and perhaps a way to merge the LC with the SI efforts?), "Learning Services" (this looks like study skills help, test prep, workshops on things like time management, etc.), an area for students with disabilities (I see this as what the UDL group is thinking of developing--I space where studetns/fac/staff can learn and use access technologies), Research/info literacy help (reference desk?), writing & ESL help (their writing center?). This is a unique set of program descriptions could challenge us to rethink our practices. . . [Heather]


 * Staff involvement, cross-training and co-location: ** Indicators for success in servicing a collaborative learning environment include cross training, increased spending, and changes in administrative structure. **Cross training** was the most common indicator of success, with 82% of the institutions surveyed reporting that they provided cross-training opportunities. Most important to the success of the learning commons: **level of staff involvement and commitment.** Simply **co-locating staff** helped to breakdown institutional silos and encouraged shared problem solving. [Sharon]

I have successfully done cross training with my staff. [Roberto] Actions must be strategically aligned ** with the college’s core values and learning-centered goals to ensure support & buy-in [Sharon]


 * Support social resources ** : “students who learn in small groups demonstrate greater academic achievement” [Sharon]

Use of **peer educators**, see Simon Fraser Learning Commons website. [Sharon]

We need to be **client focused instead of service focused** [Shannon] I agree! We should market our services based on student need; for example, instead of marketing "research databases" we should market "full-text articles to support your research assignments"... well, less verbose than that. [Sharon]

Some important concepts to keep in mind: [Shannon]
 * Flexibility and Adaptability is important.
 * Students must be receiving a quality user experience
 * Community pride is important to success
 * Design should be around knowledge creation

From "Collaborative design: a learner-centered library planning approach": "...the most successful projects reflect customization of the commons concept, which must **continue to adapt and evolve** appropriate to particular campus circumstances in order to meet changing expectations and harness technological advances. Within this framework, the co-design approach offers defining elements: - a process - user-centric, interdisciplinary, continuous investigations; - an outcome - usable products, applications, environments; and - a philosophy - learning focused and relationship building. [Shannon]

Student needs will change over time, so the commons space, commons philosophy, **commons service delivery model** will need to be **flexible** enough to accommodate a shifting student demographic's future needs (of course, hard to predict!) [Rachel]

**2. MARKETING PLAN**

Market the LC as the primary link/bridge between in-class and out-of-class experience.[Heather]

I like the Simon Frasier LC website, organized by Services, strategies, tools. [Heather] **I agree. I think we could do something similar to make our web presence more unified. [Shannon] **

"**'Way-finding**,' that is, the appropriate use of color, furniture, signage and directions, is essential to a successful space." [Heather]

**Cross train LRC staff on services/resources offered by other LRCs:** LRC staff & tutors are significantly more likely to refer students to the Centers they have visited/used themselves; if staff do not visit the other centers themselves, learn about what each center offers and its potential benefit to students & use this information to form their own opinions, a more cohesive Learning Commons Group will be harder to achieve [Sharon/from focus groups]

Remember that our work is both mediated and unmediated. As we become more of a self-service, technology dependent world: our **web and portal presence** reaches an untold number of students, faculty and staff. See Simon Fraser University’s Learning Commons website. [Sharon]


 * Brand divergence:** “the Learning Commons becomes an opportunity to fork off a divergent brand that will be presented to students as a new type of place to find information and learning…” “… strongly defined visual and semantic storefront differentiation of the Learning Commons from the rest of the library” “… it is far more efficient and effective to repackage those rich offerings as a Learning Commons brand that diverges from the traditional library brand, than to flail against an entrenched definition of the library brand” [Sharon/from Info Commons Handbook]


 * Keep evaluating** how we are doing and **marketing the success** of our services [Shannon]

From the Roberts article -- re: the difference between an "Information Commons" and a "Learning Commons." The first name connotes top-down learning, the second bottom-up/collectivist learning. Hierarchical learning vs. **holistic learning**. Information deposit vs. place to create knowledge. I think we discussed not calling ourselves a "Learning Commons" anyway, but in branding, consider the connotation of the name we choose. [Rachel]

**3. TOOLS TO MEASURE IMPACT OF THE WORK OF THE LRCs ON STUDENT SUCCESS

Assessment: ** this is my favorite detailed statement about assessment: " Retain qualitative and quantitative assessment practices. The variety of assessment measures used include workshop and in-class evaluations, comment cards, focus groups, session participation rates, grade performance measures, survey data, and end-of-semester qualitative feedback. The partners also collect their own statistics on usage counts, Web hits, and number of students attending sessions, participating in workshops, or receiving individual assistance." [Heather]

After choosing and using assessment tools, we must have comparative evaluation standards in order to describe and categorize outcome results for implementation of action plans. [Roberto]
 * 4. REDESIGN AND/OR REALIGNMENT OF EXISTING PHYSICAL SPACES AND PROPOSAL FOR NEW SPACES**

Two things that struck me: " Be careful not to create too many service points. Find ways to bring staff and services together"; "Use the "Disney World" model for customer service -- **stay with a customer** until you find the right person to fill his/her need." [Heather]

What I couldn't find. . . I'm hoping we can dig a little deeper and come up with more best practices on the following: a) collaboration of writing centers/tutoring centers in the learning commons models; b) information about how to handle marketing and online presence (web/portal + signage); c) discussions of an LC as a concept/value that can be applied to re-structuring relationships __outside of physical space alignment__; d) of course (and we won't find this out there!) how to deal with TCC’s specific restraints—I want to think about what we can do specifically within these restraints (and also try to think outside of them). For example, the name of the WTC. Is this something we should work toward changing? Should we all be called the Learning commons now, even before a new building? [Heather]

From the WA Facilities of the Future draft… facilities will need to include spaces that: · Create and promote formal and informal learning communities – interaction, collaboration and a sense of belonging. · Replicate real world professional settings. · Are multi-purpose and are used by multiple disciplines at different times during a week, month, quarter, and academic year. · Provide solitary and social reflection, meditation, and quiet. · Provide for the use of technologies such as multi-screen projection capability, virtual learning, podcasting, etc. · Promote sustainable practices. Guiding principles include: · Capital funding models should recognize and reward multiple use of space on campuses · Learning spaces should promote collaboration, peer-to-peer exchanges, multi-disciplinary learning communities, and real-world experiences · Facilities should be designed with the involvement of end-users [Sharon]

Ideas from multiple articles on space design: [Shannon]
 * **Adaptable and Flexible spaces** - table and chairs on wheels
 * Outlets from ceilings (???) - I would love to explore this for my current location since we do not have the ability to have outlet in the floor for laptops.
 * Pleasant colors and attractive components
 * comfortable, practical and attractive design
 * TV screen(s) to share information
 * Inspiring words around spaces ("Ask, Ask, Ask", "Think", "Create")
 * Seamless technology
 * "creativity zone" - comfortable reconfigurable furniture - movable partition walls also serve as projection walls -
 * open, unconfined environment
 * functional, inspiring space
 * Highly visible and inviting place
 * Espresso bar
 * " ...arrange the space and technology so that individual are funneled to people who can help them"
 * Variety of learning environments ( boisterous, quiet, etc.)
 * Lots of study rooms (hold 6-8 people each) - LCD projectors and floor to ceiling whiteboards, video recording.
 * Spaces not locked down for one single purpose.

**5. STAFF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN** See #1 above.

**6. RECOMMENDED STAFFING LEVELS AND REALIGNMENTS ACROSS THE LRC DIVISION** Last step in the process.