Five members of the Spaces for Knowledge Generation project team conducted a study tour during January 2009 aimed at collecting case studies of a range of different learning spaces from tertiary institutions renowned for their teaching excellence. Site visits, meetings and videotaped interviews were conducted at a variety of places including:  Stanford University, Apple, Harvard University, MIT, Kings College London, University of Cambridge, The Open University (UK), Sheffield Hallam University and TU Delft (Netherlands).

The SKG team interviews Rich Holeton at Stanford University, January 12 2009

During these site visits we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with people involved in the design and management of learning spaces at each institution.  We ask them about what has and hasn’t worked in each of the spaces. These interviews have been very enlightening and we anticipate making extracts available on the project website.

One of the highlights of the tour included a visit to Wallenberg Hall at Stanford, a $15M facility featuring a series of innovative collaborative learning spaces.

Wallenberg Hall, Stanford University

Informal learning spaces were also a focus of the tour. Student Street, which runs inside the Stata Center at MIT is an excellent example of the way student life can be enhanced through the provision of study friendly seating, power, wifi networking, alongside student services and food outlets.

Student Street, Stata Center, MIT

We returned to Student Street a number of times in the two days at MIT and we noticed that every one of the spaces was used extensively, yet it never seemed crowded.