SEM04-Evaluating Learning Spaces: Methods for Developing a Campus-Based Project (separate registration is required)

This seminar is focused on methods for measuring the effectiveness of learning spaces, and on enabling participants to gain the knowledge needed to formulate research questions and choose appropriate methods in order to implement an effective and practical campus learning space evaluation project. Many institutions struggle with how to measure or evaluate the impact or effectiveness of their new or renovated learning spaces. Developing a good research design for understanding the relationship between spaces and learning is a difficult assignment. In this workshop, we will focus on some of the key steps in formulating a research design: developing questions that are meaningful to the institution and that are measurable in some way; designing methodologies and instruments for collecting data; interpreting results and acting on findings; and partnering with others in the institution.

Registrants will be asked to attend an hour-long webinar prior to the workshop in New Orleans on Wednesday, January 22, 12:00 noon –1:00 p.m. eastern time (ET). During the webinar, the workshop leaders will provide an overview of the program and suggest ways to begin to formulate research questions that participants will bring to the in-person workshop. The in-person workshop at the ELI meeting will conclude with an assignment for participants to return to their institutions and develop one or more research questions and a draft research plan. Participants will be invited to share those results during an online webinar on Monday, March 3, at 11:00 a.m. (ET). Participants may also invite other campus partners to attend the webinar; there is no additional charge for this component of the workshop. The session will include critiques of the plans, and participants may request a subsequent critique from the workshop leaders as they modify and revise their strategies.