WEBVTT
00:00:07.719 --> 00:00:10.439
Welcome to the LITE Bites podcast from the Leeds
00:00:10.439 --> 00:00:12.740
Institute for Teaching Excellence at the University
00:00:12.740 --> 00:00:16.140
of Leeds. This is Education Spaces mini -series.
00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:18.460
In the next three episodes, LITE Bites will
00:00:18.460 --> 00:00:20.600
be featuring guests with unique insights related
00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:32.320
to the Education Spaces programme. Hello and
00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.899
welcome back to the LITE Bites podcast. I'm Ollie,
00:00:35.020 --> 00:00:37.039
a graduate intern working in the Transformation
00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:39.719
Office and your host for today. This is episode
00:00:39.719 --> 00:00:43.079
two of the Education Spaces LITE Bites miniseries
00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:46.060
and today I'm joined by Emma, Lynda and Izzy
00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:48.359
who have all worked on a piece of research on
00:00:48.359 --> 00:00:51.299
seminar room provisions. Hello everyone and thanks
00:00:51.299 --> 00:00:55.460
for joining us today. Hi Ollie. Hello. So should
00:00:55.460 --> 00:00:57.159
we introduce ourselves? Yeah, I think that would
00:00:57.159 --> 00:01:00.859
be good. Yeah, excellent. So, yeah, I'm Emma.
00:01:00.899 --> 00:01:03.340
I'm Emma Peasland. I work in LITE, which is
00:01:03.340 --> 00:01:06.000
Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence. And
00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:10.180
I got involved in this piece of work on flat
00:01:10.180 --> 00:01:14.019
floor teaching spaces or seminar rooms from the
00:01:14.019 --> 00:01:16.140
beginning. And I'll talk a bit more about that
00:01:16.140 --> 00:01:19.939
as we go through the podcast. But basically,
00:01:19.980 --> 00:01:22.510
I started off this project. in collaboration
00:01:22.510 --> 00:01:24.909
with Hayley Bullard who was at the time a research
00:01:24.909 --> 00:01:26.989
assistant in LITE and has since left and is
00:01:26.989 --> 00:01:31.280
now a lecturer at Huddersfield University. But
00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:33.420
yeah, that's me and my involvement in the project.
00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:36.219
And I'll let Lynda, do you want to introduce
00:01:36.219 --> 00:01:39.200
yourself? Hi, everyone. My name is Lynda. I'm
00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:42.299
a graduate intern working in the university's transformation
00:01:42.299 --> 00:01:46.099
office. And my job is support university's education
00:01:46.099 --> 00:01:49.700
spaces. And I am also involved in the seminar room
00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:55.159
evaluation research. Hi, I'm Izzy. I am also
00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:57.219
a member of LITE. I am a research assistant.
00:01:57.500 --> 00:02:00.900
And when I joined LITE team in February, I took
00:02:00.900 --> 00:02:03.180
over from the work Hayley had been doing previously.
00:02:04.099 --> 00:02:06.219
Cool. So thanks, everyone, for those introductions.
00:02:07.099 --> 00:02:09.639
So if you'd like to start by telling us a bit
00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:11.900
about the research and what you investigated.
00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:16.120
Yeah, cool. So we started this project in January
00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:21.639
2023 and LITE undertook this project kind of
00:02:21.639 --> 00:02:24.479
on a consultancy basis for the Education Spaces
00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:27.300
Programme. And it built on an earlier piece of
00:02:27.300 --> 00:02:30.780
work, which was a collaborative seminar space
00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:34.199
pilot refurbishment that was taken place in the
00:02:34.199 --> 00:02:38.129
summer of 2022. where some rooms within the university
00:02:38.129 --> 00:02:40.949
were refurbished with new furniture. And the
00:02:40.949 --> 00:02:42.949
intention of this furniture was that it would
00:02:42.949 --> 00:02:46.469
be able to support diverse layouts. So, for example,
00:02:46.469 --> 00:02:49.009
tables could be arranged in groups or they could
00:02:49.009 --> 00:02:51.689
be arranged in rows. And therefore, lots of different
00:02:51.689 --> 00:02:54.129
pedagogies or pedagogical approaches could be
00:02:54.129 --> 00:02:57.370
used in these rooms. So they were intended to
00:02:57.370 --> 00:02:59.969
create these kind of flexible spaces. Although
00:02:59.969 --> 00:03:02.789
in this pilot refurbishment, what was found out
00:03:02.789 --> 00:03:06.039
was that in some configurations there were limitations
00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:10.599
on the capacity of the rooms and in other configurations
00:03:10.599 --> 00:03:14.199
there were limitations on the amount of space
00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:16.340
that was in the room for example for people to
00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:20.719
move around and so I think that reflecting on
00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:23.939
that experience raised some questions more broadly
00:03:23.939 --> 00:03:26.759
about how different flat floors, teaching rooms
00:03:26.759 --> 00:03:29.259
or seminar rooms, and we're kind of using those
00:03:29.259 --> 00:03:32.939
terms interchangeably, how they can facilitate
00:03:32.939 --> 00:03:35.780
or hinder staff from achieving their pedagogical
00:03:35.780 --> 00:03:38.360
aims and how they're experienced by students
00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:41.379
and staff. And so we were asked to undertake
00:03:41.379 --> 00:03:45.419
this piece of research to find out a little bit
00:03:45.419 --> 00:03:47.680
more about that, like what's it like to learn
00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:49.620
in these different... room layouts what's it
00:03:49.620 --> 00:03:51.259
like to teach in these different room layouts
00:03:51.259 --> 00:03:54.259
and do they allow staff to achieve their aims
00:03:54.259 --> 00:03:56.259
in terms of the pedagogies they want to use in
00:03:56.259 --> 00:03:58.900
a session. Cool that's really interesting and
00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:01.360
I think such a piece of work would be really
00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:04.180
useful for the university to you know find out
00:04:04.180 --> 00:04:07.039
more about these spaces so would you like to
00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:09.889
talk about how you went about doing that? Yeah,
00:04:09.909 --> 00:04:13.750
sure. So what we did is we used a sample of flat
00:04:13.750 --> 00:04:15.870
-floored teaching rooms at the university and
00:04:15.870 --> 00:04:19.509
they're all teaching rooms that are looked after
00:04:19.509 --> 00:04:22.610
and timetabled by the main Student Education
00:04:22.610 --> 00:04:25.850
Service timetabling team. And we worked with
00:04:25.850 --> 00:04:28.870
timetabling to help to identify the rooms that
00:04:28.870 --> 00:04:31.050
we were going to use in the study and we looked
00:04:31.050 --> 00:04:34.069
for as many kind of different layouts as we could
00:04:34.069 --> 00:04:36.589
use. So we tried to use... pretty much all of
00:04:36.589 --> 00:04:38.529
the layouts that are available in flat floor
00:04:38.529 --> 00:04:41.569
teaching spaces. We wanted to get kind of like
00:04:41.569 --> 00:04:45.290
a wide variety of feedback and experiences from
00:04:45.290 --> 00:04:47.829
students and staff. So we got rooms from all
00:04:47.829 --> 00:04:50.920
around our campus as well. So in terms of the
00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:54.180
layouts, we had eight layouts in total and they
00:04:54.180 --> 00:04:56.699
considered things like whether students were
00:04:56.699 --> 00:05:00.860
in groups, whether the tables were arranged in
00:05:00.860 --> 00:05:04.720
rows, the shapes of the tables. So we had some
00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:08.319
rooms with these kind of trapezoid tables that
00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:10.459
could create a hexagon if they're arranged in
00:05:10.459 --> 00:05:13.579
groups, but can also be arranged in rows. We
00:05:13.579 --> 00:05:17.160
had rooms with those chairs with flip desks.
00:05:17.740 --> 00:05:20.899
We considered rooms that have multimedia or
00:05:20.899 --> 00:05:23.480
tech options. So there are several rooms in the
00:05:23.480 --> 00:05:27.240
university that have a table with a screen attached
00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:31.220
so that students can work on multimedia presentations
00:05:31.220 --> 00:05:35.259
or have tech available for when they're... undertaking
00:05:35.259 --> 00:05:37.980
their learning tasks in those rooms and we had
00:05:37.980 --> 00:05:41.220
a couple of rooms with a more unusual layout
00:05:41.220 --> 00:05:44.899
where they had a kind of a table with almost
00:05:44.899 --> 00:05:48.600
like a sofa seating around the table and we had
00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:50.800
there were just two of those rooms in the university
00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:53.779
but we included those as well in our study. Aside
00:05:53.779 --> 00:05:56.620
from that layout we had three rooms of every
00:05:56.620 --> 00:05:59.959
layout that we included in the study. And then
00:05:59.959 --> 00:06:03.680
in order to identify people and invite them to
00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:06.259
participate in the study, timetabling shared
00:06:06.259 --> 00:06:08.759
with us all of the scheduled sessions that were
00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:11.139
being held in the study rooms that we'd identified.
00:06:11.930 --> 00:06:15.449
in the first semester of the 2023 -24 academic
00:06:15.449 --> 00:06:20.129
year. And we looked at these data and we identified
00:06:20.129 --> 00:06:22.709
which modules had regular sessions in the rooms
00:06:22.709 --> 00:06:25.589
because we wanted to start collecting data sort
00:06:25.589 --> 00:06:28.389
of midway through the semester so people had
00:06:28.389 --> 00:06:30.870
an opportunity to get settled into the new academic
00:06:30.870 --> 00:06:34.069
year and everything like that. And we identified
00:06:34.069 --> 00:06:37.649
342 different modules that had regular sessions
00:06:37.649 --> 00:06:41.079
in the rooms. And we invited the module leaders
00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:44.480
for all of those modules to participate via email.
00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:48.800
And we shared with them what would be involved
00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:51.660
in participation. So what we were asking module
00:06:51.660 --> 00:06:55.680
leaders or the relevant tutor on the module who
00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:59.060
was asked to facilitate the data collection to
00:06:59.060 --> 00:07:03.610
do. was to firstly identify a session on that
00:07:03.610 --> 00:07:06.610
module in the study room where they could collect
00:07:06.610 --> 00:07:09.110
data. So data were collected with reference to
00:07:09.110 --> 00:07:12.389
one session rather than the whole module. To
00:07:12.389 --> 00:07:14.649
introduce the research to the students in that
00:07:14.649 --> 00:07:17.689
session and invite them to participate. by completing
00:07:17.689 --> 00:07:19.449
a student questionnaire which would be shared
00:07:19.449 --> 00:07:22.730
in the session and ideally we asked if they would
00:07:22.730 --> 00:07:24.689
be able to give five or ten minutes at the end
00:07:24.689 --> 00:07:26.410
of the session for students to complete that
00:07:26.410 --> 00:07:30.389
questionnaire but we also provided emails so
00:07:30.389 --> 00:07:33.310
in case it wasn't possible to provide that time
00:07:33.310 --> 00:07:35.370
in the session students could still be invited
00:07:35.370 --> 00:07:38.709
to participate via email and we also asked staff
00:07:38.709 --> 00:07:41.449
to complete a staff questionnaire as well with
00:07:41.449 --> 00:07:44.279
reference to that that particular kind of sample
00:07:44.279 --> 00:07:49.300
session. We had 54 modules that agreed to take
00:07:49.300 --> 00:07:52.519
part and that represented 16 % of all of the
00:07:52.519 --> 00:07:56.560
different modules invited. So we had two surveys
00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:59.269
that we used to collect data. And both of the
00:07:59.269 --> 00:08:01.110
surveys collected things like some demographic
00:08:01.110 --> 00:08:04.110
data and they asked both staff and students about
00:08:04.110 --> 00:08:06.910
things like the environmental conditions in the
00:08:06.910 --> 00:08:09.829
room. So things like heating, cooling, lighting,
00:08:09.949 --> 00:08:13.129
those sorts of things. They asked both questionnaires
00:08:13.129 --> 00:08:15.269
asked about technology and they asked about furniture
00:08:15.269 --> 00:08:18.889
provision. And then in the student questionnaire,
00:08:19.189 --> 00:08:21.589
students were asked about. their experiences
00:08:21.589 --> 00:08:24.269
of the session with reference to the different
00:08:24.269 --> 00:08:26.930
activities that they took part in in that session.
00:08:27.170 --> 00:08:29.730
So if they took part in group work, they were
00:08:29.730 --> 00:08:33.049
asked about how the room facilitated or hindered
00:08:33.049 --> 00:08:35.870
their participation in group work. If it was
00:08:35.870 --> 00:08:38.309
a session with lecturing, they were asked questions
00:08:38.309 --> 00:08:41.450
about how the layout influenced their experience
00:08:41.450 --> 00:08:45.639
of a lecturing activity in the room. And they
00:08:45.639 --> 00:08:47.559
were also asked about the preferences for any
00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:50.460
room layouts. In the staff survey, we asked about
00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:54.019
the sort of activities and pedagogies that staff
00:08:54.019 --> 00:08:56.759
had planned to undertake or to use in the sessions.
00:08:57.059 --> 00:08:59.919
And we asked them again about their, or as well,
00:09:00.039 --> 00:09:02.820
about their preferences in terms of room layout
00:09:02.820 --> 00:09:06.259
and whether they had particular preferences in...
00:09:06.679 --> 00:09:08.960
their ability to do particular things in a session
00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:11.139
for example to be able to move around the room
00:09:11.139 --> 00:09:14.100
to be able to sit at tables with students for
00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:16.299
example when doing group work and these kinds
00:09:16.299 --> 00:09:19.399
of things and the survey was open for that whole
00:09:19.399 --> 00:09:22.639
of that first semester it closed at the end of
00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:26.240
the the calendar year and at the time of closure
00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:30.559
we had 31 responses from staff and 195 student
00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:34.460
responses Cool. Well, it really sounds like you
00:09:34.460 --> 00:09:36.679
thought of everything in this research. You know,
00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:40.139
you've got every type of seminar room and also
00:09:40.139 --> 00:09:44.460
asking both students and staff. Sounds like you
00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:49.679
will have got quite a rich data set from this
00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:51.820
research. So could you tell us a bit about what
00:09:51.820 --> 00:09:54.419
you found out in this research? Yeah, sure. And
00:09:54.419 --> 00:09:56.200
actually, we should really credit Hayley with
00:09:56.200 --> 00:09:58.759
a lot of the work in that design phase as well.
00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:02.480
So she worked really hard on on that kind of
00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:04.879
design piece. But then moving forwards to thinking
00:10:04.879 --> 00:10:08.019
about what we found out then. And I'll let Izzy
00:10:08.019 --> 00:10:10.980
and Linda explain some of this, because we three
00:10:10.980 --> 00:10:13.580
of us collectively work together on the analysis.
00:10:13.720 --> 00:10:17.240
So I did a lot of the quantitative data. Izzy
00:10:17.240 --> 00:10:20.740
and Hayley did a lot of the qualitative data
00:10:20.740 --> 00:10:23.769
from students and Lynda did. a lot of the qualitative
00:10:23.769 --> 00:10:26.190
data from staff and then we brought all of those
00:10:26.190 --> 00:10:28.929
findings together. So I'll explain a little bit
00:10:28.929 --> 00:10:30.809
about the demographics which are a bit more quant
00:10:30.809 --> 00:10:34.029
and then let Izzy and Lynda explain what we kind
00:10:34.029 --> 00:10:37.230
of found out from the qualitative data. So in
00:10:37.230 --> 00:10:40.090
terms of students, we collected data from students
00:10:40.090 --> 00:10:43.049
in all of the faculties of the university, so
00:10:43.049 --> 00:10:45.210
all seven faculties and the Lifelong Learning
00:10:45.210 --> 00:10:48.470
Centre. But it's worth mentioning that of the
00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:52.509
195 responses that we got from students, 108
00:10:52.509 --> 00:10:54.889
of them came from students who were studying
00:10:54.889 --> 00:10:57.509
in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures.
00:10:57.549 --> 00:10:59.830
So there is a little bit of a kind of a skew
00:10:59.830 --> 00:11:03.620
towards that faculty in our data set. Most of
00:11:03.620 --> 00:11:06.240
the responses we got from students were from
00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:09.519
undergraduate students. So that was 124 of our
00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:12.320
respondents were undergraduate students. And
00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:14.879
of those, almost half of them were first years.
00:11:14.940 --> 00:11:19.039
And the remaining kind of sample was a range
00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:21.860
of students from between the second and the fourth
00:11:21.860 --> 00:11:25.070
year of their undergraduate degree. from staff
00:11:25.070 --> 00:11:28.429
again we got data from staff from all seven faculties
00:11:28.429 --> 00:11:31.549
and the Lifelong Learning Centre and so we got
00:11:31.549 --> 00:11:34.129
kind of a range of responses from across the
00:11:34.129 --> 00:11:36.929
university but with that bias towards people
00:11:36.929 --> 00:11:39.230
working or studying in the faculty of arts humanities
00:11:39.230 --> 00:11:42.940
and cultures um I'll hand over to Izzy to explain
00:11:42.940 --> 00:11:44.940
a little bit about what we found out from students.
00:11:45.820 --> 00:11:47.919
So for the students, I've just picked out a few
00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:52.519
of the key findings. So 50 % of the student respondents
00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:55.379
did say that they had a layout preference. And
00:11:55.379 --> 00:11:57.820
the main reason for these preferences were the
00:11:57.820 --> 00:11:59.779
physical factors of the room. So the comfort
00:11:59.779 --> 00:12:02.559
of the chairs was a big thing for them, as well
00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:04.360
as having a good amount of space. It was actually
00:12:04.360 --> 00:12:07.200
reported that overcrowding would have a negative
00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:10.970
impact on their learning experience. Also, it
00:12:10.970 --> 00:12:12.330
was really important that they felt they had
00:12:12.330 --> 00:12:15.649
an enabling and adaptable layout. For example,
00:12:15.809 --> 00:12:18.149
being able to rearrange the furniture depending
00:12:18.149 --> 00:12:20.870
on the activity, making it easier to talk to
00:12:20.870 --> 00:12:23.710
their peers and have a group discussion. But
00:12:23.710 --> 00:12:25.870
also, they did want to be able to clearly see
00:12:25.870 --> 00:12:28.529
the screens and the lecturer that was teaching.
00:12:28.929 --> 00:12:32.549
So here we can see a clear tension between the
00:12:32.549 --> 00:12:34.450
students' desires to be able to work effectively
00:12:34.450 --> 00:12:37.330
in groups, but also being able to see whiteboards,
00:12:37.389 --> 00:12:41.269
screens. and the tutor. So providing furniture
00:12:41.269 --> 00:12:43.649
that's quick and easy to rearrange and avoiding
00:12:43.649 --> 00:12:47.350
storing additional furniture seems to be an important
00:12:47.350 --> 00:12:49.490
consideration that we should think about in order
00:12:49.490 --> 00:12:52.509
to optimise their learning experience. So I guess
00:12:52.509 --> 00:12:55.909
that tension is because in some of the group
00:12:55.909 --> 00:12:59.250
layouts that we used, they were arranged so that
00:12:59.250 --> 00:13:01.570
maybe half the table faced the front of the room
00:13:01.570 --> 00:13:03.750
and half the table faced the back of the room.
00:13:03.970 --> 00:13:08.379
Yeah? Yeah. And I'm going to hand over to Linda,
00:13:08.539 --> 00:13:09.899
who's going to tell us a bit about some of the
00:13:09.899 --> 00:13:13.100
staff data. Thank you, Izzy. My part is about
00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:17.559
staff result. So I'm responsible to analyse 31
00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:21.460
staff questionnaire. And now I'm sharing some
00:13:21.460 --> 00:13:25.200
like main findings. So there are four main features
00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:27.480
for staff in the space to support their teaching.
00:13:27.539 --> 00:13:30.120
So there are collaboration, interaction, flexibility
00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:34.340
and mobility. In the following part, I will just
00:13:34.340 --> 00:13:37.600
from three perspective to further showing the
00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:40.740
like result details. So from layout and furniture
00:13:40.740 --> 00:13:45.240
part, the staff show the strong preference for
00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:48.659
the space can support the group work. They particularly
00:13:48.659 --> 00:13:53.179
mentioned the separate group seats. And they
00:13:53.179 --> 00:13:56.100
also mentioned it's really ideal in a space equipped
00:13:56.100 --> 00:13:58.980
with the lightweight furniture like chairs and
00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:02.039
tables with wheels so can easily move this furniture.
00:14:02.220 --> 00:14:05.379
to reorganize the space layout to suit different
00:14:05.379 --> 00:14:09.659
types of collaborative activities. And they also
00:14:09.659 --> 00:14:12.399
mentioned mobility is really important for them.
00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:16.240
Staff mentioned they really need space to move
00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:18.779
around to check students' work during the group
00:14:18.779 --> 00:14:22.120
work and also the ability to do some monitoring
00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:25.539
is also very important so they can just support
00:14:25.539 --> 00:14:28.460
students when they have any problems or they
00:14:28.460 --> 00:14:32.129
can just join the students' conversation. From
00:14:32.129 --> 00:14:34.730
technology side, it's really important in the
00:14:34.730 --> 00:14:36.990
space they have reliable technologies because
00:14:36.990 --> 00:14:38.970
some teachers mentioned that in the space, some
00:14:38.970 --> 00:14:41.750
technology does just not work because some like
00:14:41.750 --> 00:14:46.450
issues like microphone or lecture capture technologies
00:14:46.450 --> 00:14:48.929
did not work. So it's quite important to check
00:14:48.929 --> 00:14:51.950
the technology in the space. And also stuff mentioned
00:14:51.950 --> 00:14:55.740
like if they. The university can provide some
00:14:55.740 --> 00:14:59.500
training courses for them. It can help them to
00:14:59.500 --> 00:15:01.820
enhance the confidence to use those advanced
00:15:01.820 --> 00:15:05.419
technologies in the space. And also for the space
00:15:05.419 --> 00:15:08.120
environment, a lot of stuff mentioned in the
00:15:08.120 --> 00:15:10.299
space, the temperature control works not well,
00:15:10.360 --> 00:15:13.620
like the space either too hot or too cold will
00:15:13.620 --> 00:15:16.220
affect students' and teachers' space -using experience.
00:15:17.299 --> 00:15:20.100
The students definitely commented on that as
00:15:20.100 --> 00:15:22.980
well, that various rooms were too hot or too
00:15:22.980 --> 00:15:25.279
cold. They couldn't do the temperature control
00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:27.460
and they also couldn't open windows if they wanted
00:15:27.460 --> 00:15:30.820
to. Yeah, so based on all of the data that we
00:15:30.820 --> 00:15:33.080
collected from staff and students and the analyses
00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:36.759
that the three of us undertook, we identified
00:15:36.759 --> 00:15:41.120
10 sort of factors or considerations that those
00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:44.139
people who were designing flat forward learning
00:15:44.139 --> 00:15:48.049
spaces could consider. to be able to maximise
00:15:48.049 --> 00:15:51.029
the student and staff experience in using those
00:15:51.029 --> 00:15:54.990
spaces and also the ability of tutors to achieve
00:15:54.990 --> 00:15:58.460
their pedagogical aims. So the first factor was
00:15:58.460 --> 00:16:00.899
that there was a clear desire from both staff
00:16:00.899 --> 00:16:03.220
and students to prioritise room layouts that
00:16:03.220 --> 00:16:06.100
allowed students to work in groups. And the second
00:16:06.100 --> 00:16:08.440
one, layouts that allow students to easily see
00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:12.019
the screen or the whiteboard and or the tutor,
00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:14.799
depending on what's the focus at a particular
00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:19.789
time in a session. It would be a great idea in
00:16:19.789 --> 00:16:22.309
terms of the third point to provide furniture
00:16:22.309 --> 00:16:25.190
that can be quickly and easily rearranged. So
00:16:25.190 --> 00:16:28.490
if there are staff who want to use multiple pedagogies
00:16:28.490 --> 00:16:31.429
in a session, they can do that easily. So, for
00:16:31.429 --> 00:16:34.830
example, a mixture of lecturing and group work.
00:16:34.929 --> 00:16:37.929
You have a phase where perhaps you want everyone
00:16:37.929 --> 00:16:40.070
to be able to see the front of the room and then
00:16:40.070 --> 00:16:42.289
a phase where you want people to be able to cluster
00:16:42.289 --> 00:16:46.090
and work effectively in groups. The fourth point
00:16:46.090 --> 00:16:49.529
was that where possible, it's a good idea to
00:16:49.529 --> 00:16:51.789
allow for additional space in the room. So there
00:16:51.789 --> 00:16:54.029
were comments from staff and students around
00:16:54.029 --> 00:16:59.169
overcrowding. And so it's desirable for staff
00:16:59.169 --> 00:17:01.289
to be able to move around the room with ease
00:17:01.289 --> 00:17:03.809
and for students not to feel a sense of overcrowding.
00:17:04.230 --> 00:17:06.809
And related to that, the fifth point was that
00:17:06.809 --> 00:17:09.630
it's ideal to avoid storing additional furniture
00:17:09.630 --> 00:17:13.519
in flat -floored rooms. The sixth point was to
00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:16.160
prioritise layouts that provide adequate personal
00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:18.539
workspace for students. So when students were
00:17:18.539 --> 00:17:20.799
talking about overcrowding, they weren't only
00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:22.940
talking about the amount of people and furniture
00:17:22.940 --> 00:17:25.480
in the room, but also the amount of space that
00:17:25.480 --> 00:17:28.500
they had to work on. So, for example, some students
00:17:28.500 --> 00:17:33.440
spoke negatively or commented negatively on using
00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:37.180
flip desks that were attached to the chairs because
00:17:37.180 --> 00:17:39.460
they didn't have a large amount of space to be
00:17:39.460 --> 00:17:42.200
able to work on when they needed to. needed to
00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:47.160
do that. The seventh point was to consider providing
00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:49.480
the means to control heating and cooling in each
00:17:49.480 --> 00:17:52.819
room so that that environmental factor can be
00:17:52.819 --> 00:17:56.619
optimized for the users. The eighth point was
00:17:56.619 --> 00:17:58.799
to prioritise seating options that were designed
00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:01.140
for comfort. So there was a clear desire from
00:18:01.140 --> 00:18:03.759
students to have seating that was comfortable.
00:18:03.900 --> 00:18:06.460
And staff also commented on the fact that if
00:18:06.460 --> 00:18:09.240
students have comfortable seating, that might
00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:12.200
allow them to be able to focus and pay attention
00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:14.740
and therefore have a benefit for their learning.
00:18:15.980 --> 00:18:18.740
The ninth was to signpost any available training
00:18:18.740 --> 00:18:21.920
on using technology that's provided in flat floored
00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:23.839
spaces, which is something that Lynda was just
00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:26.680
talking about. And then the last and 10th point
00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:29.960
was to consider offering guidance to staff that
00:18:29.960 --> 00:18:33.880
links the spaces or layouts and appropriate pedagogies
00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:36.880
for use within them. So there was a comment from
00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:39.700
a couple of members of staff saying that it would
00:18:39.700 --> 00:18:42.579
be great to have a little bit of guidance with
00:18:42.579 --> 00:18:45.180
respect to that. So, yeah, so those were our
00:18:45.180 --> 00:18:49.220
kind. of 10 considerations that those people
00:18:49.220 --> 00:18:52.220
who may be using this data could take into account
00:18:52.220 --> 00:18:54.960
when designing future flat -floored learning
00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:58.759
spaces. Yeah, and I really like how clear each
00:18:58.759 --> 00:19:01.299
of these factors are and you can really see how
00:19:01.299 --> 00:19:04.660
knowing this information could help with the
00:19:04.660 --> 00:19:07.559
future design of seminar rooms and spaces like
00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:09.599
them. So it seems like there might be an opportunity
00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:12.700
to use this data in practice in the future to
00:19:12.700 --> 00:19:15.420
help design these spaces. And I can see a really
00:19:15.420 --> 00:19:18.720
clear link to the work that myself and Linda
00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:21.619
have done on the education spaces playbook and
00:19:21.619 --> 00:19:26.140
kind of trying to incorporate research into our
00:19:26.140 --> 00:19:30.140
decision making for future design decisions.
00:19:30.700 --> 00:19:33.200
So I just wondered, maybe Lynda, if you could
00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:35.599
talk to us about the opportunities to use this
00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:40.829
data in practice. Yeah, so I think seminar room
00:19:40.829 --> 00:19:43.410
research report is kind of valuable resources
00:19:43.410 --> 00:19:47.230
for future space design and evaluation process
00:19:47.230 --> 00:19:51.150
for University of Leeds. Because in this research,
00:19:51.190 --> 00:19:54.150
we include in the like data from both teacher
00:19:54.150 --> 00:19:56.890
and students perspective, like from like space
00:19:56.890 --> 00:20:01.250
design, furniture, space environment and technology
00:20:01.250 --> 00:20:05.970
to provide some practical suggestions. So I think
00:20:05.970 --> 00:20:08.750
these findings can guide departments like e -state,
00:20:08.930 --> 00:20:12.529
IT services and other departments might be related
00:20:12.529 --> 00:20:15.549
in future space design or refurbishment project
00:20:15.549 --> 00:20:18.390
to help them to optimize education spaces project
00:20:18.390 --> 00:20:22.769
and improve user experience. And also, as you
00:20:22.769 --> 00:20:25.829
mentioned, Ollie, we just create the education
00:20:25.829 --> 00:20:28.410
spaces playbook and I can see it's really worth
00:20:28.410 --> 00:20:32.269
to include seminar room research in the formal
00:20:32.269 --> 00:20:35.259
teaching spaces part. And for those people who
00:20:35.259 --> 00:20:37.960
didn't know the playbook, you can listen to our
00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:41.319
first episode. So basically, the Education Spaces
00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:44.079
Playbook is kind of space guidance reference
00:20:44.079 --> 00:20:47.220
book. So we include a lot of practical recommendations
00:20:47.220 --> 00:20:51.000
from internal and external reports and also use
00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:53.559
the PST framework, pedagogy, space technology,
00:20:53.819 --> 00:20:58.210
and user experience to further analyse each
00:20:58.210 --> 00:21:01.970
space. So it's kind of really useful resources
00:21:01.970 --> 00:21:06.509
for both academics and other staff from other
00:21:06.509 --> 00:21:09.769
departments who get interested in the user experience
00:21:09.769 --> 00:21:13.529
for education spaces. So yeah, so I can see it's
00:21:13.529 --> 00:21:16.269
really helpful and useful information in the
00:21:16.269 --> 00:21:18.829
future. Cool. That sounds like a really interesting
00:21:18.829 --> 00:21:20.529
piece of work and something that would be really
00:21:20.529 --> 00:21:23.089
useful for the future design of our seminar spaces.
00:21:23.609 --> 00:21:26.069
So thanks very much for coming along, you three.
00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:28.720
It's been really great having you talking with
00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.619
us today. Thanks, Ollie. Thank you. And be sure
00:21:32.619 --> 00:21:34.420
to come back for the next episode of the LITE Bites
00:21:34.420 --> 00:21:37.640
podcast. See you later. Bye.
00:00:07.719 --> 00:00:10.439
Welcome to the LITE Bites podcast from the Leeds
00:00:10.439 --> 00:00:12.740
Institute for Teaching Excellence at the University
00:00:12.740 --> 00:00:16.140
of Leeds. This is Education Spaces mini -series.
00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:18.460
In the next three episodes, LITE Bites will
00:00:18.460 --> 00:00:20.600
be featuring guests with unique insights related
00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:32.320
to the Education Spaces programme. Hello and
00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.899
welcome back to the LITE Bites podcast. I'm Ollie,
00:00:35.020 --> 00:00:37.039
a graduate intern working in the Transformation
00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:39.719
Office and your host for today. This is episode
00:00:39.719 --> 00:00:43.079
two of the Education Spaces LITE Bites miniseries
00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:46.060
and today I'm joined by Emma, Lynda and Izzy
00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:48.359
who have all worked on a piece of research on
00:00:48.359 --> 00:00:51.299
seminar room provisions. Hello everyone and thanks
00:00:51.299 --> 00:00:55.460
for joining us today. Hi Ollie. Hello. So should
00:00:55.460 --> 00:00:57.159
we introduce ourselves? Yeah, I think that would
00:00:57.159 --> 00:01:00.859
be good. Yeah, excellent. So, yeah, I'm Emma.
00:01:00.899 --> 00:01:03.340
I'm Emma Peasland. I work in LITE, which is
00:01:03.340 --> 00:01:06.000
Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence. And
00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:10.180
I got involved in this piece of work on flat
00:01:10.180 --> 00:01:14.019
floor teaching spaces or seminar rooms from the
00:01:14.019 --> 00:01:16.140
beginning. And I'll talk a bit more about that
00:01:16.140 --> 00:01:19.939
as we go through the podcast. But basically,
00:01:19.980 --> 00:01:22.510
I started off this project. in collaboration
00:01:22.510 --> 00:01:24.909
with Hayley Bullard who was at the time a research
00:01:24.909 --> 00:01:26.989
assistant in LITE and has since left and is
00:01:26.989 --> 00:01:31.280
now a lecturer at Huddersfield University. But
00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:33.420
yeah, that's me and my involvement in the project.
00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:36.219
And I'll let Lynda, do you want to introduce
00:01:36.219 --> 00:01:39.200
yourself? Hi, everyone. My name is Lynda. I'm
00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:42.299
a graduate intern working in the university's transformation
00:01:42.299 --> 00:01:46.099
office. And my job is support university's education
00:01:46.099 --> 00:01:49.700
spaces. And I am also involved in the seminar room
00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:55.159
evaluation research. Hi, I'm Izzy. I am also
00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:57.219
a member of LITE. I am a research assistant.
00:01:57.500 --> 00:02:00.900
And when I joined LITE team in February, I took
00:02:00.900 --> 00:02:03.180
over from the work Hayley had been doing previously.
00:02:04.099 --> 00:02:06.219
Cool. So thanks, everyone, for those introductions.
00:02:07.099 --> 00:02:09.639
So if you'd like to start by telling us a bit
00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:11.900
about the research and what you investigated.
00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:16.120
Yeah, cool. So we started this project in January
00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:21.639
2023 and LITE undertook this project kind of
00:02:21.639 --> 00:02:24.479
on a consultancy basis for the Education Spaces
00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:27.300
Programme. And it built on an earlier piece of
00:02:27.300 --> 00:02:30.780
work, which was a collaborative seminar space
00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:34.199
pilot refurbishment that was taken place in the
00:02:34.199 --> 00:02:38.129
summer of 2022. where some rooms within the university
00:02:38.129 --> 00:02:40.949
were refurbished with new furniture. And the
00:02:40.949 --> 00:02:42.949
intention of this furniture was that it would
00:02:42.949 --> 00:02:46.469
be able to support diverse layouts. So, for example,
00:02:46.469 --> 00:02:49.009
tables could be arranged in groups or they could
00:02:49.009 --> 00:02:51.689
be arranged in rows. And therefore, lots of different
00:02:51.689 --> 00:02:54.129
pedagogies or pedagogical approaches could be
00:02:54.129 --> 00:02:57.370
used in these rooms. So they were intended to
00:02:57.370 --> 00:02:59.969
create these kind of flexible spaces. Although
00:02:59.969 --> 00:03:02.789
in this pilot refurbishment, what was found out
00:03:02.789 --> 00:03:06.039
was that in some configurations there were limitations
00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:10.599
on the capacity of the rooms and in other configurations
00:03:10.599 --> 00:03:14.199
there were limitations on the amount of space
00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:16.340
that was in the room for example for people to
00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:20.719
move around and so I think that reflecting on
00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:23.939
that experience raised some questions more broadly
00:03:23.939 --> 00:03:26.759
about how different flat floors, teaching rooms
00:03:26.759 --> 00:03:29.259
or seminar rooms, and we're kind of using those
00:03:29.259 --> 00:03:32.939
terms interchangeably, how they can facilitate
00:03:32.939 --> 00:03:35.780
or hinder staff from achieving their pedagogical
00:03:35.780 --> 00:03:38.360
aims and how they're experienced by students
00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:41.379
and staff. And so we were asked to undertake
00:03:41.379 --> 00:03:45.419
this piece of research to find out a little bit
00:03:45.419 --> 00:03:47.680
more about that, like what's it like to learn
00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:49.620
in these different... room layouts what's it
00:03:49.620 --> 00:03:51.259
like to teach in these different room layouts
00:03:51.259 --> 00:03:54.259
and do they allow staff to achieve their aims
00:03:54.259 --> 00:03:56.259
in terms of the pedagogies they want to use in
00:03:56.259 --> 00:03:58.900
a session. Cool that's really interesting and
00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:01.360
I think such a piece of work would be really
00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:04.180
useful for the university to you know find out
00:04:04.180 --> 00:04:07.039
more about these spaces so would you like to
00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:09.889
talk about how you went about doing that? Yeah,
00:04:09.909 --> 00:04:13.750
sure. So what we did is we used a sample of flat
00:04:13.750 --> 00:04:15.870
-floored teaching rooms at the university and
00:04:15.870 --> 00:04:19.509
they're all teaching rooms that are looked after
00:04:19.509 --> 00:04:22.610
and timetabled by the main Student Education
00:04:22.610 --> 00:04:25.850
Service timetabling team. And we worked with
00:04:25.850 --> 00:04:28.870
timetabling to help to identify the rooms that
00:04:28.870 --> 00:04:31.050
we were going to use in the study and we looked
00:04:31.050 --> 00:04:34.069
for as many kind of different layouts as we could
00:04:34.069 --> 00:04:36.589
use. So we tried to use... pretty much all of
00:04:36.589 --> 00:04:38.529
the layouts that are available in flat floor
00:04:38.529 --> 00:04:41.569
teaching spaces. We wanted to get kind of like
00:04:41.569 --> 00:04:45.290
a wide variety of feedback and experiences from
00:04:45.290 --> 00:04:47.829
students and staff. So we got rooms from all
00:04:47.829 --> 00:04:50.920
around our campus as well. So in terms of the
00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:54.180
layouts, we had eight layouts in total and they
00:04:54.180 --> 00:04:56.699
considered things like whether students were
00:04:56.699 --> 00:05:00.860
in groups, whether the tables were arranged in
00:05:00.860 --> 00:05:04.720
rows, the shapes of the tables. So we had some
00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:08.319
rooms with these kind of trapezoid tables that
00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:10.459
could create a hexagon if they're arranged in
00:05:10.459 --> 00:05:13.579
groups, but can also be arranged in rows. We
00:05:13.579 --> 00:05:17.160
had rooms with those chairs with flip desks.
00:05:17.740 --> 00:05:20.899
We considered rooms that have multimedia or
00:05:20.899 --> 00:05:23.480
tech options. So there are several rooms in the
00:05:23.480 --> 00:05:27.240
university that have a table with a screen attached
00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:31.220
so that students can work on multimedia presentations
00:05:31.220 --> 00:05:35.259
or have tech available for when they're... undertaking
00:05:35.259 --> 00:05:37.980
their learning tasks in those rooms and we had
00:05:37.980 --> 00:05:41.220
a couple of rooms with a more unusual layout
00:05:41.220 --> 00:05:44.899
where they had a kind of a table with almost
00:05:44.899 --> 00:05:48.600
like a sofa seating around the table and we had
00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:50.800
there were just two of those rooms in the university
00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:53.779
but we included those as well in our study. Aside
00:05:53.779 --> 00:05:56.620
from that layout we had three rooms of every
00:05:56.620 --> 00:05:59.959
layout that we included in the study. And then
00:05:59.959 --> 00:06:03.680
in order to identify people and invite them to
00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:06.259
participate in the study, timetabling shared
00:06:06.259 --> 00:06:08.759
with us all of the scheduled sessions that were
00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:11.139
being held in the study rooms that we'd identified.
00:06:11.930 --> 00:06:15.449
in the first semester of the 2023 -24 academic
00:06:15.449 --> 00:06:20.129
year. And we looked at these data and we identified
00:06:20.129 --> 00:06:22.709
which modules had regular sessions in the rooms
00:06:22.709 --> 00:06:25.589
because we wanted to start collecting data sort
00:06:25.589 --> 00:06:28.389
of midway through the semester so people had
00:06:28.389 --> 00:06:30.870
an opportunity to get settled into the new academic
00:06:30.870 --> 00:06:34.069
year and everything like that. And we identified
00:06:34.069 --> 00:06:37.649
342 different modules that had regular sessions
00:06:37.649 --> 00:06:41.079
in the rooms. And we invited the module leaders
00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:44.480
for all of those modules to participate via email.
00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:48.800
And we shared with them what would be involved
00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:51.660
in participation. So what we were asking module
00:06:51.660 --> 00:06:55.680
leaders or the relevant tutor on the module who
00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:59.060
was asked to facilitate the data collection to
00:06:59.060 --> 00:07:03.610
do. was to firstly identify a session on that
00:07:03.610 --> 00:07:06.610
module in the study room where they could collect
00:07:06.610 --> 00:07:09.110
data. So data were collected with reference to
00:07:09.110 --> 00:07:12.389
one session rather than the whole module. To
00:07:12.389 --> 00:07:14.649
introduce the research to the students in that
00:07:14.649 --> 00:07:17.689
session and invite them to participate. by completing
00:07:17.689 --> 00:07:19.449
a student questionnaire which would be shared
00:07:19.449 --> 00:07:22.730
in the session and ideally we asked if they would
00:07:22.730 --> 00:07:24.689
be able to give five or ten minutes at the end
00:07:24.689 --> 00:07:26.410
of the session for students to complete that
00:07:26.410 --> 00:07:30.389
questionnaire but we also provided emails so
00:07:30.389 --> 00:07:33.310
in case it wasn't possible to provide that time
00:07:33.310 --> 00:07:35.370
in the session students could still be invited
00:07:35.370 --> 00:07:38.709
to participate via email and we also asked staff
00:07:38.709 --> 00:07:41.449
to complete a staff questionnaire as well with
00:07:41.449 --> 00:07:44.279
reference to that that particular kind of sample
00:07:44.279 --> 00:07:49.300
session. We had 54 modules that agreed to take
00:07:49.300 --> 00:07:52.519
part and that represented 16 % of all of the
00:07:52.519 --> 00:07:56.560
different modules invited. So we had two surveys
00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:59.269
that we used to collect data. And both of the
00:07:59.269 --> 00:08:01.110
surveys collected things like some demographic
00:08:01.110 --> 00:08:04.110
data and they asked both staff and students about
00:08:04.110 --> 00:08:06.910
things like the environmental conditions in the
00:08:06.910 --> 00:08:09.829
room. So things like heating, cooling, lighting,
00:08:09.949 --> 00:08:13.129
those sorts of things. They asked both questionnaires
00:08:13.129 --> 00:08:15.269
asked about technology and they asked about furniture
00:08:15.269 --> 00:08:18.889
provision. And then in the student questionnaire,
00:08:19.189 --> 00:08:21.589
students were asked about. their experiences
00:08:21.589 --> 00:08:24.269
of the session with reference to the different
00:08:24.269 --> 00:08:26.930
activities that they took part in in that session.
00:08:27.170 --> 00:08:29.730
So if they took part in group work, they were
00:08:29.730 --> 00:08:33.049
asked about how the room facilitated or hindered
00:08:33.049 --> 00:08:35.870
their participation in group work. If it was
00:08:35.870 --> 00:08:38.309
a session with lecturing, they were asked questions
00:08:38.309 --> 00:08:41.450
about how the layout influenced their experience
00:08:41.450 --> 00:08:45.639
of a lecturing activity in the room. And they
00:08:45.639 --> 00:08:47.559
were also asked about the preferences for any
00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:50.460
room layouts. In the staff survey, we asked about
00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:54.019
the sort of activities and pedagogies that staff
00:08:54.019 --> 00:08:56.759
had planned to undertake or to use in the sessions.
00:08:57.059 --> 00:08:59.919
And we asked them again about their, or as well,
00:09:00.039 --> 00:09:02.820
about their preferences in terms of room layout
00:09:02.820 --> 00:09:06.259
and whether they had particular preferences in...
00:09:06.679 --> 00:09:08.960
their ability to do particular things in a session
00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:11.139
for example to be able to move around the room
00:09:11.139 --> 00:09:14.100
to be able to sit at tables with students for
00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:16.299
example when doing group work and these kinds
00:09:16.299 --> 00:09:19.399
of things and the survey was open for that whole
00:09:19.399 --> 00:09:22.639
of that first semester it closed at the end of
00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:26.240
the the calendar year and at the time of closure
00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:30.559
we had 31 responses from staff and 195 student
00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:34.460
responses Cool. Well, it really sounds like you
00:09:34.460 --> 00:09:36.679
thought of everything in this research. You know,
00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:40.139
you've got every type of seminar room and also
00:09:40.139 --> 00:09:44.460
asking both students and staff. Sounds like you
00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:49.679
will have got quite a rich data set from this
00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:51.820
research. So could you tell us a bit about what
00:09:51.820 --> 00:09:54.419
you found out in this research? Yeah, sure. And
00:09:54.419 --> 00:09:56.200
actually, we should really credit Hayley with
00:09:56.200 --> 00:09:58.759
a lot of the work in that design phase as well.
00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:02.480
So she worked really hard on on that kind of
00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:04.879
design piece. But then moving forwards to thinking
00:10:04.879 --> 00:10:08.019
about what we found out then. And I'll let Izzy
00:10:08.019 --> 00:10:10.980
and Linda explain some of this, because we three
00:10:10.980 --> 00:10:13.580
of us collectively work together on the analysis.
00:10:13.720 --> 00:10:17.240
So I did a lot of the quantitative data. Izzy
00:10:17.240 --> 00:10:20.740
and Hayley did a lot of the qualitative data
00:10:20.740 --> 00:10:23.769
from students and Lynda did. a lot of the qualitative
00:10:23.769 --> 00:10:26.190
data from staff and then we brought all of those
00:10:26.190 --> 00:10:28.929
findings together. So I'll explain a little bit
00:10:28.929 --> 00:10:30.809
about the demographics which are a bit more quant
00:10:30.809 --> 00:10:34.029
and then let Izzy and Lynda explain what we kind
00:10:34.029 --> 00:10:37.230
of found out from the qualitative data. So in
00:10:37.230 --> 00:10:40.090
terms of students, we collected data from students
00:10:40.090 --> 00:10:43.049
in all of the faculties of the university, so
00:10:43.049 --> 00:10:45.210
all seven faculties and the Lifelong Learning
00:10:45.210 --> 00:10:48.470
Centre. But it's worth mentioning that of the
00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:52.509
195 responses that we got from students, 108
00:10:52.509 --> 00:10:54.889
of them came from students who were studying
00:10:54.889 --> 00:10:57.509
in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures.
00:10:57.549 --> 00:10:59.830
So there is a little bit of a kind of a skew
00:10:59.830 --> 00:11:03.620
towards that faculty in our data set. Most of
00:11:03.620 --> 00:11:06.240
the responses we got from students were from
00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:09.519
undergraduate students. So that was 124 of our
00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:12.320
respondents were undergraduate students. And
00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:14.879
of those, almost half of them were first years.
00:11:14.940 --> 00:11:19.039
And the remaining kind of sample was a range
00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:21.860
of students from between the second and the fourth
00:11:21.860 --> 00:11:25.070
year of their undergraduate degree. from staff
00:11:25.070 --> 00:11:28.429
again we got data from staff from all seven faculties
00:11:28.429 --> 00:11:31.549
and the Lifelong Learning Centre and so we got
00:11:31.549 --> 00:11:34.129
kind of a range of responses from across the
00:11:34.129 --> 00:11:36.929
university but with that bias towards people
00:11:36.929 --> 00:11:39.230
working or studying in the faculty of arts humanities
00:11:39.230 --> 00:11:42.940
and cultures um I'll hand over to Izzy to explain
00:11:42.940 --> 00:11:44.940
a little bit about what we found out from students.
00:11:45.820 --> 00:11:47.919
So for the students, I've just picked out a few
00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:52.519
of the key findings. So 50 % of the student respondents
00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:55.379
did say that they had a layout preference. And
00:11:55.379 --> 00:11:57.820
the main reason for these preferences were the
00:11:57.820 --> 00:11:59.779
physical factors of the room. So the comfort
00:11:59.779 --> 00:12:02.559
of the chairs was a big thing for them, as well
00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:04.360
as having a good amount of space. It was actually
00:12:04.360 --> 00:12:07.200
reported that overcrowding would have a negative
00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:10.970
impact on their learning experience. Also, it
00:12:10.970 --> 00:12:12.330
was really important that they felt they had
00:12:12.330 --> 00:12:15.649
an enabling and adaptable layout. For example,
00:12:15.809 --> 00:12:18.149
being able to rearrange the furniture depending
00:12:18.149 --> 00:12:20.870
on the activity, making it easier to talk to
00:12:20.870 --> 00:12:23.710
their peers and have a group discussion. But
00:12:23.710 --> 00:12:25.870
also, they did want to be able to clearly see
00:12:25.870 --> 00:12:28.529
the screens and the lecturer that was teaching.
00:12:28.929 --> 00:12:32.549
So here we can see a clear tension between the
00:12:32.549 --> 00:12:34.450
students' desires to be able to work effectively
00:12:34.450 --> 00:12:37.330
in groups, but also being able to see whiteboards,
00:12:37.389 --> 00:12:41.269
screens. and the tutor. So providing furniture
00:12:41.269 --> 00:12:43.649
that's quick and easy to rearrange and avoiding
00:12:43.649 --> 00:12:47.350
storing additional furniture seems to be an important
00:12:47.350 --> 00:12:49.490
consideration that we should think about in order
00:12:49.490 --> 00:12:52.509
to optimise their learning experience. So I guess
00:12:52.509 --> 00:12:55.909
that tension is because in some of the group
00:12:55.909 --> 00:12:59.250
layouts that we used, they were arranged so that
00:12:59.250 --> 00:13:01.570
maybe half the table faced the front of the room
00:13:01.570 --> 00:13:03.750
and half the table faced the back of the room.
00:13:03.970 --> 00:13:08.379
Yeah? Yeah. And I'm going to hand over to Linda,
00:13:08.539 --> 00:13:09.899
who's going to tell us a bit about some of the
00:13:09.899 --> 00:13:13.100
staff data. Thank you, Izzy. My part is about
00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:17.559
staff result. So I'm responsible to analyse 31
00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:21.460
staff questionnaire. And now I'm sharing some
00:13:21.460 --> 00:13:25.200
like main findings. So there are four main features
00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:27.480
for staff in the space to support their teaching.
00:13:27.539 --> 00:13:30.120
So there are collaboration, interaction, flexibility
00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:34.340
and mobility. In the following part, I will just
00:13:34.340 --> 00:13:37.600
from three perspective to further showing the
00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:40.740
like result details. So from layout and furniture
00:13:40.740 --> 00:13:45.240
part, the staff show the strong preference for
00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:48.659
the space can support the group work. They particularly
00:13:48.659 --> 00:13:53.179
mentioned the separate group seats. And they
00:13:53.179 --> 00:13:56.100
also mentioned it's really ideal in a space equipped
00:13:56.100 --> 00:13:58.980
with the lightweight furniture like chairs and
00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:02.039
tables with wheels so can easily move this furniture.
00:14:02.220 --> 00:14:05.379
to reorganize the space layout to suit different
00:14:05.379 --> 00:14:09.659
types of collaborative activities. And they also
00:14:09.659 --> 00:14:12.399
mentioned mobility is really important for them.
00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:16.240
Staff mentioned they really need space to move
00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:18.779
around to check students' work during the group
00:14:18.779 --> 00:14:22.120
work and also the ability to do some monitoring
00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:25.539
is also very important so they can just support
00:14:25.539 --> 00:14:28.460
students when they have any problems or they
00:14:28.460 --> 00:14:32.129
can just join the students' conversation. From
00:14:32.129 --> 00:14:34.730
technology side, it's really important in the
00:14:34.730 --> 00:14:36.990
space they have reliable technologies because
00:14:36.990 --> 00:14:38.970
some teachers mentioned that in the space, some
00:14:38.970 --> 00:14:41.750
technology does just not work because some like
00:14:41.750 --> 00:14:46.450
issues like microphone or lecture capture technologies
00:14:46.450 --> 00:14:48.929
did not work. So it's quite important to check
00:14:48.929 --> 00:14:51.950
the technology in the space. And also stuff mentioned
00:14:51.950 --> 00:14:55.740
like if they. The university can provide some
00:14:55.740 --> 00:14:59.500
training courses for them. It can help them to
00:14:59.500 --> 00:15:01.820
enhance the confidence to use those advanced
00:15:01.820 --> 00:15:05.419
technologies in the space. And also for the space
00:15:05.419 --> 00:15:08.120
environment, a lot of stuff mentioned in the
00:15:08.120 --> 00:15:10.299
space, the temperature control works not well,
00:15:10.360 --> 00:15:13.620
like the space either too hot or too cold will
00:15:13.620 --> 00:15:16.220
affect students' and teachers' space -using experience.
00:15:17.299 --> 00:15:20.100
The students definitely commented on that as
00:15:20.100 --> 00:15:22.980
well, that various rooms were too hot or too
00:15:22.980 --> 00:15:25.279
cold. They couldn't do the temperature control
00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:27.460
and they also couldn't open windows if they wanted
00:15:27.460 --> 00:15:30.820
to. Yeah, so based on all of the data that we
00:15:30.820 --> 00:15:33.080
collected from staff and students and the analyses
00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:36.759
that the three of us undertook, we identified
00:15:36.759 --> 00:15:41.120
10 sort of factors or considerations that those
00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:44.139
people who were designing flat forward learning
00:15:44.139 --> 00:15:48.049
spaces could consider. to be able to maximise
00:15:48.049 --> 00:15:51.029
the student and staff experience in using those
00:15:51.029 --> 00:15:54.990
spaces and also the ability of tutors to achieve
00:15:54.990 --> 00:15:58.460
their pedagogical aims. So the first factor was
00:15:58.460 --> 00:16:00.899
that there was a clear desire from both staff
00:16:00.899 --> 00:16:03.220
and students to prioritise room layouts that
00:16:03.220 --> 00:16:06.100
allowed students to work in groups. And the second
00:16:06.100 --> 00:16:08.440
one, layouts that allow students to easily see
00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:12.019
the screen or the whiteboard and or the tutor,
00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:14.799
depending on what's the focus at a particular
00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:19.789
time in a session. It would be a great idea in
00:16:19.789 --> 00:16:22.309
terms of the third point to provide furniture
00:16:22.309 --> 00:16:25.190
that can be quickly and easily rearranged. So
00:16:25.190 --> 00:16:28.490
if there are staff who want to use multiple pedagogies
00:16:28.490 --> 00:16:31.429
in a session, they can do that easily. So, for
00:16:31.429 --> 00:16:34.830
example, a mixture of lecturing and group work.
00:16:34.929 --> 00:16:37.929
You have a phase where perhaps you want everyone
00:16:37.929 --> 00:16:40.070
to be able to see the front of the room and then
00:16:40.070 --> 00:16:42.289
a phase where you want people to be able to cluster
00:16:42.289 --> 00:16:46.090
and work effectively in groups. The fourth point
00:16:46.090 --> 00:16:49.529
was that where possible, it's a good idea to
00:16:49.529 --> 00:16:51.789
allow for additional space in the room. So there
00:16:51.789 --> 00:16:54.029
were comments from staff and students around
00:16:54.029 --> 00:16:59.169
overcrowding. And so it's desirable for staff
00:16:59.169 --> 00:17:01.289
to be able to move around the room with ease
00:17:01.289 --> 00:17:03.809
and for students not to feel a sense of overcrowding.
00:17:04.230 --> 00:17:06.809
And related to that, the fifth point was that
00:17:06.809 --> 00:17:09.630
it's ideal to avoid storing additional furniture
00:17:09.630 --> 00:17:13.519
in flat -floored rooms. The sixth point was to
00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:16.160
prioritise layouts that provide adequate personal
00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:18.539
workspace for students. So when students were
00:17:18.539 --> 00:17:20.799
talking about overcrowding, they weren't only
00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:22.940
talking about the amount of people and furniture
00:17:22.940 --> 00:17:25.480
in the room, but also the amount of space that
00:17:25.480 --> 00:17:28.500
they had to work on. So, for example, some students
00:17:28.500 --> 00:17:33.440
spoke negatively or commented negatively on using
00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:37.180
flip desks that were attached to the chairs because
00:17:37.180 --> 00:17:39.460
they didn't have a large amount of space to be
00:17:39.460 --> 00:17:42.200
able to work on when they needed to. needed to
00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:47.160
do that. The seventh point was to consider providing
00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:49.480
the means to control heating and cooling in each
00:17:49.480 --> 00:17:52.819
room so that that environmental factor can be
00:17:52.819 --> 00:17:56.619
optimized for the users. The eighth point was
00:17:56.619 --> 00:17:58.799
to prioritise seating options that were designed
00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:01.140
for comfort. So there was a clear desire from
00:18:01.140 --> 00:18:03.759
students to have seating that was comfortable.
00:18:03.900 --> 00:18:06.460
And staff also commented on the fact that if
00:18:06.460 --> 00:18:09.240
students have comfortable seating, that might
00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:12.200
allow them to be able to focus and pay attention
00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:14.740
and therefore have a benefit for their learning.
00:18:15.980 --> 00:18:18.740
The ninth was to signpost any available training
00:18:18.740 --> 00:18:21.920
on using technology that's provided in flat floored
00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:23.839
spaces, which is something that Lynda was just
00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:26.680
talking about. And then the last and 10th point
00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:29.960
was to consider offering guidance to staff that
00:18:29.960 --> 00:18:33.880
links the spaces or layouts and appropriate pedagogies
00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:36.880
for use within them. So there was a comment from
00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:39.700
a couple of members of staff saying that it would
00:18:39.700 --> 00:18:42.579
be great to have a little bit of guidance with
00:18:42.579 --> 00:18:45.180
respect to that. So, yeah, so those were our
00:18:45.180 --> 00:18:49.220
kind. of 10 considerations that those people
00:18:49.220 --> 00:18:52.220
who may be using this data could take into account
00:18:52.220 --> 00:18:54.960
when designing future flat -floored learning
00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:58.759
spaces. Yeah, and I really like how clear each
00:18:58.759 --> 00:19:01.299
of these factors are and you can really see how
00:19:01.299 --> 00:19:04.660
knowing this information could help with the
00:19:04.660 --> 00:19:07.559
future design of seminar rooms and spaces like
00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:09.599
them. So it seems like there might be an opportunity
00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:12.700
to use this data in practice in the future to
00:19:12.700 --> 00:19:15.420
help design these spaces. And I can see a really
00:19:15.420 --> 00:19:18.720
clear link to the work that myself and Linda
00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:21.619
have done on the education spaces playbook and
00:19:21.619 --> 00:19:26.140
kind of trying to incorporate research into our
00:19:26.140 --> 00:19:30.140
decision making for future design decisions.
00:19:30.700 --> 00:19:33.200
So I just wondered, maybe Lynda, if you could
00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:35.599
talk to us about the opportunities to use this
00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:40.829
data in practice. Yeah, so I think seminar room
00:19:40.829 --> 00:19:43.410
research report is kind of valuable resources
00:19:43.410 --> 00:19:47.230
for future space design and evaluation process
00:19:47.230 --> 00:19:51.150
for University of Leeds. Because in this research,
00:19:51.190 --> 00:19:54.150
we include in the like data from both teacher
00:19:54.150 --> 00:19:56.890
and students perspective, like from like space
00:19:56.890 --> 00:20:01.250
design, furniture, space environment and technology
00:20:01.250 --> 00:20:05.970
to provide some practical suggestions. So I think
00:20:05.970 --> 00:20:08.750
these findings can guide departments like e -state,
00:20:08.930 --> 00:20:12.529
IT services and other departments might be related
00:20:12.529 --> 00:20:15.549
in future space design or refurbishment project
00:20:15.549 --> 00:20:18.390
to help them to optimize education spaces project
00:20:18.390 --> 00:20:22.769
and improve user experience. And also, as you
00:20:22.769 --> 00:20:25.829
mentioned, Ollie, we just create the education
00:20:25.829 --> 00:20:28.410
spaces playbook and I can see it's really worth
00:20:28.410 --> 00:20:32.269
to include seminar room research in the formal
00:20:32.269 --> 00:20:35.259
teaching spaces part. And for those people who
00:20:35.259 --> 00:20:37.960
didn't know the playbook, you can listen to our
00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:41.319
first episode. So basically, the Education Spaces
00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:44.079
Playbook is kind of space guidance reference
00:20:44.079 --> 00:20:47.220
book. So we include a lot of practical recommendations
00:20:47.220 --> 00:20:51.000
from internal and external reports and also use
00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:53.559
the PST framework, pedagogy, space technology,
00:20:53.819 --> 00:20:58.210
and user experience to further analyse each
00:20:58.210 --> 00:21:01.970
space. So it's kind of really useful resources
00:21:01.970 --> 00:21:06.509
for both academics and other staff from other
00:21:06.509 --> 00:21:09.769
departments who get interested in the user experience
00:21:09.769 --> 00:21:13.529
for education spaces. So yeah, so I can see it's
00:21:13.529 --> 00:21:16.269
really helpful and useful information in the
00:21:16.269 --> 00:21:18.829
future. Cool. That sounds like a really interesting
00:21:18.829 --> 00:21:20.529
piece of work and something that would be really
00:21:20.529 --> 00:21:23.089
useful for the future design of our seminar spaces.
00:21:23.609 --> 00:21:26.069
So thanks very much for coming along, you three.
00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:28.720
It's been really great having you talking with
00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.619
us today. Thanks, Ollie. Thank you. And be sure
00:21:32.619 --> 00:21:34.420
to come back for the next episode of the LITE Bites
00:21:34.420 --> 00:21:37.640
podcast. See you later. Bye.
