The rise of informal Learning Spaces: Design, Challenge and Assessment

If the innovative physical Learning Spaces became a hot topic in every countries’ Higher Education Systems, among them the informal ones – and the Learning Commons and the Learning Centres in particular – significantly rose in the institutions’ focus during the last years. Often presented as the future of the universities libraries, where most of them are located, they hold huge ambitions in the improvement of the students experience, as well as the institutions visibility.

A first phase of this session will present the major trends of the informal Learning Spaces. Their design principles (location on the campus, layout, furnishing, technology) will be addressed, aligned with the students’ requests regarding their features. Considering the challenges they have to overcome, their typical position in the campus context and in the institution’s strategy, as well as the different kinds of internal and external competitions those spaces have to face in their settlement will be illustrated as well.

As a second phase, and following the exchanges led during the first one, we will foster on the fundamental question of the assessment of the informal Learning Spaces, especially through the angle of the qualification of the practices (teaching and learning ones, and beyond), and discuss the border between the formal and the informal ones.

In that sense, the session will explore the ways to create a common framework and language for the evaluation of the informal spaces.