Project 2: Collaborative spaces for Online-Meets-Physical Learning and Teaching.

Participants: Ina Thiesies-Cremer, Brian Liebig (Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences)

The learning space project COMPLETE has been implemented at the Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences (HRW) since 01.08.2021 and is funded by the Foundation Innovation in University Teaching. In the project, students, teachers and employees of the central university services jointly design and realize their hybrid campus of the future. The aim is to create a holistic overall learning architecture that optimally combines physical and virtual learning spaces and creates room for new learning opportunities and scenarios. The core objectives of the project are to consistently redesign the existing spaces in a learner-centric manner, to enable hybrid scenarios at the university locations in Mülheim and Bottrop, and to design fluid transitions between formalized and student learning spaces. For this purpose, on the one hand, the existing student learning spaces will be redesigned and expanded, which have already been optimized since 2016 as part of the university library’s learning space initiative. On the other hand, three traditional classrooms will become pilot teaching-learning spaces that not only allow for flexible and creative collaboration, but actively encourage it, thus spatially mapping the “shift from teaching to learning.” The conception of these rooms is based on pilot events that will take place in them in the future, which will receive continuous technical and didactic support. As scalable prototypes, these classrooms will lay the foundation for a long-term renewal process at HRW.