Classroom Committee Manifesto

This is a working document, subject to refinement and revision, that identifies a set of standards to be applied consistently to teaching space on the University of Oregon campus.

Classroom Committee Manifesto

Background

The classroom committee was formed in 1997. Its charge was to evaluate extant classroom facilities and implement procedures for improving them. Historically, this process started with identifying the "worst" teaching spaces on campus and going from there. Four basic criteria have been used in making these evaluations:

1. Lighting: Is it sufficiently adjustable to accommodate various applications and at maximum brightness does it make the room feel "warm" and engaging.

2. Presentation: Is there adequate presentation equipment in spaces. Is the screen big enough to be viewable, is the lighting adjustable enough so that good contrast exists.

3. Comfort: Is the square foot per student adequate or do the students imitate sardines in a can. Is the classroom furniture sufficiently flexible to accommodate different uses for that room? Do students have adequate work-space? Does the room become excessively warm or excessively cold?

4. Acoustics: Is there a lot of mechanical noise or ambient noise? Can the presenter be clearly heard? Can the audience be heard? Can sound from movies, etc be heard adequately?

The goal of any classroom renovation is to end up with a more functional and engaging teaching space than previously existed. Generally speaking, this procedure has three major components.

1. Upgrades of purely mechanical systems - in some cases these costs can be large (more than l00K).

2. Renovation of the physical space that might include new floors, new seats, wall coverings, paint, new furniture and room layout re-configuration that improves crowd flow and instructor access to students.

3. Installation of more presentation equipment and better screens and better lightning - usually all of this now being controlled from a Crestron control panel.

Historically, individual room renovation projects have ranged from about 50K to 450K, per room. The higher costs renovations reflect the high costs associated with large-scale upgrades of mechanical systems (e.g. Fenton 110).

The Ideal Classroom and Surrounding Environment

Some general trends have been recognized nationally which we are trying to implement locally:

• Faculty strongly prefer hemispheric seating arrangements (e.g. Pacific 123) instead of vertically stacked arrangements (e.g. Willamette 100). The former promotes a sense of inclusion and intimacy, the latter re-enforces a sense of hierarchy and distance.

• Comfortable seating and workspaces for students, adequate lighting levels in the classroom and an environment with good acoustics are important, especially as we move toward fewer class meetings per week but longer per meeting sessions.

• Colors best suited for classrooms reduce agitation, apprehension and promote a sense of well-being. Light yellow-orange, beige, pale or light green, or blue- green are good choices for three of the four wall surfaces. The fourth wall, the front of the room that faces the students, should be a different complementary or at least a darker hue than the other walls. In addition, lighting that most strongly simulates natural lighting is highly beneficial.

• Classroom entrances/portals serve mostly for movement rather than engagement. They should be more colorful and provide both vibrancy and personality through complementary colors. Blackboards and small benches in critical hallway areas outside classrooms can help promote spontaneous after- class discussions.

• An instructor's ability to control room lighting is paramount, and the more lights are equipped with controls that permit continuous adjustment, the better. It is imperative to control any lights that illuminate projection screens TV consoles and "blackboards." Natural light and a connection to the outdoors are highly preferred by both faculty and students. When windows or skylights are present adjustable window coverings are imperative.

• Comfortable furniture is also important. Standard swing-arm chairs are generally judged as murderously uncomfortable by students after about 50 minutes. Bolted-down furniture that prevents teachers from using most available active learning modalities is one of the most detrimental factors to a learning environment Furniture that permits versatility of arrangements and multiple methods of instruction is therefore best. For computer usage in classrooms, students strongly prefer table space, such as that provided in most of the Lillis classrooms.

• Whiteboards with marker pens have proven to be very troublesome- the markers disappear and leave instructors without them when class starts. They also dry up easily and quickly become unusable; a teacher accidentally uses a permanent marker, rather than the dry-erase markers, and ruins the board. Therefore, chalk on blackboards is now strongly preferred, although care must be taken to minimize chalk dust from intrusion into electrical components. Abundant writing space is also strongly desired. Black boards are preferred over green boards for their heightened range of contrast to the chalk.

• Computer presentation equipment should be standard in all classrooms and it should be viewable in mostly full room light. Easy switching between input sources (e.g. document camera, DVD, computer, other) is essential. Adequate screen size so that each student can resolve the characters on the screen is also a must.

Summary

Over time the classroom committee has developed a set of standards, such as those identified above, that it consistently applies to teaching space on the UO campus. Projects are generally selected on the basis of the most egregious deviations from the standards listed above. While it is true that all of our teaching space needs to be updated, the current approach will be maintained until we have a sufficient budget to do something other than a piecemeal corrective approach.