Learning Space Collaboratory

LSC Portfolio 1

The Learning Spaces Collaboratory, established in 2010, is an informal community of academics, architects, and diverse of communities of practice focusing on the experience of learners and learning in the undergraduate setting. The LSC has its roots in the work of PKAL (Project Kaleidoscope 1989/2010), an NSF-funded initiative designed to explore what works in undergraduate learning environments in fields supported by the Foundation. Attention to “where” learning happens reflects PKAL’s kaleidoscopic approach to planning.

The LSC is assembling a Resource for those responsible for spaces in which undergraduates experience learning. This Resource will include a range of materials— from the archives of the LSC, PKAL, and other communities of practice—that collectively illustrate the diversity of perspectives, experiences, and expertise essential to realizing learning environments in which all learners flourish.

LSC Portfolio 1 By Era

A. THE LSC VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLES /2020 – 2022

~ The pandemic is realizing new connections across campus, opening new lines of communication among those of us involved with planning. Building new facilities is not driving the future; the future of attention to spaces will rather be about achieving and transforming more use and value from existing campus buildings and grounds. Campuses will be scrutinizing and rethinking what already exists in spaces and resources, and building a future based on that information and data.

~ In this time of C

B. THE LEARNING SPACES COLLABORATORY /2010 - 2015

In 2010, the Learning Spaces Collaboratory was established to focus directly on facilities, which had been an integral of PKAL to that time. This was an opportunity to focus and broaden our attention to where learning happened in the undergraduate setting—in all fields of learning, at institutions of all types.
An early group of LSC leaders assembled in a weekend retreat to identify questions to be addressed in the beginning months of the LSC. Their over-arching question was about what a space could do:

C. THE LEARNING SPACES COLLABORATORY /2015 - 2019

In early 2015, scanning the academic landscape—it was clear there was deep acceptance of the many pioneering pedagogical approaches on campuses—of all kinds—across the country. Scanning the new generation of spaces, it was obvious how they were being designed to accommodate those new approaches. It seemed timely to capture both lessons learned over the past decade and questions being asked that would shape the future of attention to spaces in which undergraduates—in all fields— would flourish.