1.0 INTRODUCTION:

This reflective commentary focuses on Room 901 usage atRavensbourne University, mainly utilised by the BA Games Development course onwhich I have lectured for over a year. The cohort currently consists of 50+students. At the time of writing this commentary, Ravensbourne University is undergoingunprecedented drastic changes, such as re-opening from post covid pandemic, inwhich students have been predominantly learning online, changes in leadership anda focus on rapid student expansion. All of these mentioned above havedrastically impacted the effectiveness of the initial purpose for which the buildingwas designed.

Using the SWOT reflective model, I will critically review the current space’s usagewith considerations for potential enhancements informed by research. Undertakingthis PGCert has given me an excellent opportunity to improve my knowledge ofstudent learning environments, helping me tackle vital questions I had neverprioritised before, such as: How can I improve my physical/digital learningspaces? How does the environment support or affect my teaching style/pedagogy?

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1.1 OVERVIEW:

The Ravensbourne website states that the building was designed to: “encourage collaboration between the different disciplines and practices within Ravensbourne and to stimulate the work of creative professionals.” (Our building,2023).

The architect of the building, Farshid Moussavi, also supports this, quoted saying:
“This variety of formal and informal learning spaces, together with the flexible studio spaces, have provided Ravensbourne with a 21^st-century learning environment which is no longer focused on the teacher-centred paradigm but a learner-centred paradigm.” Our building (2023).

While simultaneously a lecturer and practitioner in the games and entertainment industry, one of my personalgoals, core to my teaching pedagogy, has always been to replicate a learning environment that closely mirrors the creative sector. [K1, V4] This is because I believe one of the critical tenants of education is “training people for employment”(Ferguson, R, 2017, p. 6), which I have found especially true among peers in the games industry. [V1, V4].

Before we can assess the current quality of the learning environment in room 901, I will first give a brief overview of what a learning environment is.

According to Dr Tony Bates, author of eleven books in the field of online learning and distance education, a learning environment is:

“A total context in which students are working, and it will include…the design,taking account of student differences and diversity, taking account of what skills and knowledge you are trying to develop, what kind of support you can give them throughout their learning." (ChangSchool,2015)

While Bates’s assessment of a learning environment commonly focuses on the total context of a lecturer’s role in designing and fostering a learning environment, I primarily utilised Robin Hoyle's learner-centred approach during his Creating an Effective Learning Environment presentation. Hoyle illustrates four critical dimensions of an effective learning environment:

“Development Responsibility,Infrastructure, Capability and Culture.” (Huthwaite International,2019); these concepts will be further explored in section 1.5: Utilising the Space.

Room 901 is located on the 9^thfloor at Ravensbourne. It is an enclosed dedicated computer lab space—housing 50 desktop machines, with two large projector screens in the front of the room. At first glance, the projector screens indicate a demarcation of the space;perhaps it was designed to accommodate two lectures simultaneously. Unfortunately,both projectors are controlled by one central unit, meaning only one teaching content can simultaneously be displayed on both screens.

The tables and machines are fixed to the ground, and each table has double monitors, making navigation through the space quite tricky. On further inspection, the room seems to have been designed with a focus on a traditional, formal, teacher/knowledge-focused,“sage on the stage” learning environment (McWilliam, 2009).
[K2, V3]

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1.2 STRENGTHS:

Room 901 is a lab space where game students meet regularly. It is a space dedicated to their “community of practice”. A place that they claim ownership of within Ravensbourne University. [V1, V2]

Room 901 is the only space in Ravensbourne, apart from during the degree show, where student works get displayed, also adding to the feeling of ownership. [K2]

The room’s ambient lighting is usually dark, which helps avoid sensory overload and distractions. Helping to reduce/eliminate visual and auditory distractions that may prevent the student from focusing.The lighting can also be easily controlled, allowing the option to brighten the room with overhead lights when needed. [V1, V2] (Cooke, 2022)

The room is fully equipped with 50 high-end computers, vital for game development. This helps to ensure all students have equality of opportunity for learning. [V2]

Room 901 has ample storage, with abroad selection of old to modern books and games readily available for students,ensuring students are not limited by their economic status to participate in their learning and development. [K1, K2, V2]

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1.3: ROOM 901: WEAKNESSES

The workstations being bolted to the floor and the access port to the dual displays at the front of the room make the learning environment restrictive for different kinds of teaching activities/styles, apart from sage on the stage. (McWilliam, 2009).

Due to the size of the room and the lack of a vocal sound system, the lecturer needs to shout to be heard across the room by all the students.

Due to the number of High-end machines in the room, the room must always be kept at a cooler-than-average room temperature. This is especially exasperated during the winter months.

Limited space for students and lecturers to easily move around the space when the room is at total capacity due to the large desk monitors and current seating arrangement.

Monitors create a physical barrier between students and lecturers, affecting “meaningful engagement” in reference to (Segan, 2018), who emphasises concepts such as ‘access, ‘participation’, and ‘inclusivity’. [V2, V3]

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1.4 THREATS:

Room 901’s windows cannot be opened. As the cohort continues to grow due to Ravensbourne’s focus on student growth, there is a potential health and safety risk regarding the quality of oxygen available in the space over time.

As laptops become more powerful and access to cloud computing becomes more easily accessible and affordable, the current machines in room 901 will become outdated, requiring a total renovation of the space. This Is already taking place in the creative industry due to the Covid Pandemic that forced studios to make their pipelines remote-friendly due to lockdowns. [K1, V4]

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1.5 UTILISING THE SPACE:

Upon using room 901 during my learning activity. I decided to split the lesson into two significant parts. At the beginning of the session, students continued working on their game design projects at their workstations. At this point, I acted as a guide, offering help and assistance when needed. During the second half of the session, I progressed from a “guide” to a “meddler in the middle”, introducing new design theories with group activities before ending as a “sage on a stage” to conclude the session.(McWilliam, 2009). [K1, K2, V1]

As students worked individually during the first half of the session, I implemented “Flipped learning” (Bergmann,2016). Students had access to a curated resource list prior to the session on Aula. Aula is our primary way of distributing course-specific content to the students and receiving and marking student work. So far, the students have engaged with the digital learning environment Aula provides, but their emotional response is that of hesitation and apprehension. They use it out of necessity rather than convenience. [K1,K2]

I believe using flipped, and in-flipped learning is vital to help promote an understanding between the students and lecturer that their “developmental responsibility” is not solely dependent on the lecturer during class time but is co-dependent in and out of the classroom. This is one of the critical concepts earlier referenced by Hoyle.(Huthwaite International,2019) [K1, K2, V1, V3]

I later utilised the large projector screens during the second half to showcase a video with accompanying slides. After the video, students were asked engaging questions in one large group, resulting in meaningful student responses and questions. This implemented the second part of Hoyle’s critical concept for an effective learning environment, “Infrastructure”. (Huthwaite International,2019).

Hoyle suggests that if your best way to encourage learning is “just googling it, “you have poor infrastructure. So,I made sure that the students learning involved utilising each other’s backgrounds and life experiences unique to what Google could offer. I also provided and displayed a range of topic-related books in the centre of the room.Encouraging the students to use easily access a range of sources. [ V1, K2]

I finally used a portable handheld gaming device. I streamed it to the projector screen, allowing students to engage with the earlier introduced course material in the lesson meaningfully that is familiar to them. [ K1, K2,]

1.6 ENHANCEMENT PLAN:

There is a space in the middle of room 901; I plan to use half of it as a laptop hot spot, where students can use their laptops with more desk space. The space can seat 10-20 students, which is great for having small groups [K2].

I also want to Create a small“Safe Zone”, as seen in the sketch below. With two large couches. Based on research by (Sagan, 2018) [V1], I discovered that a classroom could be linked to emotional spaces. I also liked Sagan’s idea of having a dedicated area for students to recuperate and relax. I plan to use the other half of the middle of room 901 for this purpose. I believe this will also have a positive impact on neurodiverse students, also outlined by (Lave, 2019) [V4], Helping to create an environment fit for “Legitimate Peripheral Participation”.[V2]

Utilise Discord as an alternate digital space for easy access to peer knowledge exchange. Discord was created to be a tool for online gamers to communicate with each other while gaming. (Hadji-Vasilev,2022). On the Games course, we have started to use it to further engage with the students. I plan to further utilise it by creating course-specific sections where students can upload course-relevant resources they find; this will further help build the infrastructure of their digital learning environment with an archive of student-sourced information, which would be helpful for future students [K2].

Finally, I plan to utilise a shared Xbox life Cloud Subscription to add to their digital learning environment. This will allow lectures to assign games that students can play at home without being limited by finances; as long as they have an internet connection, they can stream the game to their devices. This aims to ensure equality of learning and cater to students who prefer to learn from their homes. [V1, V2]

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1.7 CONCLUSION:

Planning and executing this has opened my eyes to the critical challenges of teaching in room 901. Although the room currently has major hindrances limiting its flexibility. I am confident this can be elevated with the proposed enhancement plans mentioned above. I also believe that as laptops become more power full and Cloud computing becomes more prevalent, room 901 has great potential to become a hybrid of sorts, housing both traditional high-end workstations with more spaces dedicated to laptop streaming.  Providing more space for further student freedom and participation fit for a more learner-centred paradigm as the building was initially designed to accomplish.

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REFERENCES:

Bergmann, J. (2016). Simplifying Flipped Learning. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hwu3xqbMKw&t=236s
[Accessed:23 Jan. 2023]

Ferguson, R., Barzilai, S., Ben-Zvi, D., Chinn, C.A.,Herodotou, C., Hod, Y., Kali, Y., Kukulska-Hulme, A., Kupermintz, H., McAndrew,P., Rienties, B., Sagy, O., Scanlon, E., Sharples, M., Weller, M., &Whitelock, D. (2017). Innovating Pedagogy 2017: Open University InnovationReport 6. Milton Keynes: The Open University, UK.

Lave, J. (2019). Lave and Wenger on Situated Learning - NewLearning Online. [online] Newlearningonline.com. Available at:
https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-6/lave-and-wenger-on-situated-learning
[Accessed 15 Jan. 2023]

Our building (2023). Available at: https://www.ravensbourne.ac.uk/student-life/our-building
[Accessed: 15 January 2023].

Chang School (2015) Dr Tony Bates on Building EffectiveLearning Environments Youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xD_sLNGurA&ab_channel=ChangSchool
[Accessed: 19 January 2023].

Huthwaite International (2019). Creating an EffectiveLearning Environment. Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bza8kPKlx9w&ab_channel=HuthwaiteInternational
[Accessed: 19 December 2023].

McWilliam, E. (2009). Teaching for Creativity: From sage to guide to meddler. Asia Pacific Journal of Education.

Cooke, H. (2022). Autism at university. [PowerPointPresentation]. Neurodiversity Training, 10^th June, London.

Hadji-Vasilev, A. (2022) 20 Discord Statistics, Facts and Trends for 2023, Cloudwards. Available at:https://www.cloudwards.net/discord-statistics/
[Accessed: 15 January 2023].

Sagan, O. (2018). Playgrounds, studios and hiding places:emotional exchange in creative learning spaces. In: D. Bahgat and P. O'Neill,ed., Inclusive Practices, Inclusive Pedagogies. [online] Croydon: CPI Group (UK)Ltd. Available at:https://ukadia.ac.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2013/11/Inclusive_Practices_Inclusive_Pedagogies.pdf [Accessed 23 Jan. 2023]

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