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10/13/2009
UIC News
For the community of the University of Illinois at Chicago
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By Christy Levy
09/23/09
Off-center learning
In new classroom, not a bad seat in the house
Students in English 161, taught by instructor Aaron Krall in the Learn Lab, located in Burnham
Hall. With the new classroom design, students are “doing more talking and produce more work,”
he says.
Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin
When Aaron Krall teaches, he’s not always the center of attention.
Sometimes, his English 161 students work collaboratively in groups. Other times, they write out their
ideas on moveable whiteboards to share with classmates.
What makes it so easy to transition from lecture to group work, Krall says, is the space where he
teaches.
Krall is one of the first instructors to use the UIC Learn Lab, a classroom in Burnham Hall that’s
designed for versatility.
“It’s a really flexible space so we can do a lot of group work or collaborative projects,” said Krall, an
English lecturer.
“I find myself walking around a lot. It’s a very comfortable place to teach.”
The Learn Lab, in B10 Burnhall Hall, was designed so that there’s no real center of the room, said David
Taeyaerts, director of the Office of Campus Learning Environments.
“It completely moves away from the sage on the stage and more to the guide on the side,” Taeyaerts
said.
“It’s all about supporting collaborative and active learning. There’s no bad seat in the house.”
Students sit in swivel chairs at one of four tables strategically placed in the room so they form the shape
of an “X,” with an opening at the center. The design promotes the idea of instructors moving around the
classroom, Taeyaerts said.

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Every wall in the room is covered with writable surfaces, from whiteboards to glass boards. Moveable
whiteboards let students bring tablets to their seats for group work, Taeyaerts said.
“If you move from a short lecture to group work, the segue is instantaneous and there’s no movement of
furniture,” he said. “What’s lost in traditional classrooms is that train of thought, those ideas.”
The classroom has high-tech multimedia capabilities, including a copy-cam that retains information
written on whiteboards so instructors can post it online.
Krall has noticed a change among his students as they collaborate together in the Learn Lab. When he
asks them to analyze readings, talk about paragraph organization or draft sentences on the moveable
whiteboards, they seem more productive, he said.
“In more traditional classrooms, there’s a tendency for students to hurry through it and in this room,
students tend to work on things longer,” he said.
“They seem to be doing more talking and produce more work. They have all of that white space, and
they seem inclined to fill it up.”
The Learn Lab is available to all UIC instructors and can still be reserved for the spring semester,
Taeyaerts said.
An open house will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 14 in B10 Burnham Hall so instructors can see what it
has to offer.
The campus learning environments office started planning the renovation last year after researching the
Learn Lab concept, developed at Steelcase University Learning Center in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Renovation work began over the summer.
There are only about two dozen Learn Labs across the country and UIC’s is the first in the state,
Taeyaerts said.
“It’s the best learning space to build community,” he said. “It could be one of the most powerful
learning spaces on campus if it’s used effectively.”
For information on the Learn Lab, call 413-5121. To schedule a course in the lab, call 413-3640.
christyb@uic.edu
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