Affordances of Physical and Virtual Learning Spaces

AFFORDANCES OF
PHYSICAL AND
VIRTUAL LEARNING
SPACES
Professor Mike Keppell
Professor of Higher Education
President, ascilite
Director, The Flexible Learning Institute
Charles Sturt University

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 1

Overview
Assumptions
Principles
Learning spaces?
Subject Interactions
Diversity of learning
spaces
Blended learning spaces
Aﬀordances
Putting it all together


Assumptions
Universities value and seek to inculcate the skills
essential for lifelong and life wide learning,
producing graduates who will continue to develop
intellectually, professionally and socially beyond the
bounds of formal education.
Universities believe that programs, services and
teaching methods should be responsive to the
diverse cultural, social and academic needs of
students, enabling them to adapt to the demands of
university education and providing them with the
cultural capital for life success.


Higher Education Principles
Equivalence of Learning Outcomes ethical obligations

traverses physical,
Student Learning Experience blended and virtual
learning spaces

learning outcomes,
subject, degree
Constructive Alignment
program, generic
attributes

speciﬁc needs of
Discipline Pedagogies
disciplines


Learning Spaces?
Physical, blended or virtual learning
environments that enhance as opposed to
constraining learning
Physical, blended or virtual ‘areas’ that motivate
a user to participate for learning benefits
Spaces where both teachers and students
optimize the perceived and actual affordances
of the space
Spaces that promote authentic learning
interactions


Subject Interactions
Information access (subject expectations)
Interactive learning (learner-to-content
interactions):
Networked learning (learner-to-learner, learner-
to-teacher interactions)
User-generated content (learners-as-designers,
assessment-as-learning) (Herrington & Oliver,
2001).


Diversity of Learning Spaces
Physical Blended Virtual

Formal Informal Formal Informal

Mobile Personal

Professional
Outdoor
Practice

Physical Learning Spaces
Formal physical learning spaces
Informal physical learning spaces
Independent learning
Peer learning
Study-time and space
Need to be adaptable and flexible for learning and
teaching as opposed to being designed for one
purpose


Formal & Informal Spaces

Virtual Learning Spaces

Formal virtual learning spaces
Informal virtual learning spaces
Independent learning
Peer learning


Formal Virtual Informal Virtual
Learning Spaces Learning Spaces
Blackboard Facebook
WebCT Flickr
Moodle YouTube
Twitter
Sakai

Formal
Formal
I
Informal Informal


Personal Learning Spaces


Mobile Learning Spaces
Is mobile learning just part of everyday learning?
(ALT-J Vol 17, No.3)
GPS, wi-fi, mp3 players
“Learning when mobile means that context becomes
all-important since even a simple change of location
is an invitation to revisit learning” (p.159)
Extending lecturers personal ‘presence’
Disruption of users’ presence using SMS
(Corneulius & Marston, 2009).


Outdoor
Learning
Spaces
These pathways, thoroughfares
and occasional rest areas are
generally given a functional
value in traffic management
and are more often than not
developed as an after thought
in campus design. As such the
thoroughfares and rest areas
are under valued (or not
recognized) as important
spaces for teaching and
learning (Rafferty, 2009).


Blended Learning?

“It is a design approach whereby both face-to-face and
online learning are made better by the presence of each
other” (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008, p.5).
“It is a complete rethinking and redesign of the
educational environment and learning experience” (p.x)
Is blended learning the future of higher education?


Activity-level Blending
Student Resources Resources
Instructor Role Assessment
Role (Content) (Services)

Allocate
reading. Ask Some
students to read Read discussion
Off-line required reading respective Reading about topic in
and post chapter face-to-face
summary in class
LMS
Feedback from
Post a one peers in online
Student and
paragraph discussion.
instructor
summary and Discussion Feedback from
Online Facilitator posts in
comment on forum instructor in
discussion
two other online
forum
posts discussion
forum.


Subject & Course Level
Blending
Subject-level blending: One of the most common
forms. Distinct face-to-face and online components to
support learning outcomes.
Degree-level blending: Diﬀerent learning experiences
using physical and virtual spaces across the degree
program. Use of e-portfolio in key subjects throughout
degree.


Paradigms of Blended
Learning
Enabling blends: These address access and equity
issues. Provision of equivalent learning outcomes in
physical, virtual and blended learning environments.

Enhancing blends: Incremental changes to the
pedagogy in face-to-face, virtual and blended
learning environments.

Transforming blends: Major redesign of pedagogy e.g.
Blended problem-based learning (Graham, 2006).


Flexibility of Learning Spaces
Flexible learning and teaching spaces allow
adaptability over time for different uses.
Spaces need to be used for students who are both
physically present and students who never visit the
campus.
In addition homes, cars, buses, hotels, cafes
become mobile spaces where the student
undertakes learning.
Studying subject materials while travelling to work
via train or bus may represent the learning space for
some students


Study, Time & Space
In addition to the notion of physical/virtual and
formal/informal, the concept of time also needs to be
considered.
Students’ use of space during a semester will be
influenced by time of day, day of week and week of
semester.
Students may utilize space dependent on their other
constraints of work and family and timing of classes
and travel.


Study, Time & Space
Students may have only certain days to study.
Early stages of a subject may encourage students to
discuss content with other peers, while group
assessment tasks will also require students to work
in teams and use space for discussion and
negotiation.
When exams are nearing, students may revert to
quiet individual spaces for self-study as opposed to
peer learning.


What are Affordances?
When you first see something you have never
seen before, how do you know what to do?

“An affordance is the design aspect of an object
which suggests how the object should be
used” (Norman, 1988).

Determined by context, culture, instinct, mental
model e.g. hyperlinked text on website

When designers make use of affordances the user
knows what to do just by looking


Learning Space Affordance Example

Face-to-Face oral communication oral feedback to a
Teaching & Learning question

information access
subject outline
Learning interactive learning
multimedia
Management networked learning
forum
Systems materials development
project

discussion about
Learning Commons informal learning lecture
peer learning


Learning Space Affordance Example

discussion of
in-depth group
reading
Tutorial discussion
discussion of
peer learning
presentation

practical work
peer interaction practical work on
Residential School
sense of belonging to IT networks
university
authentic learning
community of applied learning in
Practice
practice discipline
mentor/mentee


Putting
it all
together


http://www.csu.edu.au/division/landt/ﬂexible-learning/

http://www.skgproject.com


2010 Book
Physical and Virtual Learning Spaces in Higher
Education: Concepts for the Modern Learning
Environment

http://web.me.com/keppell/spaces/Welcome.html

A book edited by
Professor Mike Keppell
Associate Professor Kay Souter
& Matthew Riddle
Charles Sturt University, Australia
Latrobe University, Australia


Affordances of Physical and Virtual Learning Spaces

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