Background:

LIRNspace – the new technology enhanced learning centre at Wodonga TAFE – is attracting attention for its strong alignment to the changing mix of learning modes evident in VET practice, both for learners and teachers. It also sets out to integrate effectively a range of design, technology, and social features within an interesting, challenging and aesthetically satisfying set of spaces.

The LIRNspace Manager, Sally Thompson, and its ‘conceptualiser’, Chris Horton’, prepared this Visitors Guide to coincide with the public opening and virtual launch of LIRNspace at the end of July 2003. They showcased LIRNspace in the Community between 6 - 21 August 2003.

Introduction to the event:

Welcome to our LIRNspace

As we bring you up the stairs from the landscaped courtyard at the heart of the campus, you will see that the LIRNspace is located in the central building on the Wodonga campus, which houses other services important to all students: Cafeteria, Campus Support Services, Traineeship and Employment Services, and Student Administration. It is linked by ground and first floor walkways to most of the teaching areas/departments.

LIRNspace is a makeover of about 1,500 sq metres of the upper level of a 26-year-old building. About 1,200 sq metres are for public use, the rest is offices. Previously, most of this space housed the campus library, a joint-use facility (Wodonga TAFE and La Trobe University) now housed in a new building on the adjacent University campus.

You have entered into the Gallery area, the heart of LIRNspace. This is a very open and light space (36 x 42m) containing the main customer information and service points, and comfortable study areas for up to 60 students – 36 at individual PC-equipped workstations, set up in purpose-designed units of six, and a further 24 able to work at group-study tables with/without notebook computers.

The architectural features augment the feeling of openness, space, good lines of sight, and colour. Walls are curved or offset at ten degrees to the primary lines set up by the outside walls and by the supporting system of off-form concrete pillars (6m centres) that support the structure. A curved bulkhead throughout the gallery area is matched in the carpet, creating a sweeping oval that also breaks down the traditional square look.

All the other functional spaces are directly accessible, and largely visible, from this central Gallery. Corridor/passage spaces have been eliminated in favour of optional lines of movement through the Gallery space. In a clockwise sweep from where we are standing inside the entrance looking across the narrower dimension of the Gallery. Immediately to our left is the Help Desk, where two primary customer services operate: the information/booking/technical support for LIRNspace users, and the enrolment/learner support access for our off-campus/distance education programs, known as the Open Learning Centre.

Beyond this Help Desk are a two-person Examination Room, and offices and meeting space for the LIRNspace Manager and the seven staff who support our Flexible Learning Services (FLS). FLS include the LIRNspace operations, the Open Learning Centre, Regional Programs, and Professional Development and Innovation/Project support.

Recessed at the western end of the Gallery is the Showroom, a demonstration/presentation/exhibition space that can function flexibly for static displays of student work, multimedia presentations, a theatrette/gallery, or a hospitality space. The LIRNspace is acquiring a permanent collection of Koori artwork from our students and teachers, and will also display other student work, some of which is for sale.

Along the western wall are a series of ‘bookable’ teaching/learning spaces, each with a distinctive purpose, and a scale and fit out (technology/furniture) to match. These include a videoconference suite, and three flexi-labs. Wodonga TAFE’s industry and program orientation makes a high demand on computer equipped teaching spaces, and in constructing this set we have moved from the standard 16-20 seat oblong to larger and smaller spaces, with both a core course and fee-for-service orientation. All labs and general study areas have a number of workspace tables specifically designed for wheelchair access.

Flexi-lab 1 is a 28-seat space, utilising a saw-tooth system of tables developed in-house. Flexi-lab 2 in one configuration has 20 workstations, but can open into an L-shaped delivery space that incorporates the 12 workstations in Flexi-lab 3. this is particularly useful for Professional Development workshops and fee-for-service/commercial bookings.

Flexi-lab 3 is designed for a more interactive learning process than the more ‘presentation’ style environment of Flexi-labs 1 & 2. Its principal target group is entry level/low-end technology users requiring special support. Youth pathways programs (Youth At Risk, VCAL and other pre-entry programs) have been major beneficiaries of this space, which is equipped with notebook computers to allow teachers to transform the workspace to an equipment-free workspace in an instant.

Coming past a small lounge/conversation space at the internal entry to LIRNspace, where students can get drinks and snack foods from dispensers or duck downstairs to the Cafeteria, you look directly across the Gallery to several timber tables attached to slatted timber (sound absorbing) walls.

These large ‘ironing board’ tables are a major success story for LIRNspace – everyone finds them convenient – for personal or group study/projects, short meetings, time-out, space to spread work for display and compilation. The sound absorption has been very successful, and it is not uncommon to see all four of these work areas full. Each table has data point access to our student network.

At the eastern end of the Gallery are the entries to three specialist spaces: The Training Design work area, housing our team of 14 training resource developers, including instructional designers, and print, video and multimedia production staff. Beyond these are staff areas for other key support services, notably IT&C staff, and our Research, Planning & Development Centre.

Adjacent to Training Design is a specialised work area for staff undertaking individual and small group Professional Development workshops and projects. We’ve called it the Project Factory. It has high-end PCs to support multimedia software and allow teaching staff to upskill and develop presentations integrating digital skills and video images.

In the southeast corner is an extension to the Gallery area, which we call E-Street. It houses 18 student-use computers that are accessible on an extended hours basis for up to 100 hours per week. Outside of normal staffed opening hours (8.30am – 8.30pm weekdays), students use swipe cards to access this individual study area, which has full network/Internet access, printers and a coffee machine. The opening hours are set by times during which we can guarantee physical security on campus, and users have direct phone access to our on-campus security. A ‘hot-desk’ office for use by sessional teaching staff opens from the E-Street area. Automatic doors provide wheelchair access to E-Street and the LIRNspace facility, at the point closest to the lift.

As with our Library facility, the LIRNspace has been developed for joint use by students of TAFE and La Trobe University. This has required some careful security and software development, and a strong commitment to cooperation. Other innovative features include video security throughout the facility, a bookable ‘pool’ of notebook computers and wireless network capability throughout.

The design principles have been to provide good workspaces with ease of movement and a strong sense of connectedness. Specialist areas opening off the Gallery, which has a large skylight, give the space a sense of action and movement – a sort of ‘learning bazaar’. Reception points are highly functional and supportive without being seen as barriers. The total number of public use study points across LIRNspace is 161, of which 134 provide network access.

We have set out to ‘break the mould’. While the facility provides spaces that can be used as classrooms, labs, and connect to the Library, and is therefore all of these things, it is also much more. Physically the design breaks from tradition – the walls and visual angles are interesting and the colours vibrant. We have set out to treat our students as responsible users, and their respect for the environment over the four months that it has been in use is a strong endorsement of this.

The Wodonga TAFE LIRNspace appears as a case study in the current TAFENSW Hunter Institute Project on Innovative and Excellent Practices in VET Teaching and Learning, available shortly at www.hunter.tafensw.edu.au/showcase/casestudies

Summary of discussion:

The LIRNspace has been open for approximately 6 months now and it's amazing how, as soon as you open a new service, it fills up, people begin to demand even more and you wonder how on earth you got by before the service opened! I know many IT people have a similar complaint about staff; the demand for more IT equipment and services that are better, faster and tailored to individual needs seems to be never ending. Many times during the first six months of LIRNspace, I have been reminded of the first flexible learning environment that I worked in when I was based in a community provider in the north of Melbourne. We had 10 Pentium 1's in a room that had been converted from an old housing commission flat. Two key staff agreed to be paid late for two months so we could make the repayments. Networking and IT support were provided by a volunteer. We formed a homework club and students, mostly from a Somali background, came after class to access the internet via a 56 k modem. The room was always full and a lot of kids got a lot of homework done so maybe there's a few secret ingredients other than more, better, faster. What do you think?

Question:  How do you think the new LIRNspace works in terms of social interaction, and the different levels and expectations of users (e.g. ranging from noisy groups of Year 10 kids to high end research and multimedia students)?

Answer:  I have a personal bias towards diversity. I think it creates dynamism and excitement. In fact you could say that the space models lifelong learning. I think adult learners have two innate desires: one is to work in way that meets their individual needs and another is to work in the vicinity of other people. LIRNspace provides that. I'd be lying if I said everyone got along all of the time - I think I could do a PhD on people's differing attitudes to noise in a learning environment. Expectations are many and varied. Mostly people accommodate each other's learning needs. An overall assessment I would make is that the younger the cohort the greater the capacity to work with multiple stimuli, noise, movement, music etc

Question:  Could you tell us what the staffing structure of the Flexible Learning Services department currently is, and how your staffing model works to maximise the effectiveness of the LIRNspace?

Answer:  There are a number of functions in the LIRNspace with varying amounts of staff, IT Helpdesk, Open Learning, Flexible Learning Support, Regional Outreach and Staff Professional Development.

Question:   How did you name LIRNSpace?

Answer:  Right from the start we wanted the LIRNspace to highlight the connectedness between different types of activity that people undertake as learners and teachers. Some of the metaphors and environments that we played with back in 2000 when the initial concept was worked out were: activities around the campfire or the 'marae' in traditional societies; the traditional market/ bazaar/ piazza and the modern shopping mall; libraries, internet cafes and electronic games areas.

There is one fundamental principle: 'Don't nail it down'. Where spaces and furniture can have potential multiple uses, that got explored and where possible reinforced. Very few areas are mono-purpose, although they all have very specific and well-constructed purposes.

e-street, for instance, drives a whole lot of outcomes and relationships, based initially on the determination to have an extended hours access area. Along the way that determined: where the wheelchair access points would be; what range of applications and peripherals were needed in the period when the rest of the facility is closed; how security systems (video, manual and electronic locks, motion detectors and alarms, active physical security) would interact to provide optimum access, personal safety, and security of facility and equipment.

Once the location and infrastructure started to take shape, its use as a unique space for teacher/ learner interaction started to emerge, and with it the decision to develop its functionality in the daytime (when the whole of LIRNspace is open and staffed) allowing the entire space, or subspaces, to be booked for group skills development where intensive tuition and access to learners is an advantage.

Alongside this function we added a 'hotdesk' area for staff, including sessionals, who may want to book some space to work before or after a teaching block, or outside normal hours.

We have also entered into an arrangement to allow students from La Trobe University on the adjacent campus to enrol with us for the purpose of using the LIRNspace. They find the extended hours of particular benefit. The area includes a tea/ coffee machine.

Question:  Do you teach in this LIRNspace? Do you help with homework? Is it a structured curriculum? I can't get a sense of anything of what happens here.

Answer:  The answer is yes to all the above. Departments delivery formal classes in the flexilabs and deliver flexible programs in the Gallery and E-Street. We provide IT Help in the gallery to ensure everything operates smoothly and to support those people doing work out of class to get into the applications. The amount of delivery scheduled in the LIRNspace is entirely up to departments, with some predominantly directing their students there out of class hours for research or homework and others using a combination of supported and unsupported classes. The Open Learning Centre operates from there so students can enrol in a module at any time through the year and study it in the space with phone, online and email support from a tutor.

Question:  Could you fill us in about the types of learning resources that are used in the space? Are the teachers (and students) still mainly relying on texts or are shifts taking place in the delivery strategies now that you have this facility?

Answer:  There are definitely still a lot of users working on paper based materials in the LIRNspace, however, we have had reports from teachers that the provision of LIRNspace is assisting them to change their methodology. Teachers in the health Sciences for instance have told us that where previously they would distribute an article on a particular topic and then have a tutorial / discussion, they are now more likely to set a research task on the topic, get the students to research their own information and then ask them to bring back the results for discussion, so the students are not only learning about the topic but about how and where to find further information about the topic. So things are changing slowly. A number of the spaces provided have lent themselves to new ways of teaching and learning which is exciting to see.

The LIRNspace is certainly a great place to work. I have known Open Learning at Wodonga since it started. "I wonder what systems we will have to create" was one of my first questions. Now, there is always something happening. One of the things I am doing at the moment is learning about Dreamweaver and Fireworks. On regular chat sessions from home I keep dropping out. I can test whether my equipment is causing a problem by getting access in the late evening when these things happen. It's a very dynamic working environment.

Question:  I was wondering whether you could give us a couple of typical scenarios for how teachers and students might use the LIRNspace facility. Is it designed to be used as a face to face environment where the technology is used in a group/class with the teacher leading the class? Do students participate in fully online courses using the facility? Or is it usually a combination of both? Or something else?

I'd find some scenarios useful so that I can get a sense of the breadth of application for a facility like this and how the space is actually being used. I'm also interested in whether it's being used in ways that weren't envisaged in the original design.

Answer:  I work on the IT Help Desk. It has amazed me over the past few months how teachers have embraced the LIRNspace, and particularly the Gallery & E Street areas. At first we saw alot of students just doing homework (we've never had a dedicated area for computer study before), but then teachers were coming in with small groups of students for half or full classes. Students who are doing computer modules off-site are also coming in more and more, as the centre provides a better study area than their home zone, and offers the latest software. We did tours for classes at the start of the year and in June. Students bring their own head phones, so computer noise is very low, and sometimes, almost Library-like. The students are very critical of noise, and they have determined the level of noise that is acceptable from the first week. The main noticeable difference is that we seeing a wide cross section of our student community in the centre; its not just computer students. We also share the Gallery and E Street with the next door LaTrobe campus, so often there is a mix of University and TAFE students sitting side by side. Teachers are becoming more creative with the methods they use to involve the students with the LIRNspace. It is a very exciting time.

Scenario 2: One of our Hospitatlity and Tourism teachers is a regular user. Her students are working through an online module on the TAFE Virtual Campus and she supports them in the Gallery area of the LIRNspace. They also have a range of activities to complete unsupported which they do in the LIRNspace. One of our Fitness Sport and Rec teachers has scheduled three quarters of their theory time in the LIRNspace Gallery and the rest in a classroom - they do internet research on particular topics in the Gallery and then form tutorial / dicussion groups in the classroom. There are a number of teachers working in the Project factory on a promotional CD ROM that they can give to students at the beginning of a course to tell them about the facilities and resources of their department. That's just a couple of examples.

Question:  I have seen the real LIRNspace personally, so I do understand how it looks, what it feels like and what its purpose is.  Do you have plans to offer further casual usage for visiting E-Learning practitioners at your Hot Desk in the future? Would that be restricted to employees of Wodonga TAFE? I note that this facility provides a 'workstation' access for your sessional teachers. Do you provide an online booking system for this?

I now realise how important it is as 'virtual' worker to have access to online facilities at a number of venues across the state. A great deal of my E-Learning practices involve having access to the Internet and Email at any time to connect with learners, networks, communities and colleagues. Your Hot Desk idea is brilliant and one that can be replicated in other organisations!

Perhaps the LIRNspace is more than a physical location - perhaps it is a growing phenomenon - a service that would suit the mobile VET practitioners as they too travel between locations to deliver flexibly in the workplace, in the home, at the campus and online.

Answer:  Yes we are finding more and more that we have visitors to the Institute for a day or a half day that need a place to hang their hats, get online etc. We also find that people arrive with their own lap top computer and occasionally with remote modem access which means all they need is a quiet place and maybe a power point if the stay is extended.

Contributors:
Colleen Carmody, Mark Chaston, Andrew Eldridge, Andrew Eldridge, Megan Funston, Rose Grozdanic, Chris Horton, Kylie Lee, Carole McCulloch, Margaret McDonald, Kirsty Sharp, Rosemary Symon, Sally Thompson, Kylie Waldon