Dive Brief:
- Collaborative classrooms can give students a more engaging environment from which to learn and also force a shift in pedagogy for the betterment of the program.
- The McCallum Graduate School of Business at Bentley University developed an MBA studio classroom for an 11-month MBA program to offer a collaborative, highly interactive environment that features technology-enabled group tables and smart boards.
- For University Business, McCallum Dean of Business Chip Wiggins writes that faculty become facilitators rather than instructors, and the spirit of effective leadership that flows from the change can be tapped for undergraduates, as well.
Dive Insight:
Collaborative classrooms have become a trend in higher education. Schools are giving students an opportunity to engage in project-based group work that will be common in many of their future workplaces. The engaging class format is meant to hold students’ interest in ways that traditional lectures might not. As with many technological innovations, faculty training is necessary for new classroom designs to work. Professors need support through the pedagogical shift and schools that don’t provide it end up with fancy, new classrooms that are wasted.
At California State University, Fresno, collaborative classrooms have been built for students in the school of education, and their popularity has spread to other departments as instructors catch on to the benefits of the design.