| Activity name |
4. Techno-Café Evaluation |
| Participants |
All Sites |
Aims Covered: 4 |
| Timescales |
April 05-July 05 |
| Background |
The
Techno-Café is a place where guided study is conducted in a relaxed
environment supported, not driven, by technology. The café forms a
central aspect of this bid as it facilitates a change in student
perceptions to provide a better understanding of the importance of, and
enhanced support in, AL. While considerable work has been put into the
formation and organisation of this environment, ALiC's vision of
merging teaching, technology and AL into a single environment is new.
While some universities do have internet cafes these do not have dual
use as a teaching facilities or deal with the equipment requirements of
computing students. |
| Activity |
The requirements of an IT classroom and its technology to enhance and
support student learning need to be informed by empirical evidence. We
recognise this risk and seek to minimise the financial implications. We
will do this by a £50K feasibility study to inform the format and style
of the final version of the Techno-Café. This will involve analysis of
different technology and different booth formats to establish the
optimal environment for communication and working within computing
projects. Students will experience a variety of working conditions and
technologies and provide feedback on their suitability. The small
number of booths will contain different sets of equipment (such as
types of whiteboards, mobile technologies and fixed thin-client PCs),
and varied furniture (for instance, table configurations). This
evaluation set-up will inform, and be retained as part of, the final
Techno-Café construction. |
| Evaluation |
- Student opinions on the booth formats and technologies that best support their work requirements
- Staff opinions regarding the most cohesive environment to support their teaching
- Solutions for dealing with issues including security, data privacy and noise control
|
| Expected outcomes |
- Experience report detailing the best way to support student group-working in an IT environment for AL.
- Designs
of the Techno-Café for institutions interested in providing similar
environments (disseminated via the Subject Network).
|
| Risks |
- Implications for student working patterns - students spend time socialising in environment and not working. Mitigation: provide demonstrator support to focus students on work.
|
