Futuristic classroom debuts

The classroom budget was around $100,000.

By Jimmy Hibsch

Published Aug. 27, 2010

Professor Clenora Hudson-Weems is accustomed to teaching Theorizing Africana Literature in front of a desk and chalkboard in a conventional MU classroom.

This year, she is teaching in Strickland Hall room 117, which features swivel chairs, three projectors and an array of other amenities in a classroom she describes as “marvelous.”

“This room complements the content of my work and is superior,” Hudson-Weems said. “It’s an extension of what I do, which is the perfect and the beautiful. I wish all rooms were like this.”

After a university survey found faculty members felt MU’s classrooms were lackluster, Space Planning and Management Director Heiddi Davis said she and a number of other instructors committed themselves to improving the classroom environment.

“There was a report by a teaching and learning task force that indicated that there was a feeling that the quality of the classrooms on campus was generally poor,” Davis said. “The quality of the environment was something we really wanted to delve into.”

Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies Jim Spain said two groups of MU faculty members and administrators traveled to Michigan to meet with professionals from Steelcase, a company that specializes in classroom environments. Ideas for the classroom were gathered from both this trip and faculty input.

“If you look at the room in Strickland, it’s got a lot of ideas and feedback that come not only from our trip up to the learning lab at Steelcase, but it comes from some specific feedback that we got from faculty on what they would change,” Spain said.

Junior Allie Bass said she feels the classroom accomplishes its purpose.

“I think it’s a really neat room actually,” Bass said. “It’s funny because every day my teacher always mentions how nice the chairs in here are -- they are much more comfortable than your average chair.”

Spain said he is anticipating feedback such as Bass’ on the classroom and is excited about the final product.

“Part of our goal was to make it feel less institutional and to make it feel more mature and intellectual than what you might encounter in other classrooms,” Spain said. “It doesn’t feel like just any classroom in high school, and I think as students make the transition from high school to college, that upgrading the learning environment like that would help with that transition.”

The classroom houses MU’s first eno board, a brand of interactive whiteboard on which instructors can write notes over presentations and then save them as a file. Despite concerns from audience members about the product’s ease of use in an open house in the classroom held Aug. 18, Davis assured that instructors would find the product to be simple after a few trials.

“It does take some getting used to, but after some practice I got the picture,” Davis said. “People told us that they wanted a smart board in their classrooms, so we will see if it gets used.”

For the less technologically inclined instructors, the classroom features six whiteboards, which are for use by students in breakout sessions as well.

“As we’re trying to design a classroom for every type of faculty member, we didn’t want to force somebody into technology that wasn’t ready for it,” Davis said.

She said the classroom budget was around $100,000, and feedback about this classroom will be factored in to the future classroom renovations, as funding is available.

“Every classroom is a little different, so we don’t have a cookie cutter way of doing things,” Davis said. “If people like the room, we will use ideas from it in future renovations but every new classroom won’t be the same.”