An emancipating space

This paper examines the significance of multimedia communications for the humanities and social sciences. It introduces the research objectives of CREATE, a new interdisciplinary communication project being developed between the Humanities School at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

To prepare for the delivery of new Bachelor of Science units in collaborative learning spaces, academic and professional staff at Queensland University of Technology piloted an academic development program over the period of a semester. The program was informed by Rogers' theory of innovation and diffusion (2003) and structured according to Wilson's framework for faculty development (2007). Through a series of workshops and group mentoring activities, the program modelled inquiry-based learning in a collaborative learning space, and the participants designed and practiced the delivery of teaching activities. This paper provides a preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of the pilot based on survey responses from participants, notes from the development team who coordinated the program and audience feedback from the final showcase session. The design and structure of the program is discussed as well as possible future directions.

Could you trust someone you had never physically met to successfully collaborate with you on a design project?As online communication technologies rapidly evolve, the creative industries continue to move towards globally networked and interdisciplinary modalities of practice. These inescapable shifts in the ways designers work have challenged many long held assumptions about the nature of individual design processes.Such revolutionary changes mean that designers must increasingly master new skills to effectively communicate and collaborate in online environments with colleagues from different cultures, disciplines and locations world-wide. Since they may never meet face-to-face, the success of this new working methodology relies on high levels of trust between practitioners, both personally and professionally in order to achieve effective design outcomes.In turn the need for design educators to equip students with skills to thrive in the face of this new industrial paradigm is highlighted. Trust is integral to developing the personal and professional relationship building and collaborative skills necessary for contemporary digital working practices. By being sensitive to, and cognisant of these issues, educators can initiate and implement strategies that help create the right conditions for trust to emerge between participants in online learning scenarios.In reality however, the relative suddenness of this shift has seen some educationalists engage in unconsidered responses to this challenge. In the rush to embrace online technologies, the social and cultural dimensions of online pedagogies are often neglected while the relative functionality of digital tools and spaces is given prominence.Drawing upon three specific case studies of very different applications of online learning in a design context, this paper aims to highlight the impact that fostering positive, interpersonal, interdisciplinary and transcultural relationships between students in online design education can have upon their levels of trust and the effectiveness and outcomes of their online collaborative processes.The projects examined were conducted by COFA Online and The Omnium Research Group at The College of Fine Arts (COFA), University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Each case study examines particular dynamics associated with global, local and cross-cultural contexts. They include: • Global - Fully online Masters of Cross Disciplinary Art and Design• Local - Blended Learning at The College of Fine Arts• Cross-Cultural (Australia and China) - The Collabor8 Project, East-West online design collaborationBy triangulating data that examines student/teacher experiences through online surveys, interviews, responses to targeted online discussions and peer reviews, this paper outlines online pedagogical approaches that have successfully engaged students in active, collaborative and trust building online learning environments. It also pinpoints problems that can occur in online teamwork related to trust, communication and interpersonal relationships, and investigates several potential solutions.If strong human-to-human relationships are seen as the foundation for effective collaborative design practice online, educators will be helping emerging generations of designers maximise their creative potential in a globally competitive market where online collaborative, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary creative skill-sets are demanded as the ‘norm’.

The 2002 ‘glonacal’ paper described higher education as a multi-scalar sector where individual and institutional agents have open possibilities and causation flows from any of the interacting local, national and global scales. None have permanent primacy: global activity is growing; the nation-state is crucial in policy, regulation and funding; and like the other scales, the local scale in higher education and knowledge is continually being remade and newly invented. The glonacal paper has been widely used in higher education studies, though single-scale nation-bound methods still have a strong hold. Drawing on insights from human geography and selected empirical studies, the present paper builds on the glonacal paper in a larger theorization of space and scale. It describes how material elements, imagination and social practices interact in making space, which is the sphere of social relations; it discusses multiplicity in higher education space and sameness/different tensions; and it takes further the investigation of one kind of constructed space in higher education, its heterogenous scales (national, local, regional, global etc.). The paper reviews the intersections between scales, especially between national and global, the ever-changing ordering of scales, and how agents in higher education mix and match scales. It also critiques ideas of fixed scalar primacy such as methodological nationalism and methodological globalism—influential in studies of higher education but radically limiting of what can be imagined and practised. Ideas matter. The single-scale visions and scale-driven universals must be cleared away to bring a fuller geography of higher education to life.

Containerization: Practical infrastructure and accessibility efficiency for the Virtual Learning Environment 
 Context and motivation:
 Containers are transforming modern application infrastructure, providing advantages for accessibility and allow many instances of existing legacy applications to be run at the same time on the latest operating systems. This can implement an ideal virtual learning environment which offers a dynamic learning space where instructors upload activities and resources to enhance learning. The goal is to provide a structured learning environment suited to both the student and the instructor, where materials are easily accessed, and that many files can be transferred at one time. The system should cope with the demands of many students occupying the same virtual learning space, providing each student with individual learning experiences. There are challenges when instructors attempt to adapt the learning environment to meet the learning objectives. Technology barriers to the education provider, primarily in the form of high cost of technology infrastructure requirements need to be overcome before widespread adoption of a virtual learning environment is seen. The potential to overcome these barriers through the application of containerisation provides the motivation behind this presentation (Katz & Council of Independent, 2016; Puvaneswary & Siew Hwa, 2019).
 
 What will be demonstrated in this presentation?
 The use of containers provides the ability to supply many instances of the same application running on a single machine. Each instance is isolated, along with any associated dependencies, allowing efficient utilisation of system resources, such as processing and memory. The presentation will demonstrate how many instances of the same application can be activated and the resource advantages gained. The presentation will show a system that has been used to provide a complex structured virtual learning environment to level 7 students and discuss how the system was utilised to provide a positive, individualised learning experience to the students. Security and confidentiality is maintained within each containerized instance. The presentation will show how the system can be configured to be self-healing, respond to scheduling, and to automatically restart single instances as required.
 
 The implications for future practice
 The presentation will show how the advantages of containerization can be integrated at many levels of the virtual learning environment, providing many separate and individual instances of the same application. The number of instances can be easily adjusted as required, and resources are automatically allocated, reducing support overhead and cost of infrastructure. The implications are that each instance can provide a unique experience to each student, whilst reducing the workload of the instructor, and minimizing the cost to the education provider.
 
 
 References
 Katz, P. M., & Council of Independent, C. (2016). High-Tech or High-Touch? Online Learning and Independent Higher Education. Innovations in Teaching and Learning. Research Brief 5: Council of Independent Colleges. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED569215&site=eds-live
 Puvaneswary, M., & Siew Hwa, Y. (2019). Navigating the Shortcomings of Virtual Learning Environments Via Social Media. International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments (IJVPLE), 9(2), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJVPLE.2019070101
 

This research offers a novel hauntological perspective to examine the evolving nature of complex learning spaces in higher education. In times of change and disruption, we draw on Derrida's concept of hauntology – which posits that the past and future ‘haunt’ the present – to analyse educational experiences. Our study comprises eighteen focus groups and seven individual interviews with students and educators at a large metropolitan university business school. Collaborative and abductive coding reveals critical insights into participants’ perceptions of absence and presence in their experience of traversing learning spaces. Three key themes emerge: what we bring to, how we traverse, and what we are missing from higher education. The findings advocate for more fluid, adaptive approaches that balance educator and student agency while acknowledging inherent uncertainties. By highlighting the temporal dimensions shaping learning spaces, this research proposes more nuanced and responsive educational design, within and beyond the classroom.

Learner autonomy underpins many of the educational outcomes at university such as flexibility, adaptability, self-initiative and self-direction. Indeed, learner autonomy is a key to life-long learning. This paper reports on research investigating the ways designers of innovative learning spaces incorporate customisable, (re)configurable and flexible features that support and encourage learner autonomy. The research aims to elicit high-level design principles that may prove useful in design for learning more generally - including design for learning in virtual and hybrid (physical and virtual) spaces. The research involved seventeen learning spaces across eight universities, observations and interviews with educational stakeholders, and architects and interior designers of those spaces. Preliminary findings suggest designers aim to empower students by providing configurable spaces fitted out with modular furniture and ubiquitous technology - emphasising choice. The paper ends by reviewing the application of these design ideas to broader problems and opportunities in 'design for learning' research and practice.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the theoretical foundations of the formation of digital educational space in higher education institutions in order to improve the quality of training of future educators. The aim of the article is a thorough theoretical analysis of the conceptual foundations of the formation of digital educational space in higher education to improve the quality of professional training of students, including future educators of preschool education. The following theoretical research methods were used in the work: analysis, synthesis, generalization, induction and deduction, comparison, concretization. The article proposes the substantiation of the problem of digitalization of education, the relevance of digital educational space in higher education, highlights the impact of information and communication technologies on expanding the content and capabilities of educational space, in particular in the training of future educators. A number of conditions have been proposed, the observance of which can increase the efficiency of digital modernization of the educational process of a higher education institution. The publication summarizes the goals (for the applicant, the customer and the educational institution) and the principles (uniformity, openness, accessibility, competitiveness, responsibility, validity, usefulness) of digital technology use in higher education by future educators. The article proposes a number of tasks that will improve the educational process and quality of training of future educators through the introduction of innovative information systems, including: development of new regulations and principles of data processing. formation of the list of data potentially subject to exchange; development of digital educational space architecture; development of data exchange protocols and approval of relevant standards; revision of the normative base of document circulation and organization of the educational process in order to eliminate conflicts of previous norms and modern electronic document circulation.

On a generic level, linking academic education to the practical and community needs is one of the most important criteria for the success of any educational institution, it could be interpreted that Academic institutions offering Architecture & Urban Design programs requires such an important link as many of the academic accreditation processes considers this linkage as one of the most important evaluation criteria for Architectural & Urban Design educational institutions, in addition to the impact that such institutions can have on their local communities. Bridging the gap between the academia and real life experiences is one of the most pressing and challenging agenda facing the Architecture & urban design education in Egypt, especially in the Governmental architecture & urban design schools, considering the large numbers of enrolled students. Unfortunately, most of the Governmental Egyptian architectural institutions continue to practice same old teaching methodologies that have sustained their particular beliefs and paradigms for decades without considering the emerging new variables and requirements. On the other hand, many innovative learning ideas and strategies for teaching Architectural & urban design curriculums are ascending today. Few researches have been made regarding this aspect. The aim of this paper is to highlight the process that is concerned to enhance the urban design education quality, the curriculum and the teaching methods of the Architecture Bachelor program in general with a special focus on Faculty of Fine Arts - Helwan University in Egypt, as a Case study. Focussing on the new didactic tools and applied research components are developed for the bachelor of architecture program, which impart knowledge to understand the current urban issues and urban regeneration. Adding a strong orientation on practice and applied research to the existing curriculum that will lead the students to gain higher awareness towards real urban issues and urban regeneration. The study adopted a methodology, which directly corresponded to the objective stated above based on setting an overview for the local urban design teaching issues. It also analyse the existing problems and limitations in urban design education in Egypt, and as a case study the paper explores and analyse how could the international exposure and experience of students of architecture of the faculty of Fine arts – Helwan University affects their practices, performance and gained skills, in the frame work of the real city lab project which is a cooperation project between the TUB Germany and the college of Fine Arts – Helwan University in Egypt. As well as the authors’ personal teaching experiences in urban design's learning tools, exercises will be presented.

The development of time and technology has made the traditional basic computer teaching unable to meet the needs of current students, and the cultivation of computer thinking ability has become a hotspot of computer education concern. The article combines the flipped classroom model with the MOOC platform of network education, and establishes a MOOC flipped classroom teaching model applicable to computer basic education courses in art colleges. In this model, students’ assessment results data are collected, and the Apriori algorithm optimised by matrix optimisation and prior pruning strategy is used to mine the association relationship of the assessment results, which helps teachers to understand students’ computer knowledge mastery. T College of Fine Arts is used as a research example to illustrate the effectiveness of MOOC flipped classroom through the changes in students’ performance, competence, and satisfaction. The improved Apriori algorithm has an execution time of only 2.93s when its minimum support is 100%, which can be used to understand students’ computer application ability for different question types, majors and skill performances. The mean score of the final exam of the students in the experimental class was 82.79, which reached 111.79% of the score of the control class, and more than 80% of them were satisfied with the MOOC flipped classroom. The use of flipped classroom and network education model can achieve the innovative development of computer basic education courses in art colleges and help to enhance the teaching quality of computer basic education courses in art colleges.

Writing from the perspectives of two women of color faculty in predominantly white teaching and learning spaces in higher education, in this chapter we speak about mentoring, grounded in interconnectivity, informed by post-oppositionality. We note our tensions with the construct of mentoring and the challenges of becoming vulnerable to describe the anatomy of our relationship. We offer four mentoring practices that intersect our research, relationship, and pedagogy: 1) engaging in shadow work and inner journeying; 2) un/learning established approaches to qualitative inquiry and honoring culturally situated ontoepistemologies; 3) cultivating imagination, play, and whimsy; and 4) spacemaking for newcomers’ raw intelligence and communal knowledge (i.e., theorizing from the street). We posit that these practices cultivate a fertile ground for radical interconnectivity, engage in critical compassion and love, and continue to de/colonize qualitative inquiry.

Multilingual speakers’ languaging practices are undervalued and problematised in formal teaching and learning spaces in higher education. The environment has legitimised monolingualism as the only acceptable practice, hence students often lack the confidence to recruit their full linguistic repertoires. In the third and fourth years of their Occupational Therapy studies, many African students faced challenges due to socio-historic-political factors that put them at risk of failure. These challenges were addressed in academic support tutorial spaces using pedagogical translanguaging. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the use of translanguaging as a socially just strategy, its affordances, and its challenges. This paper utilises data from a case study within a larger project aiming to describe the use of translanguaging in multilingual teaching and learning settings at a historically White university in South Africa. The case study comprised of eight African students. Linguistic ethnography and Moment analysis were employed. Pedagogical translanguaging and humour were used to create a space conducive to collaborative learning and co-construction of knowledge that granted epistemic access to occupational therapy discourse. Respect and dignity were fundamental in fostering cohesion, improving confidence, enacting speaking rights, and creating a sense of belonging among students who often felt alienated.

A university without an academic library is unimaginable since the library serves as a pivot for both learning and research. Freeman (2005), while talking about the importance of a library in academic life, stated that it holds a unique position, symbolizing the heart of the institution. A good library is not only one that stacks printed material or has portals to access online resources but also provides a flexible learning space with reading rooms, facilitates discussion and encourages collaborative learning and scholarship. With limited resources, it is increasingly difficult for universities to allocate funds to re-design library spaces. Modern academic libraries have to respond not only to pedagogical changes but also to technological changes, accommodating them in the library space design and management. Modern libraries are trying to integrate features of the traditional form of learning as well as the digital form. This book will present case studies and empirical evidence discussing the changing face of libraries. It will talk about re-modeling of existing libraries with the help of new architectural design to utilize the space and inculcate the digital literacy development. Scholars discuss, in the chapters, how they meet users’ needs and how they use in stakeholders’ inputs to design innovative library spaces.

How can prison education programs fulfill their obligation to provide their students with an educational experience that is as close as possible to the one of students on main campuses? Thus far, our research into equitable access has focused largely on instructional delivery and practices, and technological access and use. This report broadens our interrogation of that central question by exploring the role of space, architecture, and design in the context of higher education in prison.

Focusing on the magazine Silâns, produced by students and tutors Barry Flanagan, Rudy Leenders and Alistair Jackson on the Advanced Sculpture Course at St Martin’s College of Art between 1964 and 1965, this article explores the magazine as a collaborative space for students and tutors alike. Arguing that while the ‘group crit’ or discussion forum at St Martin’s offered students a verbal platform to describe, defend or critique their work (which increasingly relied on concepts and ideas over formal properties), it was the format of the art school magazine that offered a space for discourse and collaboration. By questioning the purpose of art and the role of the artist more generally, Silâns offered a site for critique of a rapidly changing art education system. In doing so, it prefigured later conceptual magazines that encompassed similar territory and preoccupations. I argue that although the content and form of Silâns are now identified in relation to concrete poetry, it is better situated in the context of early text-based conceptual art practice. The emphasis on the magazine as a means to disseminate concrete poetry tacitly avoids any of its political implications, in favour of its formal aspects. In concluding that the importance of Silâns, as an alternative platform for student collaboration and a precursor to later text-based conceptual art practice, has so far been overlooked and confined instead to a footnote in the sculptor Barry Flanagan’s biography, I argue that, more than group crit, this magazine is a manifestation of the verbal impulse in art colleges.