2005:19 TECHNICAL REPORT Strategic Design of a Learning Commons at Luleå University of Technology Peter Lundkvist, Robert Sundlöf Seppo Tanskanen, Markus Tiburzi Luleå University of Technology Technical Report Department of Business Administration and Social Sciences Division of Systems Sciences 2005:19 - ISSN: 1402-1536 - ISRN: LTU-TR--05/19--SE STRATEGIC DESIGN OF A LEARNING COMMONS AT LULEÅ UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - 2005 - BY PITEPOJKARNA Supervisor: Marita Holst Members: Peter Lundkvist Robert Sundlöf Seppo Tanskanen Markus Tiburzi Project - Learning Commons ABSTRACT There is a desire of changing libraries and librarians work procedures with the purpose to create a learning and knowledge creative environment for students. This environment is called The Learning Commons (LC). The idea is to enable students to manage their own learning within an environment designed to both prompt and facilitate the use of the full range of library resources assembled to support learning within colleges and universities. Therefore, a LC must be de- signed to handle these things. In this report we provide a design strategy for both the physical and virtual knowledge environment. Our research shows, among other things, that in the physical LC a café is important as it draws people to the LC and that within the virtual LC everything should be gathered in one place. Hence, you only log-in to one place. Another important finding is that roles and work procedures will change in many ways for the people involved in a LC. Peter Lundkvist, Robert Sundlöf, Seppo Tanskanen & Markus Tiburzi Project - Learning Commons ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It has been great to have participated in this project and it has given us new knowledge both in project working and learning communities. First of all we want to thank our supervisor Marita Holst for her guidance throughout the whole project. We also want to thank Anita Mirijamdotter and Mary Somerville for their support and advice during this whole process. In addi- tion we want to thank all our respondents whose time and response made this pro- ject possible. Finally we express our gratitude to all personal and student at Cal Poly and San Jose State University that has been involved in this project, for their reflections, work and support in order to complete this project. Piteå 2005-09-12 ____________________________ ____________________________ Peter Lundkvist Robert Sundlöf ____________________________ ____________________________ Seppo Tanskanen Markus Tiburzi Peter Lundkvist, Robert Sundlöf, Seppo Tanskanen & Markus Tiburzi Project - Learning Commons TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................1 1.1 PURPOSE................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 METHOD ................................................................................................................. 2 1.3 LIMITATION........................................................................................................... 2 1.4 GOAL .......................................................................................................................2 1.5 STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT............................................................................ 2 2 METHOD ............................................................................................................3 2.1 NEEDFINDING ....................................................................................................... 3 2.1.1 Our use of Needfinding...........................................................................4 2.2 DATA COLLECTION ............................................................................................. 5 2.3 LITERATURE.......................................................................................................... 6 2.4 SELECTION OF RESPONDENTS ......................................................................... 6 2.5 ANALYSIS............................................................................................................... 7 2.6 METHOD REFLECTION........................................................................................ 7 3 PRESENTATION OF THE RESPONDENTS ................................................9 3.1 STUDENTS.............................................................................................................. 9 3.1.1 Distance students ....................................................................................9 3.1.2 Sociology students...................................................................................9 3.1.3 Students with special needs.....................................................................9 3.1.4 Students from School of Music in Piteå..................................................9 3.2 OTHER RESPONDENTS........................................................................................ 9 3.2.1 A-torget ...................................................................................................9 3.2.2 Library staff ..........................................................................................10 3.2.3 Teacher – computer and systems sciences............................................10 3.2.4 Teacher – human work science.............................................................10 3.2.5 Arena.....................................................................................................10 3.2.6 Web designer at Rotor Interactive........................................................10 3.2.7 IT- Manager at LTU .............................................................................10 4 PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT........................................................................12 4.1 INTERVIEW RESULTS FOR THE PHYSICAL PART OF A LC....................... 12 4.1.1 Conditions for a successful learning environment ...............................12 4.1.2 Physical environment............................................................................15 4.1.3 Further suggestions and opinions.........................................................17 4.2 ANALYSIS............................................................................................................. 20 4.3 DESIGN OF PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT......................................................... 22 4.3.1 Design of the Learning Café.................................................................22 4.3.2 Design of the Learning Center..............................................................23 4.3.3 Learning Community ............................................................................24 4.3.4 Design of the Learning Commons ........................................................25 Peter Lundkvist, Robert Sundlöf, Seppo Tanskanen & Markus Tiburzi Project - Learning Commons 5 VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT ..........................................................................27 5.1 INTERVIEW RESULTS FOR THE VIRTUAL PART OF A LC......................... 27 5.2 ANALYSIS............................................................................................................. 33 5.2.1 Content of the virtual portal .................................................................34 5.3 DESIGN OF THE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT .................................................. 37 5.3.1 Presentation of the Lunarstorm Community.........................................37 5.3.2 University virtual portal .......................................................................43 6 ROLES AND WORK PROCEDURES...........................................................47 6.1 THE UNIVERSITY................................................................................................ 47 6.1.1 Management..........................................................................................47 6.1.2 Teachers................................................................................................47 6.1.3 Librarians .............................................................................................48 6.1.4 Students.................................................................................................48 6.2 UNIVERSITY SURROUNDINGS ........................................................................ 49 6.2.1 Companies ............................................................................................49 6.2.2 Graduated students...............................................................................49 7 REFLECTIONS AND SUMMARY................................................................50 7.1 THE DESIGN OF THE PHYSICAL LC ............................................................... 50 7.2 THE DESIGN OF THE VIRTUAL LC ................................................................. 50 7.3 NEW ROLES AND WORK PROCEDURES IN A LC......................................... 51 7.4 SUMMARY............................................................................................................ 52 7.5 REFLECTION........................................................................................................ 52 REFERENCE LITERATURE ...........................................................................53 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................53 APPENDIX A APPENDIX B APPENDIX C APPENDIX D Peter Lundkvist, Robert Sundlöf, Seppo Tanskanen & Markus Tiburzi Project - Learning Commons 1 INTRODUCTION Lately