Learning Spaces
The CTL can help inform the effective use of technology for teaching and learning and foster the development of innovative and effective learning environments. The CTL collaborates with educators at the university on matters related to design, use and assessment of the teaching and learning environment. Our purpose is to provide a perspective that represents the needs of faculty and that enhances students’ learning experience. We work primarily with on-campus courses and programs, supporting courseware development used to complement face-to-face teaching and enhance the learning experience of students. The teaching and learning environment includes both physical and virtual spaces and the implementation of learning technology to support learning in all instructional environments at Queen’s including:
Active Learning Classrooms
Active learning classrooms (ALCs) are learning spaces that have been designed to facilitate and promote active learning. Research on learning space design has demonstrated that the design of a classroom has impact upon the way in which students and instructors interact and engage in teaching and learning.
Active learning strategies often involve complex, student-centered interactions between professors, students, local, and global communities. The physical space of an ALC promotes and encourages these interactions though accessible and flexible classroom design.
Focus on Active Learning: Active Learning Strategies
Included here are strategies designed to support students’ active learning in a variety of contexts: lecture; tutorial/seminar; and team- or group-based learning. All strategies can be adapted to multiple contexts, face-to-face or virtual, and are presented simply as catalysts to your own creativity. The single most critical factor in selecting a strategy is ensuring that it directly supports the intended learning outcomes.
Availability:
Focus on Active Learning: Active Learning Strategies (PDF, 599KB)
Learn more about the Active Learning Classrooms.
onQ - the New Learning Management System (LMS)
onQ is the new Queen's specific name for the Learning Management System(LMS) replacing Moodle. The LMS, Brightspace, was developed by Desire2Learn (D2L). The system will offer more options and a more robust learning management system. Queen's is hoping that this new system will be even more widely used by the Queen's community than Moodle was as id can be used as a supplement to traditional methods of teaching and to support blended or online learning modules.
Learn more about onQ - the New Learning Management System (LMS).
Lecture Capture
In 2008 The Virtualization Task Force was charged with examining the potential for use of information technology and electronic media in reducing costs of instruction, alleviating space constraints associated with growing enrolment, and enhancing the quality of the teaching and learning environment at Queen's. The term virtualization was chosen to be intentionally broad in scope, in order to capture all facets of the use of media and information technologies as they are used in the teaching and learning environment, both inside and outside the classroom. In the short term, it was recognized that there was a need to experiment with a variety of teaching models and that this experimentation would require the cooperation of experts in teaching and learning, technology, and specific disciplines. As part of this examination a system was developed which allowed for automatic capturing and uploading to a streaming server of live lectures within a large lecture hall.
Learn more about Lecture Capture.
Technology Borrowing through the Library
All of their locations have a variety of equipment you can borrow on 3-hour loan. They have:
- Mobile phone chargers
- Laptop power adapters
- Laptop computers
- Laptop projectors
- Headphones
- Cables and adapters
- Power bars
- Wireless microphones
- Portable CD/DVD players