The Frank Bangs Memorial Active Learning Classroom (4066 Wescoe) is a dedicated teaching space assigned to instructors for the entire semester. The room contains a movable instructor podium and six group stations that can be easily reconfigured to hold up to 36 students. Each group station has a dual-boot Mac Mini, a 55″ flat-screen monitor, and wall-mounted laptop and USB inputs that connect directly to computer or monitor. Whiteboard surfaces cover most of the walls, and two LCD projectors display a mirrored image on opposite ends of the large classroom. In addition to a Blu-ray player, a DVD/VCR unit, a document camera and both analog and digital laptop inputs, the movable instructor podium features a SMART Podium for annotating directly on the computer screen. The instructor machine also runs software that allows the instructor to share the podium display with all of the individual group displays, share the display of one group with all of the other groups, restrict web use, and send out polls for class feedback. Also available in the room are USB ClickShare devices that allow students to wirelessly project their laptops to the two main projectors in the room.
This Active Learning Classroom was built in Summer 2014 as a collaborative project between the Office of the Provost, Design and Construction Management, Information Technology, and the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center. The room is heavily used by second-year Spanish courses that need the space to facilitate the multimedia components of Acceso, an online curriculum created entirely at KU. It has also been used for courses in technical writing, in film and media studies, and in teaching methodology. In AY 2015-16 it will serve as the home for the new series of courses in Digital Humanities. For more information or to inquire about placement in this new classroom, please contact us at egarc@ku.edu.
