Welcome to the LITE Bites podcast from the Leeds
Institute for Teaching Excellence at the University
of Leeds. This is Education Spaces mini -series.
In the next three episodes, LITE Bites will
be featuring guests with unique insights related
to the Education Spaces programme. Hello and
welcome to the KUTE Bites podcast and particularly
welcome to the first episode of our Education
Spaces mini series. I'm Emma Peasland, I'm the
Head of Research in Leeds Institute for Teaching
Excellence or LITE at the University of Leeds
and I'm joined today by Ollie and Lynda who are
graduate interns who've been working with the
Facilities Directorate and Transformation Office
here for the past 18 months. And over those 18
months, Olly and Lynda have contributed to lots
of different projects within the Education Spaces
programme that's running at the university. And
they have a specific interest in the physical
design of our teaching and learning spaces. Today,
you're here to talk about the Education Spaces
playbook. which is a reference resource for designing
and evaluating teaching and learning spaces.
And it's something that you, Ollie and Lynda,
have both been working on and developing over
the past year in collaboration with Jenny Brady,
who's the Inclusive Learning and Teaching Manager
based in Educational Engagement and Student Success,
and with Claire Danahey, who's Space Utilisation
Manager in the Facilities Directorate. So it's
great to have you here, Ollie and Lynda. Yeah
thanks for having us. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome.
So we're going to get started then thinking about
the playbook because that's what you're here
to talk about and I'd love it if you could start
off by telling us a little bit about the playbook.
So like what's the broad synopsis and what did
you want to investigate and why did you decide
to create the playbook? Yeah, so as a bit of
background, early on in our internships Jenny
Brady was really keen to introduce us to the
Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence through
a number of research projects related to education,
space design and pedagogy and since then we've
been introduced to many more through meetings
with LITE Fellows, through the student education
conference in January and as our kind of awareness
grew about this wealth of research at this intersection
of space design and pedagogy, we kind of became
aware that there's a need for a resource which
gathers this body of work together in a way which
is usable at a future point of need. So in response
to this, me and Lynda have been busy collating
and summarizing academic research related to
education space design from light projects and
beyond. and organising it into this playbook.
The idea was kind of to have this collected in
a way which can help inform future design decisions
and then also help build this institutional memory
of light projects and also make sure that their
research outputs are used. Great, so I love that
kind of sitting at that space, that intersection
between space design and pedagogy. What does
it look like in practice? So the resource is
basically a typology of spaces that we have on
campus. So in the playbook we set out each space
including the pedagogy, so the defining pedagogy
of each space, the spatial attributes of each
space and associated technologies. And as well
as this kind of setting out this typology and
vocabulary of spaces, we also include guidance
and key things to consider that we've gathered
from the research. And then as a result of this,
as a kind of byproduct, the playbook exists as
this kind of holistic overview of university
research and contacts for anyone who's involved
in space design or new space projects or refurbishments
or things like that. So yeah. Brilliant. And
so what kind of process did you take in developing
the resource? So, the playbook developing is
kind of a cyclic process, mainly involved in
the planning part, and also drafting, consulting,
and also presenting. So, for the planning part,
as Ollie mentioned, we've been involved in different
types of education spaces projects, like Bring
Your Device and Informal Learning Studies based
refurbishment. So, we just have a chance to talk
with different staff from different departments.
So we actively join the workshop and conference.
So during this process, we just read a lot of
excellent internal and external research papers.
Um, so at this point, our line manager, Jenny
and Claire just mentioned, oh, it's the right
time to put all these valuable information together,
um, to create kind of resource package might
support future space design. So I started to
select some education spaces related research,
um, from LITE fellowship. Um, and Create kind
of mind map to see what kind of resources we
had and what kind of project we had can included
in the playbook So it's all about preparation
stage then for the drafting I think It's about
how to structure all these information together
in a clear and like clear and logic structure
because we have wider potential audience. We
would like the playbook both informative but
also practical and let people easy to use in
the future. And for the consulting, I think it's
really important part because we just continually
work with stuff from different departments like
LITE Fellowships, FD, Student Union and Disability
Service. We're trying to provide a kind of holistic
view of the playbook and trying to consider any
necessary details and cooperate different perspectives
in the playbook So it's all about collaboration
And for the presenting I think it's a really
good chance for us to show the playbook and just
ask staff's idea and gain some valuable feedback.
So Ollie and I present our first version of Playbook
on February and April's education spaces program
meeting and also present on July's FD senior
management team to show like what kind of examples
we included in the Playbook. and we gain the
valuable feedback from them. And we also had
a chance to ask some targeted questions, like
which part of the playbook is missing, and who
should be involved in the playbook design process,
and how the playbook can be applied in the future
space design process, et cetera. because we think
it's really important to make sure the content
of the playbook is always on the right track,
on the right direction, and match with the university's
future development strategy and the transformation
map. Fab. And you mentioned FD a couple of times
in there, and that's the abbreviation for the
Facilities Directorate. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent.
I really like hearing that kind of process and
the fact that you incorporated so much consultation
and collaboration in your approach. So did you
get any particularly kind of useful feedback
or did that change your approach in any way,
the feedback that you got through consultation?
Yeah, here are a few examples we got. So we just
consult with LITE team. So there's one researcher
just point out the people change factors is quite
important. For example, we got advanced technology
in the space, but we didn't provide like training
for teachers and students how to use them. So
they might feel not confident or comfortable
to use this, then we just waste those resources.
So before we didn't think about people change
parts, but after the conversation, we try to
think what kind of training we can provide, what
kind of... potential support like creating the
guidance book is kind of good way and show the
like kind of visiting tool for both teacher and
students in the new space will be a good example.
So we're trying to think from this part and also
on July we just meet with FD senior management
team and We just talk about technology part because
we found in the previous research something like
teacher feel the software is out of date in a
space and we ask the question like what universities
AV team is trying to do to solve this problem.
And they just mentioned they already noticed
this trying to do some updates during this summer
vacation for the teaching spaces. So it's all
kind of new information we get and can be added
in the playbook. Excellent, so it sounds like
you took a kind of really flexible approach.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so you've got a huge amount
of information that you've tried to, or you've
not tried to, I think you've successfully put
into something useful. So I'm interested to know
how you simplified that and how did you structure
the playbook to make that a good presentation.
So when we were thinking about how best to synthesize
and organize all this information, I was reminded
of this paper that was written by David Radcliffe,
which outlines a question based framework for
designing and evaluating teaching and learning
spaces. So this framework basically outlines
the key questions to consider when you're designing
education space and groups them into these categories
of pedagogy, space and technology. And we use
this framework in two ways. So The first way
was as a method of information gathering. So
because of the question -based nature of the
framework, we were able to gather and filter
research by basically looking for answers to
the questions in the framework. So these questions
were overall, what is the motivation for the
space? Pedagogical question was, what types of
teaching and learning are we trying to foster?
For space it was what aspects of the space design
will foster the desired pedagogy and experience.
And then for technology we asked what technology
will complement the space design in fostering
the desired pedagogy and experience. And having
these questions just allowed us to gather this
information in a really simple, clear, direct
way. And then the second way we used that framework
was to actually organise and present the information
in the playbook. So for each space type that
we cover, these questions that I just outlined
were the subheadings for each kind of paragraph
or section of the space. And then we obviously
provide answers to the questions under each subheading.
Oh yeah, and it's also important to note that
those were the kind of PST questions that already
existed, but we... supplemented an extra question
to provide this experience element to make sure
that we were thinking about what types of experience
we're trying to foster through our spaces. So
we kind of created this new PSTE framework. And
yeah, collecting this information in this way,
just allowed us to organize and synthesize the
research into something that was a bit easier
to access. Excellent. So you've brought together
all of this useful information. So if I was,
for example, designing a silent study space and
I could go to the playbook and have a look at
this synthesis of all the research that you've
encountered from external sources and from within
the university as well. Yeah, exactly. Marvellous.
And then you mentioned, as an example there,
collaborative lecture theatres full of one of
the types of spaces. Could you give us an example
of how the information is structured in the playbook?
Yeah, so as Ollie mentioned, we got PST in framework
and it can be easily applied into different education
spaces. So basically, for the collaborative lecture
theatre, we start with the introduction of the
space to introduce the aim of the space and what
kind of pedagogy can be like foster in the space
and what kind of activities teachers can do in
the space and like those expected behaviours.
to see and suggested in the space. And then we
will just based on the PSTM framework from space
design perspective and technology perspective
to see what kind of practical recommendations
we can put. So we during this process, we just
working closely with light team. And based on
previous light research, we just from furnishing
side to provide some suggestions. For example,
in the research, it suggested that in the collaborative
lecture theatre, it will be benefit if we can
keep two different type of seat arrangements,
because it can satisfy different students' needs
and learning styles. And from technology side,
we just see, like Ed mentioned, like we should
ensure the technology in the space is work and
trying to always update and check the software
because They just mentioned something like when
teacher go to the space and they find out the
software doesn't work and will make teacher to
pause and cancel some interactive activities
as they planned. So it's quite important to always
check the technology. So we just put all these
suggestions in the playbook so people can directly
and easy to understand what kind of factors they
need to focus when they refurbish or design the
space. Excellent. I love the way that it's so
kind of built around really sort of practical
recommendations for people to use and I speculated
before about how I could draw on the playbook
if I was designing a particular type of space
but how do you kind of hope that it will be used
to support the education spaces program and other
work within the university? So I think we envision
the playbook to be used as kind of this briefing
tool. or something to be referred to throughout
the project life cycle of a space project, space
design project, as this kind of point of reference
rather than something that's really prescriptive.
We didn't want, it's not a prescriptive manual
or anything like that. We just, we intended it
to help start the concept design process and
provide this kind of design backbone as opposed
to start in projects with a blank canvas. and
then also kind of having all this information
to go over and read at anyone's convenience hopefully
provides this common ground for anyone involved
in planning, designing, managing spaces on campus
and this common ground or this kind of shared
understanding hopefully will provide equal access
to the design conversation. for the diverse stakeholders
that are all involved in these projects, as opposed
to some people not being able to engage in the
conversation because they don't know how this
works or that works. So we're just basically
hoping to encourage input and collaboration from
as many people as possible and kind of broaden
the understanding of these spaces for everyone
involved in these projects. Excellent. I really
like the way that you're talking about the fact
that it's not prescriptive, so it sounds like
you've got almost like a menu of things that
you could do if you're designing a particular
type of space rather than a to -do list of things
that you need to do. Yeah, that's exactly it.
Yeah. That idea of diverse stakeholders with
different experience being able to have a conversation
from that same resource regardless of levels
of expertise. Really nice, I like that a lot.
And so going forwards then, where can people
find the education spaces playbook and who do
you think could use it? Because currently the
playbook is continued to be developed. we're
trying to kind of arouse people's like attention
like we have these resources and they it can
potentially be benefit for the future space design
and I think based on the meeting and discussion
probably in the future we can just find the link
of the playbook on our team. Like website. Yeah,
like website. And also trying to get the regular
review of the playbook because we've got so many
excellent research and we're trying to make sure
there's kind of information and best practice
can be added in the playbook to continue just
share the new information to other people. Yeah,
that's really important, isn't it? To be able
to keep reviewing it and making sure it's up
to date as we find out new things. Yeah. Yeah.
Brilliant. Well, it sounds like it's a really
kind of comprehensive and useful resource that
hopefully will inform the creation of really
appropriate and good to use, good to teach in
and good to learn in spaces at the university.
And one last thing that I'm curious about is
did you enjoy the process of creating this playbook?
And if so, what did you enjoy most about it?
Yeah, yeah, we definitely enjoyed the process.
I think for me, My favourite part was just kind
of hearing different people's experiences of
using spaces in there. Just the diversity of
kind of preferences of spaces, you know, from
wanting to use a nook in the café nearer to being,
liking to be surrounded by the Brutalist architecture,
like complete polar opposites of things like
that. And hearing people's experiences on campus
and everyone's also really Kind of passionate
about these things and everyone's got an opinion
on space basically And you know these diverse
preference. There's no right way to design a
space. So I think thinking about Variety variety
is one of the key things that kind of came through
To kind of provide this variety of space for
people so that they are unable to Choose the
space which is most ideal for them. But yeah,
that's a question. My favourite thing was Yeah,
hearing about people's kind of diverse opinions
about space. Yeah, I think we have a campus with
lots of different architecture and people love
particular parts of it and other people love
different, I love the brutalist part. Yeah, me
too. And Lynda, what about you? Did you enjoy
it and what did you enjoy about it, if so? Yeah,
I enjoyed that, like creating the playbook and
also especially for the communication process
because I really well like because that is my
interest to see different type of research and
understand academics research how their like
result can potentially support our future space
design and enhance student experience because
at the preparation stage I just talk with the
light fellowships to understand those ongoing
research to understand what kind of methodology
they applied during the process and what potential
benefits to support education's basic design.
So I think it's really meaningful because during
the conversation, we just got the like new ideas,
you can understand what is the current gap because
some like stuff can mention like, oh, that is,
this gap is the reason why I would like to do
the research. For example, I talked with Pam
Birtill and she just mentioned for the like, there's
one research about how campus green space connect
with student sense of belonging. So they just
have small range of like research samples. They
would like to expand this and do more continued
research. So it's quite interesting to understand
this part. And also another is I got a lot of
chances to join different workshops and activities
like PIPs activity. I really impressed by the
staff. show how the lecture looks like and the
seminar room looks like and what kind of pedagogies
people foster in a space, whether it's kind of
traditional and whether it is more active, and
to understand teachers from different school,
how they use the space, what parts they really
like about the space, what part they really don't
like. Yeah and Pips was that pedagogies in physical
spaces workshops that are run by organisational
development and professional learning. Yeah and
I think we were both in one of the same ones
and it was really interesting to see how some
people felt comfortable in the lecture theatre
space and other people felt more comfortable
in a collaborative digitally enabled learning
space. Yeah, so yeah, marvellous. Well, thank
you so much for coming and sharing information
about the playbook and your experience of creating
that today. I hope it's an excellent resource
that lots of people find useful and informs the
creation of excellent learning spaces here at
Leeds. And then I just want to give you a kind
of a last minute moment. Is there anything that...
you would want people to particularly take away
from this conversation or from the playbook?
I think just if you've made it this far then
thank you, thanks for listening. I think yeah
the main one of the main things we wanted to
do by coming on here was just kind of make people
aware that this thing exists and you know we
kind of want these conversations to keep happening
like Lynda says the conversations are practically
the most important part of this whole thing.
So yeah, the takeaway would be just, you know,
get in touch with anyone involved in this project
if you want to learn more basically.