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UNIVERSITY TOWN EDUCATION RESOURCE CENTRE

- a high-tech, high touch service and study centre -

Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort that a solo race. Good learning, like good

work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working with others often increases involvement in learning. Sharing one’s own ideas and responding to others’ reactions

sharpens thinking and deepens understanding. They must talk about what they are learning,

write about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to their daily lives. They must make learning part of themselves 1.

The Education Resource Centre

Situated at the heart of the University Town, the Educational Resource Centre (ERC) will be a place for students to interact, brainstorm, get technology, multimedia and research assistance,

attend workshops or classes, develop projects, study and work collaboratively in groups together or individually on course assignments. It will also be a place to complement academic learning at

the Residence Colleges such as supporting non-academic co-curricular programmes and

recreational activities.

View of the Education Resource Centre from the Town Plaza

To cater to the higher student expectations, the ERC’s amenities will operate on a 24 by 7 basis;

learning spaces and technologies will be re-configurable and multi-use for maximum flexibility. As learners move from the social spaces to the individual study and research spaces, they also move

from a noisy environment to a quieter environment.

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ERC will take an evolutionary process in embedding technology into the spaces so as to

anticipate future technological and pedagogical developments.

2.0 Technology and Relaxation

2.1 Learning Café

The Learning Café is a mix of refreshments, social activities and IT making this a relaxing and friendly place where conversation and social interaction which are seen as an essential part of

learning take place. Flat screen terminals stand back to back for group discussion in the centre of the café, and on bars around the edges. Ample power sockets, wireless access, sofa-style

seating, light music make this a good meeting place for students and staff.

Flexible furniture outside the learning café.

The learning cafe with student radio station at far end.

2.1 Student Radio Station

A NUS student-led radio station called Radio Pulze will

complement the informal recreational and learning facilities situated at the learning café . Radio Pulze will beam over the

Internet events ranging from food, fashion, local affairs &

humour, grooming, band scene and career talks. Radio Pulze will also be an avenue to promote NUS events.

2.2 The Computing Commons

The Computing Commons is an open expanse space of computers housing a mix of high-end

single and dual screen Windows and Macintosh-based computers for applications that require high speed and good bandwidth connectivity. Flexible mobile furniture that supports collaboration

complements the technology to allow for different modes of collaborative settings within the Commons. Ample power sockets, wired and wireless access provide students with additional

options of using their own notebooks and tablet PCs to access NUS resources. The Commons has

a mix of open and semi-enclosed spaces and project rooms for students that want some privacy in their discussion. Students are given the flexibility to decide on the configuration of these

spaces and the technology they require for their purpose.

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The Education Resource Centre has three Computing Commons. The PC, Macintosh and Collaborative Commons. Each Commons has its own unique distinctive design and colours,

break-out spaces and rooms.

The Commons are open to all NUS students and operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

PC Commons with break-out spaces on the left and project

rooms on the right.

Mac Commons with project rooms on the left

Project rooms within the clusters are equipped with a variety of input devices to facilitate project work, presentation

preparation and group video conferencing. These rooms will

be flexible enough to accomplish a variety of student centred learning tasks.

The Commons has ten project rooms with different seating

arrangements. Each room comes with a projection system.

Some project rooms are equipped with video conference

codecs and visualisers to provide for group video conferencing and document capture facilities.

360 degree camera for video conference at PC Commons

PC Commons Project Rooms

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The Collaborative Commons is an open

expanse space designed to act as a test-bed to explore and experiment with new

technologies that aid in teaching, learning and

collaboration. Companies will be encouraged to use the Collaborative Commons as a

learning laboratory and to try new disruptive technologies.

2.3 Faculty Lounge

A dedicated space to help faculty relax in between lectures, interact and

discuss with colleagues and get support

to incorporate technology into the curriculum.

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3.0 Technology and Learning

Learning is social activity and students need to be actively engaged during lectures and tutorials. Classroom discussions, student-to-student collaboration, exchanging ideas are what learning is

about. But classrooms today were designed with very little interaction in mind. Consisting of

nothing more than tables and chairs facing the lecturer, student were just expected to listen, take notes and move on. Students passively set through the lecture, listening on a topic but not

really engaged with the topic. Lecturers kept teaching the same way due to the constraints of the classrooms, i.e. they became more like presenter in a one-way seminar.

A new type of teaching classroom is needed, one that challenges the lecturer to act more like a facilitator to the class where the students do the work and synthesize the data and information to

come out with new learning. These new type of classrooms will allow students to work in small groups, collaborate, exchange documents among themselves and share what they have learnt

with the rest of the class.

3.1 The Active Learning Seminar Room

The active learning seminar room is a technology enhanced seminar rooms with enhanced audio-visuals and customized and mobile furniture to support project and inquiry-based small group

discussion and class presentations. Each student group ‘owns’ a large LCD display that allows

students in groups of 5 to 6 use their laptops and iPads to easily move content to the group’s large LCD displays to share results, discuss and collaborate. Portable whiteboards complement

and enhance the discussion. Group members can also present to the rest of the class their project discussions.

Active Learning Room at ERC

Active Learning Room at Town Plaza

Faculty have full control to take final presentations from group member’s LCD displays and

display it to the rest of the class on a larger projection screen for class discussion. A similar

Active Learning Seminar Room is available at Town Plaza.

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3.2 Global Learning Seminar Room

The Global Learning Seminar Room is a highly interactive seminar room to facilitate interactive lectures between UT, KR, BTC and other sites overseas. This multiple camera room is specially

equipped to provide high-definition life-like conferencing facilities. It comes equipped with

wireless microphones, mobile furniture and dual-projection systems to facilitate remote teaching.

The Global Learning Room at ERC is to support remote

teaching equipped with multiple cameras and microphones.

The Global Learning Room at Town Plaza is to support remote teaching equipped with cameras and microphones

The range of technologies that will be adopted into some of the other teaching spaces within the

ERC include lecture capture facilities, interactive whiteboards, portable video conferencing units, wireless networking, work walls and mobile phone voting devices.

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3.3 Basic Seminar Rooms

The Education Resource Centre will also support seminar rooms that come with basic teaching facilities. These no-frills wireless-enabled seminar rooms with basic technology and basic audio-

visuals gives maximum flexibility in class room configuration. It allows the faculty to change

classroom seating and provides the faculty with the ability to teach anywhere. These basic seminar rooms can also double up as a student-led break-out and study rooms.

These basic seminar rooms are meant to support future changes in teaching pedagogy and

interaction

Seminar rooms with mobile furniture and writeable walls

A typical basic seminar room

The Education Resource Centre is also equipped a training cluster called the Learning Studio.

This 25 seat seminar room is equipped with high-end laptops computers to support both normal classroom activities and software training classes.

The Learning Studio: A training cluster equipped with high-end notebooks.

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3.4 Auditorium

A two hundred seat auditorium constructed using recycled wood will be used for lectures and can also double up as a theatre for movie screenings as the lecture podium is portable.

200-seat auditorium

3.5 Learning Corridors Collaboration will be seamless, ubiquitous and pervasive across the Education Resource Centre

(ERC). Ample power sockets, mobile whiteboards, wireless connectivity, quick-access computers

all add in enhancing the ERC into a collaborative resource centre.

Open spaces at the ERC with power sockets

Power sockets embedded into the furniture

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4.0 Technology and Creativity

4.1 Presentation Studio

To provide students with the facilities to develop their own multimedia audio and video projects in a professional setting, the Presentation Studio provides student with advanced media facilities

such as blue screen, portable lighting system, HD mobile cameras and other equipment for non-

linear editing along with instructional support. The Presentation Studio can support experimental theatre with its 50 retractable seats. The Presentation Studio is supported by the adjoining

Visualisation Suite for audio-video post production and documentation services.

Studio with retractable seats

Studio as a theatre

4.2 Visualization Suite The Visualization Suite operating on a 24 by 7 basis provides non-linear audio-video editing

workstations, duplication devices, documentation services and specialized software to allow students to create, edit and re-mix multimedia contents. The Visualization Suite also acts as a

training room for audio- video appreciation courses.

Visualisation Suite

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4.3 Self-Service Recording Booths

For students that want to prepare for presentations, do voice-over narrations for their videos, two recording booths equipped with video, audio and teleprompter recording facilities are

provided adjacent to the Visualisation Suite.

Recording Booth

5.0 Study and Research

5.1 Private Study Spaces

As learners move from the social spaces to the individual study and research spaces, they also move from a noisy environment to a quieter environment. These wireless enabled spaces from

level 2 and level 3 onwards support students who want the ambience to do quite reflection and

study. Fixed and mobile furniture will add to the flexibility to suit these students learning preference.

Private Study Spaces

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5.2 Writing and Communication Unit

Located on level 2 of the Education Resource Centre is the Writing and Communications Unit. This academic department teaches modules on all aspects of the writing and communication

skills, research techniques and writing across the curriculum. It also offers personalized services

and assistance to students in techniques such as brainstorming and organizing ideas and articulating ideas to non-specialist readers.

6.0 Support

6.1 The Xchange The NUS IT Care support provided by Computer Centre campus-wide is also extended to

University Town. The NUS IT Care staff are located at the Education Resource Centre’s Xchange

suite. The Xchange site operates the same working hours as NUS IT Care at Kent Ridge.

The Xchange for IT Support

______________ 1. Seven principles of good practice in undergraduate education.

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm

2. A Roadmap for Education Technology www.cra.org/ccc/groe.php