ELI Web Seminar, July 17, 2006 1:00 p.m. ET (12:00 p.m. CT, 11:00 a.m. MT, 10:00 a.m. PT); runs one hour

Georgia Tech's Learning Commons: An Epicenter for Student Success

Special Guest

Crit Stuart
Associate Director for Public Services, Library and Information Center
Georgia Institute of Technology

Crit Stuart is Associate Director for Public Services at the Library and Information Center, Georgia Institute of Technology. For the past four years, he has coordinated the evolution of “library as place,” emphasizing enhancements to spaces, technologies, and services that support student productivity and success in a 24-hour environment. Much of his time is devoted to expanding practical partnerships and sustaining meaningful dialogue with students. Stuart holds a bachelor’s from the University of Arkansas and a master’s of librarianship from Emory University.

Summary

EDUCAUSE Vice President Diana Oblinger will moderate Crit Stuart’s Web Seminar, in which he discusses Georgia Tech library’s learning commons and complementary spaces.

Since 2002, the library has collaborated with the Office of Information Technology (OIT) on a series of renovations that have doubled attendance and resulted in distinctions such as the “best place to study on campus” and the “most important change at GT this year.” Student support units including advisement, tutoring, and the counseling center have petitioned for “storefronts” in this exciting landscape where ongoing enhancements are driven by student suggestions. All of these improvements are treated as experiments that require ongoing observation, commentary, and, if necessary, adjustment. The library and OIT find that learning commons, if thoughtfully conceived and nurtured, can be epicenters of student learning, productivity, and creativity that suggest next steps in library transformations and the logical campus partnerships that enhance them.

Related EDUCAUSE Resources

• Learning Spaces, an e-book edited by Diana Oblinger
• Learning Space Design, EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 4 (July/August 2005)
• ELI Enhanced Podcasts on Model Learning Spaces
• Proceedings, ELI 2005 Fall Focus Session: "Design of Informal Learning Spaces"
• Proceedings, NLII 2004 Fall Focus Session: "Learning Space Design for the 21st Century"
• ELI Learning Space Design Page