Last year, we launched the Mosaic Initiative blog to share our story of research, classroom designs, and resources for teaching in Indiana University’s active learning classrooms. We’d like to take a moment and reflect on the 2018 blog entries, and highlight the many people who contribute to and shape this initiative.
Instructors
Over the last year, several IU instructors have shared their experiences teaching in Mosaic classrooms through the Mosaic Initiative blog.
Elaine Monaghan, Professor of Journalism, wrote about how her class of novice reporters used markers, video walls, and collaboration tools to hone their writing and presenting skills. And Jeremy Price, Assistant professor of Technology, Innovation and Pedagogy in Urban Education, shared with us how students experience and perceive their Mosaic classroom through their own drawings of the spaces.
Professors Kelly Hanson and Yu Kay Law both blogged about the First Annual Mosaic Design Symposium we held in June. As a Lecturer in the Kelley School of Business and an Assistant professor of Chemistry, respectively, Kelly and Yu Kay wrote about their experiences during the day of brainstorming about the future of IU’s learning spaces.
Professor of Psychology, Lisa Contino, blogged about members from our Learning Spaces team observing her class session in an active learning classroom. She wrote about her experiences with the team and getting feedback from students on the room.
Students
Students shared their experiences in the feedback they gave professors. In some cases, however, they also contributed their own blogs; Mary Clare, a junior majoring in media advertising and public relations, shared in her blog how the Mosaic active learning classroom she learned in shaped her learning experience as a student.
Collaborations
A variety of IU staff who support our active learning spaces also shared their perspectives. Gary Cummins, a Principal Learning Spaces Engineer at IU, wrote about observing Lisa Contino’s class in a Mosaic classroom. Mosaic Initiative staff also wrote about working together with our Learning Spaces team, including the entry about our cohort reports, which is one way we leverage faculty feedback to inform future classroom designs and upgrades. We also shared an example of working with a variety of stakeholders to design a new classroom.
Resources
Almost a dozen of our entries provided ideas and examples on how to teach in active learning classrooms, including use of whiteboards, Solstice, classroom space and collaboration screens. For easy reference, all of these blogs are on the resources page of the Mosaic Initiative website
Research
We also published several blogs related to literature and research on active learning classrooms, including this reading list as a recommendation of where to get started with foundational readings. We also shared our reading list to kick-start a discussion on active learning literature. Inspired by a presentation we gave in Montreal, at the POD conference in 2017, we also shared our steps for supporting faculty research for anyone interesting in helping faculty in engage in research on active learning classrooms.
Every post to the 2018 Mosaic Initiative blog reflects the community of people involved in active learning and active learning classrooms across all campuses of Indiana University. Stay tuned throughout 2019 for blog posts that spotlight even more voices, experiences, insights, and resources on active learning at Indiana University.
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