Emergent Patterns of Teaching/Learning in Electronic Classrooms

Abstract

Novel patterns of teaching/learning have emerged from faculty and students who use our three Teaching/Learning Theaters at the University of Maryland, College Park. These fully-equipped electronic classrooms have been used by 74 faculty in 264 semester-long courses since the Fall of 1991 with largely enthusiastic reception by both faculty and students. The designers of the Teaching/Learning Theaters sought to provide a technologically rich environment and a support staff so that faculty could concentrate on changing the traditional lecture from its unidirectional information flow to a more collaborative activity. As faculty evolved their personal styles in using the electronic classrooms, novel patterns of teaching/learning have emerged. In addition to enhanced lectures, we identified three common patterns: active individual learning, small-group collaborative learning, and entire-class collaborative learning.