As one-time chair of the student-run Educational Studies Program — which brings motivated middle and high school students to campus for courses taught by MIT undergrads — senior Michael Shaw knows how hard it can be to find meeting rooms on campus. “There’s definitely a space crunch,” he says.

“Classrooms fulfill a very major role in our community,” adds Registrar Mary Callahan. “There are more than 350 student groups at MIT, many of them very active. They host lectures, show movies, perform a range of activities that make a difference in their lives. Our classrooms are used to bring people together, and serve as a true integration point of life and learning.”

That MIT cares about classrooms being both available and properly outfitted for student activities and other community events — as well as for academic pursuits — characterizes MIT’s focus on flexible learning spaces and using space on campus to build community.

It’s all part of a drive to rejuvenate the Institute’s physical plant and improve its educational infrastructure, so that MIT students and faculty have the facilities they need to support their path-breaking work — no matter where, or when, it takes place.

Nuts and bolts

MIT’s seminar rooms, lecture halls, and other learning spaces range in size from 16 to 566 seats. There are 157 classrooms in all, mostly spread across buildings to the east of Massachusetts Avenue, and all under the purview of Registrar Callahan and her staff.

They are also in various stages of modernity. In 1988, the Institute set a goal (Project 2000) to update all 157 classrooms fully by the year 2000. Although progress has been made, that has not yet happened.

“Our aim is to deliver on that goal,” says Callahan. “MIT has entered a period in which there are compelling needs to renovate and modernize its teaching facilities in ambitious and creative ways.”

Wanted: multimedia capabilities

Innovation is on everyone’s mind at MIT, and where learning spaces are concerned, things are no different.

In addition to updating the Institute’s current classroom inventory, says the registrar, MIT also needs wholly new types of rooms. “Based on emerging pedagogy — because of changes in the way information is delivered and in how professors and students interact — there’s a push to create new types of learning spaces that are driven in large part by innovation.”

One such completed project is the B.J. and Chunghi Park Room in Building 3. With major funding from the Park family and the Singapore-MIT Alliance, this large “flat” classroom has been transformed into an amphitheater, complete with video projectors, VCR, DVD/CD player, two flat-screen monitors, and microphones for each student. The updated space is representative of a new style of classroom that allows faculty to use a hands-on, self-discovery mode of teaching, where students can carry out simple experiments during lecture.

Another space where delivery by multimedia has been integrated into the design is Room 4-231. Once a lecture hall known for its uncomfortable wooden seats, this classroom has been converted into an all-purpose learning space with electrical outlets at every seat and wireless connectivity to the Shakespeare Electronic Archive.

Back to basics, too

Prof. Donald Sadoway, John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry, points out that it’s important to preserve and upgrade our lecture halls, too.

“Let’s remember that we have 1,000 freshmen coming here every year, and that the majority of those students are going to be educated by direct instruction in large lecture halls,” he says. “We owe our freshmen the proper learning environment, and 26-100 (for example) fails to meet contemporary standards by a huge margin.

“We want our students to be successful,” continues Sadoway, “and you know, the best thing you can do to ensure a good finish is to get them off to a good start. We have to get the big classrooms fixed first.”

For any lecture hall or seminar room, Sadoway suggests good lighting, comfortable seating, power outlets for the omnipresent student notebook computers (wireless is already campus-wide), good ventilation, temperature within a comfortable range, and quiet.

Student Michael Shaw’s wish list would also include moveable chairs and tables for those club meetings, and an LCD projector in every room. “It would be good to focus on the things everyone uses all the time,” he says.

The transformation of MIT’s learning spaces, and the development of new ones, will be accomplished in the context of the following goals:

• complete Project 2000;
• create classroom spaces where design matches purpose;
• ensure that space is not an impediment to educational innovation; and
• find ways to ease the pressure on student group demand for meeting spaces “after hours.”

The Institute must rely heavily on private donations to improve the teaching and learning environment for its current students, and also to meet future students’ expectations for first-rate learning spaces.