Appendix B – Room Designs


The early computer classrooms generally followed the general plan in the Layout A. The instructor and whiteboard/projection screen are at the front of the room. All the students face the front of the room. However, many of the instructors teaching in these rooms wanted to be able to have the students work in collaborative groups. Some comments included "classroom is an abominable place to teach composition: five rows of six computers each stretch down a long narrow room, with the teacher isolated behind a set of tables and a tall desk, sitting on a high stool. . . . With so many students facing computers, there is a strong temptation to read-e-mail, surf the Web, or do other work, and even instructors who are quite successful in other classrooms have expressed their frustration with this aspect of the room. Making matters worse, the ranks of tables are narrow and cramped: an instructor who wants to reach a student near the windows must walk down the aisle and then sidle in past book-bags and chairs--and even then the quarters are very close."


Therefore, when the Lab Management group was designing the next computer classrooms we solicited input from the instructors. The instructors identified several aspects required:

From these concerns we converted the room to Layout B. This layout allows students to turn their chairs around to form groups. Since the instructor is closer to the middle of the room (station marked with a T), it is much easier to see the students and reach them if the student has a question. Since the student sit back to back the aisles are much wider and less cramped. The downsides are that some students have to turn around to see the projection screen (located on the bottom wall behind the instructor.) But some instructors use a variety of teaching styles, and this layout works well for most.

A third option list shown to the right as Layout C. This is very similar to Layout B, but all the students are facing towards the center of the room. This layout keeps the instructor as close as possible to the students. All the students can see the screen without difficulty and are not too far from the instructor. However, the aisles are cramped again and it isn’t as easy to do group work. This layout usually works well for sessions where the instructor is attempting to lead the students through an exercise on the computers.


Another option is shown in Layout D. This layout has all the students facing forward as in Layout A. But since the room isn't as long and the door location allows us to use a center aisle, the instructor still has reasonable access to the students. This demonstrates the importance on room dimensions for the layout. While the Layout A didn’t work, Layout D in different sized room works well. This rooms is good for leading students through an exercise, so it is used extensively by Design classes to instruct students in the use of multimedia applications.
 
 

In conclusion, there are two issues you must keep in mind while designing the layout of a computer classroom: the teaching style of the instructors who will be using it and the dimensions of the space. Once you have these issues clarified you will be able to design the best possible computer classroom.