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A new building is UNM’s next step in promoting interactive learning among undergraduates.
University officials gathered at the Collaborative Teaching and Learning Building (CTLB) on Thursday to celebrate the building’s opening. The three-story building is near the School of Education on the north side of main campus.
Classes started to be offered in the CTLB this semester.
Gary Smith, a professor of earth and planetary sciences and former Support for Effective Teaching director, said special classrooms on the top floor of CTLB have a different format from conventional classrooms.
“There is no front to either of these classrooms,” he said. “Students face each other at round tables rather than face the lecturing instructor. These are learning studios in the strictest sense, and they are constructed on the model called SCALE UP from North Carolina State University, an acronym that stands for Student-Centered Active Learning Experience for Undergraduate Programs.”
Associate Provost for Curriculum Greg Heileman, who attended the event, said the building offers classrooms that provide students with a more unconventional learning experience.
“They’re these classroom spaces that allow for active learning,” he said. “They’ve got multiple projectors, (and) the way the students are seated, they can work together, they can participate in lectures. It’s kind of a new style of teaching and learning.”
UNM President Robert Frank said the building provides a better way of teaching for faculty and students alike.
“It’s great to have an environment that’s flexible and helps us do the kind of teaching that our students need and our faculty need,” he said. “And this is a great day for UNM.”
UNM Provost Chaouki Abdallah said at the event that five years ago, campus officials started to construct the idea for the new building.
“It took the leadership of the academic departments and units, as well as the regents, the state Legislature and the administration, to develop a vision of improving the UNM main campus learning environment,” he said. “That vision was based on the premise that our students deserve to learn under 21st century conditions.”
Abdallah said the building aims to help students learn by engaging them in active learning because of the classrooms’ setup.
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“A lot of this has to do with how the research that we know about now of how students who do actively learn a lot better. And we all do, by getting engaged,” he said.
Diane Gwinn, the academic operations officer for the dean of the College of Education’s office, said the College of Education (COE) decided to collaborate with other colleges around the University to create the building.
Gwinn said the building cost about $9 million. She said all types of courses are taught in the new building.
“The funds were for COE Phase Two, and (former College of Education) Dean (Richard) Howell thought that for us to get some additional funds on top of this $9 million, that we would collaborate with the other colleges,” she said. “By collaborating with them, we increased the people who were in the planning sessions, and so the building became the Collaborative Teaching and Learning Building.”
Gwinn said classes in various fields will be offered in the building.
“There are classes from the COE, (the College of) Arts and Sciences, (and) physics has several sections in there,” she said.
Frank said UNM may provide more opportunities like this in the future.
“I wish we could make more buildings like this,” he said. “We’re working right now to create more opportunities across our campus.”
