Space Design Challenge:

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The workspace shared by the LXD and Digital Learning Team (DLT) is tucked away on the 3rd floor of the Technology Building. It was dark, crowded and not overly welcoming to visitors seeking our services. It was hard to ignore the mounting tension over preferences in lighting, room temperature and noise levels. It was also starting to feel pretty cramped. Although our core teams are fairly small, we work with over 20 contract employees, students, faculty and staff from every department across the college and industry experts on a daily basis. However, there wasn't any room in our area for any of these people to work comfortably. We'd often hear when people entered the area, that they felt like they were intruding or being disruptive. As service providers to such a large stakeholder group, this is not what we wanted to hear. When facilities told us we were unable to fit another desk without breaking fire code, we knew something had to change.

 

Because our work is constantly changing and evolving, we needed a space that could accommodate growth and transformation without sacrificing productivity and responsiveness to those who seek our services. Two years of intensive strategic work helped us identify what our true value proposition had to be to meet the needs of Lethbridge College and our community (See the 'What We Do' section of our website). We had the knowledge, skills and tools to get there but our space was still a major barrier. 

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We needed a space that presented itself as the body-language of our departments (See ingredients to our success) - a space that was not 'owned' by any specific group but rather 'owned' by everyone and anyone who wanted to use it and contribute to it.

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The Solution: 

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We used a human centred design process (understand, ideate, implement) to engage our teams in the transformation. We learned that  it needed to be a space that would accommodate a balance of multidisciplinary teamwork and collaboration as well as individual productivity. It needed to support the work we are doing today while preparing us for what we will need in the future. Did I mention, we had to do all of this on a shoestring budget? 

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With limited resources, we  scrounged, begged and borrowed (Special thanks to our friend Francis and the facilities team for supporting us in this endeavour). Through lots of ideation, prototyping and some gamification, the end result was a smashing success! It still may not be perfect and we are still working out some of the kinks but the overall impact to our team and our growth has been very positive.

 

We took a risk, worked as a team from planning to implementation and in the end designed a space that works for us and our community. It is open and incorporates adaptive and flexible spaces to accommodate collaboration and focused work.

 

The door is always open for anyone who wants to come in, pick an area and work with instructional designers, curriculum experts, media specialists and digital technologists only an arms reach away for just-in-time support on any teaching and learning initiative.

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Come see for yourself! Visit us on the 3rd floor of the Tech building.

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