Understanding First-Year Engineering Students' Perceived Ideal Learning Environments

There is a growing interest by engineering education researchers to identify learning spaces that enhance student engagement and learning in higher education [1-3]. Yet seldom does the creation and design of these learning environments consider students' initial perceptions of these spaces. This exploratory study sought to understand what early engineering students perceive are their ideal learning environments. A rearrangeable, active, and mobile learning classroom space, containing 14 tables and 42 chairs, was used as part of an Introduction to Engineering Course. Student teams hand-drew sketches of their ideal learning environment, pitched their designs to the class, and repositioned the existing lecture-style classroom arrangement. The top three classroom designs were voted by the students and furniture was arranged accordingly. After each arrangement, an open discussion took place amongst the students about the learning space. Audio recordings, sketches, images, and quotes of students' perceived ideal learning environments were collected. Pre- and post-surveys about perceived emotions and stress were collected as well as near-to-real-time engagement (via electrodermal activity sensors). Preliminary findings suggested that students preferred moveable, open-spaced, and collaborative arrangements that face forward (e.g. U-shaped theater-style) over traditional learning spaces (e.g. stationary lecture-style). While electrodermal activity (EDA) was not significant, students' self-reported levels of self-efficacy increased marginally, but not statistically significantly over the duration of the class period.