Learning commons: developments at Charles Sturt University

Learning commons: developments at Charles Sturt University. Shirley Oakey gave a marvellous presentation to the ACT ALIA and AGLIN groups on Wednesday 28 May. Her presentation will be put on the web shortly. She covered the many issues involved in establishing physical and online learning commons which are spaces that enable students to interact with each other and the learning spaces using technology to provide support. It evolved from “Information commons” which started out more like extensions of computer laboratories and responds to:

• Changes in the way students behave
• Changes in the way they learn
• Changes in the way they are taught.

A very interesting and informative concept paper can be found online at http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/about/commons/ and the implementations in Bathurst and Albury (Thurgoona) have led to significantly increased us of the spaces and online resources.