There are many aspects of the Hub that would not have existed, or implemented in an entirely different way had it not been for student consultation.  For example, the student kitchen, the implementation of IT in the Hub and the project room.  And if you are in need of another buzzword, think of “student-centricity”.  But beyond all the jargon and new phrases, hopefully the several new experiments in student consultation (including our online presence  have been as natural and fluid as possible.

Our Facebook page will more than likely be made defunct and instead will be rolled into the University of Adelaide Facebook page.  Same thing applies to this blog and our twitter account.  But expect to hear more about it next year for confirmation.  We should have a Hub manager by then that will take care of communications.

On behalf of the project team, we wish you a relaxing holidays. Expect to see some extra additions to the Hub in the new year that will add to your study experience.

With our project review drawing ever closer to its due date; we thought it would be worthwhile sharing some other interesting tidbits that we have garnered from our latest student survey.  In our previous blog post, we had a look at what students generally thought about the Hub .  This time around, we will take a look at other aspects of the survey responses.

Students from different faculties find some areas of the Hub more useful than others.  The graph below shows the distribution of responses, sorted by faculty, to a question asking students what they find most useful in Hub Central.

It is no surprise that Engineering students find the Maths Learning Centre more useful (proportionally) than Humanities students; or that printing is considered roughly equally important among students from all faculties.

The space can mean many things to students; it can be a focal point of meeting other students for group assignments, a place to get a quick bite to eat or simply a place to socialise.  To some, this may come across as a form of distraction to students learning, but the underlying design philosophy of the Hub was to provide an environment that was conducive to study.  We asked students to rank how they use the Hub in order of use, below is the resultant graph.

Students were able to add their own comments at the end of the survey.  Most were positive, some negative and others nonsensical, but we read them all.

Whilst we had a few comments that weren’t exactly enthusiastic about the project:

I dislike the learning hub. I liked it better when it was a courtyard.

It is a horrible impersonal space, good only for transiting quickly into the library proper

Those of us who have been associated with the university for many years see the Hub as an eyesore that has replaced a lovely central square that was the envy of students at other unis.

There were plenty of positive comments as well:

I think it has definitely opened up the University to a huge extent and really gives you more of an idea of who’s at the Uni and gives a great place to meet up and study.

The planning for this project reflects in the really useful and creative end product. These sorts of facilities are more necessary particularly for self directed learning activities involving small groups. It’s a very convenient and user friendly central place for busy post graduate students to meet and discuss projects. Thanks.

Great addition at the moment where volumes of students have increased and demands for education facilities have improved. A timely venture, I would believe =)

What do you think, does the Hub help provide a flexible learning space?

The survey has been divided into several distinct themes: Demographic information, perceptions of the Hub before and after it was constructed, how the space is being used and experiences with services for students.  Data collected will be used as part of a review process being conducted.  Consider it as a formative template, in case there was a similar project to be undertaken by the University.

Let’s take a quick look at what the 853 respondents said in the survey.

First let’s compare the change in student perceptions of the Hub before and after it was built:

NB: Total exceeds 100% because students were able to respond with multiple answers.

Judging by the comments attached to the responses, those that had a negative view of the Hub during construction felt it was either unnecessary or an inconvenience mainly due to the construction site and the closure of the Hughes Plaza thoroughfare.

If we reorganise the answers into the following sentiments: Positive (Good idea, A necessity, Awesome idea), Negative (Not required, An inconvenience, Waste of money), Neutral (Indifferent, Not sure) and Mixed (a combination of indifferent and another response) we get the following:

Another question in the survey asked students what they found most useful in the Hub.

During the early days of the project, a survey was conducted to see what kind of services and facilities students would want to see in the Hub as a first preference.  The options are not exactly the same, but if we consider responses such as project rooms/booths to be group study spaces, we can get a rough comparison.

Below is a chart of what students rated as a first preference service prior to construction versus what students rated as most useful after the Hub was built.

That’s just a quick first glance of the survey results from students (which we are still going through). We’re still waiting on feedback from staff, the student reference group and other stakeholders in the project.

As always, if you would like to share your thoughts with us, please leave a comment.  Alternatively you can find us on Facebook or on Twitter.

If you want to be part of the student reference group, either email slavka.kovacevic@adelaide.edu.au or let us know on our Facebook page or Twitter account.

A couple of issues (but not all) that were mentioned included:

Signage for the Maths and Writing Centre

There were a few suggestions in improving signage plans for the Maths and Writing Centre in level 3 of the Hub. The Centre (run by the CLPD) is placed in a relatively secluded area of the Hub to provide students a quieter and more private space. The space separation in level 3 east is a bit fluid, so some extra signs will be placed to help make things a bit clearer.

Sleeping overnight in project rooms

Services staff have had to wake up students sleeping overnight in project rooms. Some have used furniture to barricade themselves inside to create privacy. As a result, cleaners have been unable to do their job and students wanting to do group work miss out on valuable study space.

The university’s duty of care was mentioned in the SRG meeting. By barricading the door, and blocking line of sight into the project room, student safety becomes compromised. It was noted that there is a difference between full-on overnight sleeping and just a light napping, the latter was not considered an issue.

A set of principles for staff and students are being drafted. These principles will help make it clear what is acceptable behaviour in the Hub. Essentially it is common sense codified, but it will empower staff and students with something to point to if there is an incident. For example, staff would be able to cite a principle about duty of care to tell a student that sleeping overnight in a project room is unacceptable.

A copy of the draft will be available online shortly.

But what now?

Hub Central may be open, but we are still tinkering with its operations. As such, the project Facebook page, twitter feed and this blog will still be around for some time yet.  Our online presence will still be under the “Learning Hub” name as it is the designated project name.  However, it is expected that there will be a restructure at the end of this year.  This restructure will result with integrating the Learning Hub’s online content with the University of Adelaide’s Marketing and Strategic Communications initiatives.

That being said, we are very interested in taking feedback about your experiences in the Hub directly.  We are currently collecting photos taken by students that show how they use the Hub.  If you have any photos you would like to submit to us, post them to our Facebook wall or twitter account.  We will give creative submissions some Grass Roots vouchers.

There is still plenty to do and much to discuss, and student consultation will continue!

For Open Day, artist (and current University of Adelaide student) Peter Drew went around campus and put up faces of various University figures.

You can find more information about the people behind the faces here.

We discussed challenges faces the Hub team down the road, how services in the Hub might look like, possibilities of student employment and other aspects relating to Hedley’s role.

“It’s about taking on board what people need, want and do. Taking that information and then taking ownership for how you get outcomes for people to meet their needs. And in the university, believe it or not, that is a novel approach.”

You can find the recording of the interview here.

Due to timing and availability it’s not possible to have a studio quality recording, apologies, but cleaned it up as much as possible.

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and on Twitter

The Hub offers a unique challenge within the university in the sense that currently there is no such space that can be used as a precedent.   Some important questions come to mind, such as:

• How will the Hub be managed?
• Should university staff be actively involved in the management of the space?

We addressed these issues like any workshop would: with butchers paper and crayons.

Perhaps what could be surprising to some was the diverse range of university staff and students had come to quite similar conclusions about how the Hub should be run.  The words “flexible” and “versatile” came up in many conversations.  There were some strong common points, namely:

−      Student integration (with decision making)

−      Self-regulation

−      Commitment to maintain the space as a learning environment

You can find a summary here.

Everything might all sound a bit airy-fairy at the moment but the information from this meeting creates a foundation in making policies for the daily running of the Hub.  The summary doesn’t do the workshop enough justice in conveying how similar the views between university staff and students were.

Members of the project team are currently working on forging a draft of operational guidelines, so expect to hear about it more soon.

Workshop is 1.30pm to 4.30pm on Thursday 28 July.

Seats are limited, so first in best dressed.

If you would like to register your interest please contact: juan.legaspi@adelaide.edu.au