Learning Environment

Iowa State University has made substantial progress in improving learning environments for students, faculty, and the citizens of Iowa. These investments have enabled us to upgrade on- and off-campus facilities and virtual learning environments.

• Collaboration between Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) and Facilities Planning and Management to ensure that classroom design is consistent with the most up-to-date learning and teaching research

• Replacement of the LeBaron Auditorium with a 363-seat facility with flexible seating in alternate rows to allow small group interaction within a large lecture setting

• Classroom upgrades to support multi-media equipment and projection systems (almost 60% of Iowa State’s 233 classrooms have been renovated since 1996)

• Use of Universal Design principles in classrooms in new buildings including Gerdin, Hoover, and Morrill to ensure that they are usable by learners with disabilities

• Implementation of technology that promotes good teaching practices, such as remote mouses, software/hardware that permits in-class polling for frequent feedback and student participation, and high-participation activities using WebCT

• Expansion of residential and non-residential learning communities

• Faculty rewards for innovative teaching that takes students off campus (examples include LAS Master Teachers, Jim Colbert and his Skunk River Navy that involves students in environmental restoration of a nearby river, and Carol Vleck leading a course for students to her research site in Antarctica)

• Advising for students through faculty and staff involved in leading study abroad programs, learning communities, residential leadership development programs, and over 500 clubs and organizations run by student leaders

• Lifelong learning for citizens (examples include Engineering Distance Education offerings and the MS Agronomy distance education program)

Challenges for the future include adequate funding to continue improvements to physical learning environments, competition from private providers in distance education markets, international security for our study abroad programs, developing a set of business support services that keep pace with the global expansion of our study abroad programs, and providing incentives for faculty to continue to contribute to our nationally ranked learning communities program.

The following sections provide details on Iowa State’s physical, virtual, off-campus, and research environments as well as its learning communities. The learning environments include classrooms and labs, residence halls, distance education offerings, county-based and other off campus environments, and one of the nation's top-ranked study abroad programs.