In summer 2015, LTS created a physical home for the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, which fosters excellence and innovation in teaching, learning, and research by providing faculty and students with development opportunities, classroom and instructional support, teaching tools, and consultation services.
The new CITL is a vibrant place for conversations among faculty, staff, TRAC Fellows, and students. It is also a prototype space that will spark discussions about new possibilities for Fairchild-Martindale Library and for Lehigh’s learning spaces.
The CITL offers the following four new spaces:
The CITL Commons is a place for one-to-one or small-group conversations, consultations, and conferences among faculty, students, TRAC Fellows, and staff. Tables that are not used for this purpose will be available for student study space. The Commons offers eight small tables with 32 chairs, a bar-height table with six chairs, soft seating for six, an 80” laptop-ready display for presentation, a digital bulletin board, and public-site printer. The Commons tables can be reserved by TRAC fellows and CITL staff, and the whole space will be used for occasional CITL events of up to 50 people.
The CITL Classroom (EWFM 379) is a flexible teaching and presentation space that can be used in any of the following modes: (a) lecture/presentation for audiences of up to 45 using a 98” ultra-high-definition touch-screen display that can present a single image, a quad image from four separate sources, or function as a digital whiteboard, all with options for lecture capture, classroom conferencing, and videoconferencing; (b) small group classroom or workshop space for up to 32 in which students work in small groups with wireless access to four 48” displays on the side walls, with guidance from an instructor who can also use the front media wall to display student work or present to the group as a whole; or (c) events that require additional cameras or mics, technician-controlled cameras, or support for audience interaction. All walls have IdeaPaint (whiteboard paint) above the chair rail. CITL-supported classes and LTS/CITL workshops, seminars, and presentations will be held here.
The CITL Seminar Room (EWFM 370d) offers full videoconferencing resources, a classroom computer with dual screen capability, and a new 86” touchscreen videoconference-ready “MondoPad” display to simplify collaboration at a distance Uses include small classes that need flexible furniture and small meetings that need projection or videoconferencing technology for interviews, presentations, and discussions.
The CITL-TRAC Program Home (EWFM 372) is a semi-private home and meeting place for our 65 undergraduate TRAC (Technology, Research, And Communication) Writing Fellows to use between conferences, for Fellow-Mentor Fellow meetings, for meetings with TRAC & CITL staff, TRAC Seminar Teaching Team, CITL Staff, etc. The room has five tables, sixteen chairs, soft seating for six, a large IdeaPaint wall, and a glass-walled conference room with a circular table and six seats. Other LTS staff in the area will use the space to store lunches, meet with Fellows, and as overflow conference space.
Funding for this project was provided in part from LTS and in part from an Adaptive Reuse Grant from The University Space Committee/Facilities Services/Campus Planning and Projects. Special thanks to the following individuals for their work on and input into the planning process: Bruce Taggart, Elia Schoomer, Ilena Key, Judd Hark, Pam Steigerwalt, Annette Ruhe, Greg Skutches, Julia Maserjian, Peg Portz, Alex Pacheco, Peggy Kane, John Santamaria, Alex Morykin, Jason Slipp, Bobby Siegfried, Allen Kingsbury, Jarret Brown, Tim Foley, Dave Ledger, Yasmin Bugaighis, and Julia Parker. Thanks also to Mark Canney, Mel Kitchen, Christy Roysdon, Sharon Wiles-Young and others who managed the movement of the DVD/VHS collection; to the faculty on the various LTS advisory committees who have given input into teaching and classroom needs; to the many TRAC Writing Fellows who wrote thoughtful, persuasive descriptions of their need for a home on campus; and to Jim Young for helping get this project started back in 2013.
If you have questions about this project or ideas for using this space, please contact Greg Reihman, Director of the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, at reihman@lehigh.edu.