Faculty and students have mixed reviews about the new classrooms in the recently renovated Liberal Arts buildings.
“When I was in LA1 last semester, we didn’t pay attention in there, it was either too hot or too cold, Monsrrat Oidor, a pre-studio art freshman, said. “The atmosphere was suffocating.”
Oidor said she is excited for the new classrooms because the newness is a better learning environment.
“I’m still trying to figure out how to work everything and then how to use everything and that’s a process,” journalism professor Jennifer Fleming said.
According to an article on the California State University, Long Beach News at The Beach website, the LA buildings are equipped with 26 “smart” classrooms and a handful of active learning classrooms.
Active-learning classrooms are outfitted with large group tables that have whiteboard surfaces on top. Each table is equipped with a large computer screen.
“We hope that all of the classrooms will be smart or more active learning classrooms to really push that 21st century collaborative learning style and we hope that more instructors will be open to that as well,” Instructional Design Consultant Rica Young said.
Young said the department of human development is equipped to train professors in the new classrooms as questions arise.
“The most common question is, ‘how do I use [the control panel]?’” Young said. “It’s that control panel that they really need to master.”
Human development professor Heather Rae-Espinoza said that the new classrooms are not practical for human development classes, as they are content-based, rather than group-based.
“Most of the flipping involves doing group assignments, and you can’t manage 10 different groups to the same level of depth as you can push the whole class to think about it,” Rae-Espinoza said.
Fleming said she is happy the new smart rooms are equipped with updated computers because she doesn’t have to bring her laptop to class.
“I’m excited to use the technology, and I’m excited the university invested in these technologies,” Fleming said.
Administrative support coordinator for the department of human development, Wendy Lopez said that the LA buildings are not compatible with current human development curriculum.
“We don’t have any classes in those active learning classrooms,” Lopez said. “We would have to change the whole curriculum to use those classrooms.”
Lopez also said the new buildings need restrooms and elevators.
“We have a lot of us in crutches and wheel chairs and are blind that need to go buildings over to go to the elevator in LA5 and walk across the whole bridge way and we also need restrooms in this building,” Lopez said.