After administering the Active Learning Classroom survey designed by Steelcase Education, 253 students responded. The students were asked to respond on a 1-5 likert scale to questions with the following prompt:

Think about a classroom you were in last year compared to this new classroom. In this new classroom, it is (easier/harder) to…

Here are some highlights:

It is much easier (65.5% say a lot easier) for students to see their peers during class.

The following two graphs are interesting when compared with each other. While still easier overall, 37.7% of students believe that the feedback received from instructors stayed the same. However, over 85% of students think it’s easier or a lot easier to receive feedback from their peers in the new Active Learning Classrooms.

And what about their comfort during class?

Over 80% claim that it’s easier to participate in class. Moreover, the largest percentage of ‘a lot easier’ out of any other question was regarding their comfort. More than 70% of students claim that it is a lot easier to be comfortable during class.

Finally, students were asked the following free response question:

How do you feel the new classroom has impacted your learning experience?

A word cloud was created from their responses to extract major themes:

Students repeated the words ‘learning’, ‘comfortable’, ‘feel’, ‘easier’, and ‘better’ among others. These words are overwhelmingly positive, as the previous graphical data suggests.

The hard part will be to analyze further in order to figure out exactly why their learning experience is better. Moreover, how can we continue to make decisions that will improve the learning experience?

And the bigger question: Does these classrooms actually improve their grades?

I am excited to learn the answers.