Immersive LearningSCAPE 3.0: The Good, the Bad, and the Data. A Post-Occupancy Evaluation Story at Fulton County Schools

ABSTRACT: 

In 2010, at the A4LE Conference in San Jose, we introduced the concept of the Immersive Learningscape as an idea to transform Learning Environments to meet the needs of a 21st Century Education focusing on Personalization, Collaboration, addressing Multiple Modalities of Learning, incorporating Latest Technologies, and supporting Wellness and a Brain-Based educational process. In 2013, at the A4LE conference in Indianapolis, we presented The Immersive Learningscape 2.0, where we went beyond the concept to show how we were implementing the concepts into real school projects at all levels, Elementary, Middle and High school and with multiple clients: Public, Private and Charter. Now in 2019, we are ready to present extensive Post Occupancy Evaluation Results and Data from one of the implementations of the immersive Learningscape: The Re-design of Fulton County Atlanta’s Middle School Prototype. The implementation happened in one school as a full conversion, and in 4 other schools as additions. We will share wide-ranging data showing both quantitative and qualitative responses from 585 perspectives: • 27 district-level administrative staff • 47 school-specific administration and staff • 180 teachers • 28 special education teachers and staff • 303 students The Post-Occupancy survey was designed to address several metrics and gather feedback about how the spaces were performing from the subjective perspectives of students, faculty, and administrative staff for each school as well at the district level. The survey was open from May 22, 2018 through June 13, 2018. We will present to the audience the engaging process that the design team had with the district, the school metrics including program, cost, and square footage, the implementation of the goals, photography of the learning spaces, and the qualitative and quantitative data collected through the survey. We will present a realistic and truthful review of the data. We will highlight the great things happening in the schools, the current challenges they have, and the lessons learned by the team and the district from the Post-Occupancy evaluation survey.

Learning Objectives

OBJ #1  We will share the engaging process that the design team had with the district, the school metrics including program, cost, and square footage, the implementation of the goals, photography of the learning spaces, so the audience understands the project background

OBJ #2   We will share the Quantitative data from 585 responses ranging from District Leaders, to School administration, to teachers and students. We will analyze the data and present it in multiple formats to highlight results based on role, population, school, type of learning spaces, type of learning

OBJ #3   We will share the Qualitative commentary from 585 responses ranging from District Leaders, to School administration, to teachers and students. We will also share commentary from interviews with 3 school principals

OBJ #4   We will share a summary of findings, and discuss the how space, pedagogy, leadership, technology, furniture, teaching, learning and change management have been evaluated in both successes and challenges with the projects. We will share top recommendations.