2022 Volume 44 Issue 2 Pages 173-178
This roundtable was held as a workshop, which included topic presentations and group work. It aimed to examine the state of learning environments in The New Normal. The topic presentations reported the results of an interview survey on the management of learning spaces before and after the COVID-19 pandemic and introduced the translated version of the Learning Space Rating System (LSRS), an index for evaluating learning environments. The presentations also reported on the design of the Academic Links (ALs) learning environments at Kyoto Tachibana University, a learning space established during the COVID-19 pandemic, the status of its use, and the results of a trial evaluation of ALs using the LSRS. After the three presentations, the roundtable participants conducted group work on the ideal learning environment for the new era by applying the LSRS evaluation perspectives and discussed the usefulness of LSRS in Japanese universities.
The discussion results showed that the LSRS is a useful evaluation system in the Japanese context. However, it was found that the inclusion perspective and stakeholder involvement were not highlighted in the group work. Further discussion is needed in this regard.
In the future, we will continue to interview staff members involved in the management of learning environments and produce interviews that will include discussions of the three points discussed in this report. We will also develop LSRSs that are adapted to the learning environment of The New Normal and continue to study the designs of learning environments based on the perspectives of operators and learners.
