is a nonprofit organization that seeks to “advance higher education through use of information technology.” Reimer and Davis attended the national EDUCAUSE conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, last November, and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative conference in San Antonio, Texas, in February. They co-presented with colleagues from Kentucky Community & Technical College Systems and the University of Kentucky. The goal of their presentations was to help colleges and universities across the country develop active learning environments on their campuses.

In the last few years, experts in higher education have started to reexamine how the design of influences student engagement. Many institutions are moving away from traditional lecture-style classrooms and creating “active” learning environments that are more conducive to group work and access to a wider array of technologies. As a result, there is a growing national discourse among higher education professionals about implementing and assessing the impacts of innovative learning spaces.

Elon joined this conversation two years ago when Reimer and Davis partnered with other faculty and staff across campus to establish the Learning Spaces Workgroup. Members of the Workgroup gather to confer on learning spaces at Elon—both classrooms and informal learning spaces.

Reimer and Davis directed their EDUCAUSE presentations to representatives from colleges and universities that are new to the conversation about innovative learning spaces. Reimer and Davis outlined the strategies that Elon’s Learning Spaces Workgroup has used to implement and assess active learning spaces. They also led audience members in small group discussions about best practices for promoting active learning spaces on their own campuses.

According to Reimer, presenting at the EDUCAUSE conferences gave her a better sense of where Elon is ahead of the curve, in terms of developing active learning spaces, and where there is still room for improvement. “The Learning Spaces Workgroup has been crucial to our success,” she says, “and we are grateful for the work [our group members] have done related to current and future learning spaces.”

Davis recalls that representatives from other institutions were amazed at the variety of faculty and staff voices contributing to the conversation about innovative learning spaces at Elon. “Our Learning Spaces Workgroup is a unique and essential factor that other institutions are interested in emulating on their own campuses,” he says.

See more information about Reimer and Davis’s , and their . 

Copling has worked at Elon for nearly three years and significantly contributed to several important projects, primarily supporting the Human Resources and Accounting departments. He has dedicated much time to working on the rollout of DUO, an authentication system that makes it more difficult to hack into Elon’s network.

Copling also developed new systems for the HR department to address the Affordable Care Act.

Regarding one of his recent projects, Copling’s supervisor, Heather Hutchings, recalled, “I was so pleased multiple times when our business users would cite a problem, but then follow with ‘but Terrance did xyz…’ to resolve the problem or improve the process.” According to Hutchings, Copling often understands his business partners’ needs better than they do themselves, and approaches each task with professionalism and patience. 

The primary components of the Light Finder are its light sensors, , and LED bulbs. Students can make measurements with the device by pointing it roughly in the direction of the sun. Depending on how much sunlight hits the Light Finder’s sensors, the instrument’s Arduino board turns on a certain number of LED bulbs. When the most LED bulbs are lit, the user knows that the Light Finder is pointed most directly at the sun. The user can then record the sun’s position using a compass attached to the Light Finder. 

Finkelstein, Hassard, and Hunsberger visited the Maker Hub several times to code and construct their apparatus. They had no prior experience using Arduino, but with assistance from Maker Hub staff and about eight hours’ worth of work, the Light Finder group programmed their instrument. Finkelstein says she now feels more comfortable with coding, and sees herself working on future projects in the Hub.

Last semester, a group of students, faculty and staff reviewed applications and awarded eleven Kickboxes to individuals and teams of students who proposed projects that could be completed in roughly three months’ time. Over the course of the spring semester, Kickbox beneficiaries will cultivate their projects, log their progress on project web pages, and ultimately present their work to the Elon community during Celebrate Week. They will also show off their projects at the on April 23rd.

Each Maker Hub Kickbox is a literal box that contains tools and resources—including a $300 pre-paid Visa card—to transform each student project from a proposal to a reality. Students can allocate their funds to purchasing tools and materials, attending workshops, traveling to conferences, or anything else that helps them achieve their project goals. All tools purchased for Kickbox projects will be returned to the Maker Hub at the end of the semester to support future Elon makers. At the kick-off workshop, Maker Hub staff also encouraged Kickbox recipients to make use of the myriad of tools and materials (and fellow-maker moral support) in the Maker Hub.

In the spirit of taking advantage of all the Maker Hub has to offer, the Kickbox students participated in a workshop to gather peer input on their project designs. The design thinking process is an approach to problem solving. The goal of the activity was to introduce students to the design thinking concepts that are featured in the Kickbox and to give each innovator practice applying them.

Kickbox teams paired off to take turns interviewing each other and sharing stories about their respective projects. They brainstormed and posited suggestions to each other, and emerged from the workshop armed with new problem-solving ideas for their Kickbox projects. “It was really nice to be able to talk to someone who doesn’t know anything about your [project],” said Kickbox recipient Emmanuel Obi, “[because] those are the people who are going to be using your product.”

Check out a complete list of the Kickbox projects and descriptions here.