CLASSROOM RENOVATIONS

Classroom upgrades promote collaboration

Classrooms for Business and Exercise Science students have changed dramatically with the installation of up-to-date technology—including oversize monitors and screen-sharing devices— and furniture designed to promote collaboration.

Dr. Linda McMullen, Business Chair and Ely R. Callaway Senior Associate Professor of Management, said the new spaces will have a huge impact on the learning environment.

“It’s hard for students to work in teams when they are turning around across immovable desks, and they can’t share screens,” she said. “With this new layout, you can have small groups working on a project together.”

Movable lecterns give professors a more hands-on approach, allowing them to help multiple groups in the classroom at the same time. Small-group stations around the renovated Whorton Room in Smith Hall allow students to move around and to work together to do research and create presentations.

TVs placed at each group station allow the team to view data from each other’s laptops, and then to share their work on the video wall at the front of the room.

Exercise Science classrooms also have a totally new look with updated flooring and refreshed walls, along with movable furniture and enhanced technology. The rooms in the Callaway Education Building were completed in September, as were the Business classrooms, all thanks to the generosity of LaGrange College donors.

“Today’s world is all about collaboration,” Dr. McMullen said. “We need our students to feel comfortable working in those situations.”