A new, state-of-the-art classroom in the College of Engineering and Computer Science is opening this semester with the goal of improving collaboration amongst students.

Rooms 369 and 371 in Link Hall were transformed during the fall semester from typical classrooms to new innovative classrooms that are said to foster group work and team-based learning, according to a Jan. 8 Syracuse University News release.

In the classrooms, there is a dual overhead projector, which professors can use to show one or two screens to the class. There is also a mobile whiteboard that students can use anywhere in the classroom whether on the wall or at their table, according to the release.

In addition, the classroom features 10 LED monitors, which students and instructors can control by connecting their laptops or using the teaching station, according to the release. Reconfigurable tables are another addition to the classroom. The tables and chairs can be arranged individually, in small groups or as large as a group of six.

Some engineering students feel that the change was necessary in order for students to be able to work in the engineering world after graduation.

“If they keep making classrooms like this, it would lead to a higher success rate among students,” said Amanda Walkowicz a senior aerospace engineering major. “The classroom pushes for group work and will help students get in this mindset so they will be better prepared for group work when they graduate.”

Anastasia Budinskaya, a junior bioengineering major, agreed, saying she thinks the college did a poor job of incorporating the teamwork aspect of engineering until a class she took last fall, which included several group projects.

“As engineers our job description is collaboration, there is no way that one product can be developed by one person,” she said.

Jannuel Cabrera, a junior aerospace engineering major, said he hopes that in addition to the room being used as a classroom, it can also be used as a study room, so students can work on group projects together.

Some engineering students also said they believe that there is a host of benefits from having a classroom like this.

Walkowicz said she believes the classroom will help students focus more on group work and said, “there is seldom a time in engineering that an engineer will have to work on a project themselves.”

The classrooms were funded by the College of Engineering and Computer Science, which includes individual donations to the Dean’s fund as well as to the university. There was also an additional gift that contributed to the construction of the classroom from Class of 1977 alumnus Avi M. Nash, according to the SU News release.

The new classroom will give engineering students a place that has the tools they need to get their work done.

“I took a class called mechanical aero lab last semester and a lot of us would go to the iSchool to get projects done because they have a lot of white boards and double monitored computers,” Walkowicz said. “The fact that the engineering school is catching on to what the iSchool is doing means they are following suit.”

Published on January 12, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Olivia: otjohnso@syr.edu