Mid Sweden University

The use of blended learning environments in higher education has rapidly increased in the 21st century, but if the term also should include blended student groups there is a need for redesign of existing learning spaces. Today many universities give courses and programmes for a mix of campus students and distance participants. There are several research studies reporting on the benefits of blended learning environments for universities and students, while there are less reports on the teacher view of blended learning design.

This study has the aim to describe, evaluate and discuss the design of selected active learning spaces from a teacher perspective. The main research question to answer is: “How should the new learning spaces be designed to support a student centred instructional design for blended student groups?”.   The overall research strategy was a case study gathering data in a mix of observations, semi-structured interviews and document studies.

Findings indicate that the new design of classrooms and lecture halls is a step in the right direction opening up new possibilities for active learning. However, there still exist needs for further refinement and teacher training.