Opening a public square for student success

Someday, Micaela Petersen hopes to launch a career as a mechanical engineer. Between now and the day she earns her engineering degree, however, Micaela will be grappling with an assortment of calculus and other math and science classes. "I started using the learning resource center in my second semester at UAA," she said. "Because I really struggled with math, I found the tutors to be extremely helpful."

Micaela still seeks and finds help there at Sally Monserud Hall, but the learning resource center has been transformed. The reimagined space with an expanded mission is now known as UAA's Learning Commons.

"It's a great atmosphere to study with friends or classmates, a very relaxed environment," Micaela said. "There's a nice balance of things going on, while not being too loud. Plus, there's something extremely reassuring about knowing help is just a few feet away if it's needed. It's really helpful to have resources like the tutors in the math lab and writing center-I find myself in the math lab at least twice a week for a few hours."

Eliminating silos

UAA's Learning Commons-located in Sally Monserud Hall-is the latest step in the university's effort to integrate guidance, course reserves and information desk, testing, computer lab and study spaces, printing station, advising and academic coaching/tutoring services all in one easy-for-students-to-access place on the Anchorage campus.

The Learning Commons is more than just a new name for services that had been gathered together and called the Learning Resource Center, said Denise Runge, dean of the UAA Community & Technical College.

"We're keeping pace with best practices of universities across the nation," Runge said. "When you think of the name Learning Resource Center, it literally sounds like a place where you go to get things. A learning commons or information commons is a place where people come not only to receive things, but to share things."

The change, she said, marks a philosophical shift.

"Students can learn from one another in such a space," she said. "Faculty can learn from one another in such a space; students can learn from staff. It's much more collaborative and open and sharing of a mindset, and the space was redesigned to reflect and encourage those kinds of activities."

One of the first transformations came last year, when a pilot class of intermediate algebra students began using a collaboration-friendly Math Emporium classroom outfitted with internet-enabled computers at every desk and large whiteboards on every wall.

The experiment worked so well in improving students' proficiency that a second Math Emporium class is now functioning at the Learning Commons.

Guidance classes can help students better understand how to navigate in the world of a university and know what they need to be successful-especially students who are first-generation students or students who want help in improving note-taking, organization and other study skills.

"These courses really do attract a wide array of students-students who were 'A' students in high school, students who've been out of school for a while, all the way to students who really have struggled with academic things all their lives," Runge said. "[CTC] took on the management of those courses. So the director of the LC is working with the faculty who teach those courses to make sure they integrate into the whole idea of the LC: the sharing, the services, tutoring, coaching, if a student has questions, if they have a struggle, if they need a service. It's a hub for all of that to take place."

If a student needs help plotting a big-picture academic course, for instance, three advisors there can help-one works with developmental students, another works with CTC majors and the third works with Associate of Arts students.

Students who need help with math or writing may seek a tutor's help at the Learning Commons' math lab, take a math test at the proctored math testing center and hone their skill in English-language writing at the writing center.

Approximately 2,000 students have sought help at the writing center and 3,000 at the math lab, said Shannon Gramse, who began working at UAA 20 years ago as a writing tutor with the Learning Resource Center. Now, he serves as director of the Learning Commons, which just received a UAA Fund for Excellence Award to begin a supplemental instruction program in spring 2017 for high-enrollment, high-attrition classes needed to fulfill general education requirements.

"This is another key step toward achieving the Learning Commons' vision," Gramse said of the award. "The Learning Commons is poised to become UAA's academic front door."

Finding a niche

Monserud was originally a library, Gramse said. "There's still a book-drop on the north side," he said. "It evolved into keeping reserves, VHS tapes. As students' expectations shifted over time, it evolved into more of a community than a place to keep resources."

Now, Gramse says, the Learning Commons is connecting students with each other by providing a space and furnishings that invites them to linger, talk, do homework together, spread out on tables to prepare for tests or presentations, check out laptops or use the "beautiful large print station."

"The atmosphere is somewhere between the library and the student union," he said. "It's a little less formal than the library."

Runge says she and her team are working in conjunction with the librarians and others to offer even more options for training and services.

"We used to think of things being available in certain places at UAA and the whole point of the Learning Commons is to bring together a lot of things in one place, break up the silos," she said.

Learning Commons fulfills another critical function: providing a convenient place where underprepared students, commuting students and nontraditional students can find a niche.

"At our school, we have this strange narrow campus a mile long from the east to west side," Gramse said. "These students may not find the social connections they need without our help. This is a social place, a hangout place. The renovations have been part of that-it's a place where people want to come and study, where they know they'll be embraced, where there's always someone there to help them learn to learn."

Written by Tracy Kalytiak, UAA Office of University Advancement