Mesa Community College
Center for Teaching and Learning
The CTL provides faculty with the means to innovatively and collaboratively advance the process of education.
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About The Experimental Classrooms
Piloting new approaches to Teaching and Learning...
The MCC Center for Teaching and Learning provides access to two experimental classrooms, AS192 and AS196, for the purpose of evaluating approaches to teaching and learning or newinstructional designs. Faculty can apply to use the rooms for focused experimentation on a longer-term basis, or they can request the rooms for intermittent or occasional use. Proposals for long-term use require strong evaluation and documentation plans along with departmental support. Please check out the various reports on Experimental Classroom use located at the CTLpedia.
Experimental classroom AS192 is designed for regular, dedicated computer access and contains the following items:
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Experimental classroom AS196 is designed for collaborative learning activities with occasional technology access and contains the following items:
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Use of the experimental classroom:
- Open to all residential MCC faculty.
- Access needed for every class or periodic for full semester or more (fall, spring and or summer). [Note: Periodic use applicants may be matched with other periodic users to encourage efficient space use.]
- Duration of access (semester or more) depends on evaluation/assessment plan for the proposed teaching and learning project with a maximum of two semesters (not necessarily within the same year).
- Access to using a class set of clickers and individual rolling whiteboards (check with the CTL for more information).
- Additional room hardware/software needs can be requested and will be fulfilled based on available funds.
- Documentation of approach, evaluation procedure and results, as well as conclusions and recommendations required.
- If evaluation procedure includes collecting data from students, be sure to check if you need to submit an Institutional Review Board (IRB) application to MCC’s College Research Review Committee (CRRC). MCC’s CRRC website & MCCCD’s IRB website.
- Progress reports are required each semester.
- Applicants are strongly encouraged to disseminate the evaluation results via presentation or publication.
- In consideration of scheduling issues for the next year, the proposal process begins at the start of fall classes each year and runs through the end of March. Proposals will be tentatively approved within two weeks of submission, however, scheduling adjustments may be made to accommodate other approved proposals.
- Initial proposal must include a statement of support from department chair expressing a willingness to integrate the new approach into the department contingent upon positive evaluation results.
Full Term Users
Full term users will be required to post a report in the CTLpedia with the following categories:
- Summary
- Term(s)
- Project Description and Rationale
- Teaching and Learning Goals
- Evaluation Plan
- Project Implementation
- Project Results and Conclusions
- Reflection on My Experimental Classroom Experience
- Annotated Reference List
The summary, terms, project description, goals, and evaluation plan must be completed prior to beginning the course. If the project goes over one term the report must be updated at the end of the term. The report must be completed by the end of the project timeline. Please read a copy of an example of a strong final report.
Short Term Users
Occasional or short-term use, open to adjunct and residential MCC faculty, is scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis. Documentation of use is required and evaluation encouraged. Short-term use CTLpedia reports include the following categories:
- Summary
- Term(s)
- Project Description
- Goal(s) Associated with Use of the Classroom
- Overall Experience