{"id":685,"date":"2014-09-24T16:07:36","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T23:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/teachinginadigitalage\/?post_type=chapter&p=685"},"modified":"2018-11-10T12:33:21","modified_gmt":"2018-11-10T20:33:21","slug":"5-2-what-is-a-learning-environment","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/teachinginadigitalage\/chapter\/5-2-what-is-a-learning-environment\/","title":{"raw":"A.2 What is a learning environment?","rendered":"A.2 What is a learning environment?"},"content":{"raw":"

A.2.1 Definition<\/h2>\r\n
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'Learning environment\u00a0<\/strong>refers to the diverse physical locations, contexts, and\u00a0cultures\u00a0in which students learn. Since students may learn in a wide variety of settings, such as outside-of-school locations and outdoor environments, the term is often used as a more accurate or preferred alternative to\u00a0classroom, which has more limited and traditional connotations\u2014a room with rows of desks and a chalkboard, for example.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

The term also encompasses the culture of a school or class\u2014its presiding ethos and characteristics, including how individuals interact with and treat one another\u2014as well as the ways in which teachers may organize an educational setting to facilitate learning.....'<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

The Glossary of Educational Reform<\/a>, 29 August, 2014<\/p>\r\nThis definition recognises that students learn in many different ways in very different contexts. Since learners must do the learning, the aim is to create a total environment for learning that optimises the ability of students to learn. There is of course no single optimum learning environment. There is\u00a0an infinite number of possible learning environments, which is what makes teaching so interesting.\r\n

A.2.2 Components of an effective learning environment<\/h2>\r\nDeveloping a total learning environment for students in a particular course or program is probably the most creative part of teaching. While there is a tendency\u00a0to focus on either physical\u00a0institutional\u00a0learning environments (such as classrooms, lecture theatres and labs), or on the technologies used to\u00a0to create online\u00a0personal learning environments (PLEs), learning environments are broader than just these physical components.\u00a0They will also include:\r\n