Active learning offers many benefits for students, including developing higher order thinking skills and promoting engagement (Prince, 2004). Increasingly, students want ‘value add’ learning experiences, moving them from passive to active learners and where they have opportunities for collaboration and peer learning (Flynn, et al., 2023). However, active learning possibilities can be highly dependent on the classroom environment in which they occur. Traditionally, institutions have invested in developing fixed lecture-style teaching spaces with a high student-teacher ratio. Consequently, active learning can be difficult to achieve in such environments. Cognisant of the potential of active learning, and of strategic aims to move towards innovative pedagogies and to develop students’ skills such as problem-solving and collaboration, DCU colleagues embarked on a collaborative endeavour to develop new digitally-enabled active learning spaces. Partnering with colleagues in the IT department, estates, audiovisual suppliers, the centre for teaching and learning, and with the endorsement of senior leadership, a suite of new active learning spaces were developed in 2025. Informed by the challenges faced by lecturers in traditional teaching spaces, and through semi-structured conversations with multiple stakeholders, these new active learning spaces were developed as flexible, multipurpose environments in which a variety of innovative pedagogies could be facilitated. With no fixed lectern, lecturers are forced to become guides on the sides rather than sages on the stage. The spaces included multiple mounted displays as well as mobile interactive displays, a green screen maker space area for students, an immersive learning suite, hybrid and video conferencing facilities, and more. This presentation will share the journey of how this partnership collective embarked on this initiative, and the value of taking such a partnership approach. It will share the challenges encountered, and how they were overcome, and advice for others who want to transform their classrooms into student-centred environments to enable better outcomes.

Flynn, S. et al. (2023). ‘“Vibrant, open and accessible”: Students’ visions of higher education futures’. In Higher Education for Good: Teaching and Learning Futures. Open Book Publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0363.14

Prince, M. (2004). ‘Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research’. Journal of Engineering Education. 93(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2004.tb00809.x