UVM Larner College of Medicine Innovative Space Transformation

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The Larner College of Medicine was

founded in 1822 and is the nation's

7th oldest medical school.

The facility had been designed

for another system of learning.

When you move to an active learning

model, the largest difference is really

about the flexibility of delivery

and consumption.

We had to prepare for active learning

and the space that goes with it

within the current footprint that we have.

This is a finished campus,

there isn't a cornfield that we can

grow out into.

The location of the Larner Learning Commons

is very special because

we're located halfway between the hospital

and the College of Medicine classrooms

and laboratories.

We had to be very creative in designing

spaces that transformed otherwise

unused space or repurposing space.

We repurposed the concourse outside

of the library.

We created a counter space to allow

students to check their emails

or to have lunch.

The Larner Classroom was designed

to accommodate our foray into

active learning, especially

team-based learning.

The flipped classroom, I feel like it

makes you stay on top of your game

because you're using your knowledge

to answer questions as opposed to

just passively sitting back.

You can reconfigure this room however

you want and the technology that's

incorporated is such that the sound

will always be good no matter

where you are.

Any place you look you'll see

a projected image on the wall.

When we built the Reardon Classroom

we didn't have the luxury of having

a lot of space, so we took a

37-seat classroom.

We captured the adjacent hallway

and incorporated one small group room.

We have high-powered computers

anyone can log into.

We have videoconferencing technology

embedded in the room, large displays.

Some of them are dynamic and active

so that people can actually move content

on the screens.

It's about the room, the technology,

the content and the people

all working together.

The next step was to create

the Larner Learning Commons.

The active learning methods that we use

require a fair amount of independent and

collaborative work by students.

What that means for the library

is that we provide a multitude

of study area types, meeting types,

collaboration types.

For all of us students, we have to study

a lot of hours and sometimes you need

a different change of pace.

I could be in the pod where I have outlets

and it's really kind of secluded,

I'm in my own world.

Our help desk is very active with students

it's the pathway to the Teaching Academy.

Our Teaching Academy allows faculty

to convert their passive learning

activities into active learning

activities.

Almost all of our faculty development

offerings are open to all of our

faculty colleagues, and increasingly

we're drawing faculty from outside

the Larner College of Medicine

and that's really exciting.

We're being more intentional

in terms of bringing together

collaborators.

We made space in the library by moving

some of the books out to remote storage.

We have black box studio, the clubhouse.

This space is supposed to be self-service,

really high tech high touch.

People should be able to come in here

and want to play.

The nicest thing is it's actually portable.

The idea is we really wanted to

not have obsolete technology or tools.

We'll always be in a position where we're

going to iterate instead of renovate.

The fact that we have this ed tech space

right meshed in the Larner

Learning Commons really speaks to how

we want faculty to see

themselves supported.

We became the Larner College of Medicine

as a result of an extraordinary gift

of $100 million from Bon and Helen Larner.

Bob is an alumnus of the

College of Medicine from the class of 1942

who wanted us to be, in his words,

second to none in medical eduction.

That's what we've done in transforming

the space, transforming the culture

of teaching, and transforming the overall

curriculum that we use to train our students.