What if students had classes that helped them earn better grades and that they liked better than traditional classes? At the University of Iowa, thousands of students now have an opportunity to do just that as they experience a very active style of learning through tech-infused TILE classrooms.
TILE stands for Transform, Interact, Learn, Engage. Since 2010, the UI has created five of these student-centered learning spaces, which support in-class collaboration, inquiry-based learning, peer instruction, and more interaction with faculty. TILE rooms accommodate 27 to 81 students and are equipped with round tables, laptops, and whiteboards to facilitate hands-on projects and small-group discussions. Multiple projectors and screens around the room allow them to share their work.
To date, instructors have taught 148 TILE courses in an array of fields, including STEM disciplines, foreign language, education, political science, theater arts, business, urban and regional planning, and more.
DID YOU KNOW?
ITS-Instructional Services is assessing the difference in learning outcomes in TILE and traditional classrooms. All other things equal, students in TILE classrooms earned slightly higher grades than students taking the same courses in regular rooms?an outcome consistent with prior research about similar classrooms at M.I.T. and the University of Minnesota.
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Sample comments from UI students who took TILE classes: "It compels collaboration." "It gives us a chance to learn from each other." "It's more of a facilitator's classroom versus a lecturer that holds all of the knowledge and bestows it on us."
