Higher education has entered another period of technological transformation, with the accelerating sophistication and accessibility of AI reshaping how students research, write, and study.
Approximately 90% of post-secondary students use AI tools to assist with coursework while higher education institutions are integrating AI across administrative, research, and instructional functions.
These rapid adaptations have, like during other times of pedagogical change, unearthed insecurities and questions about the future of education. If AI lets students engage with educational content on their own, what role does the classroom play?
This line of thinking misjudges the purpose of classrooms—and why universities have endured. AI is not the first technological revolution to have put classrooms to the test.
History shows that classroom design has evolved over time in ways that parallel or are independent from technological change. Let’s not allow technology to distract us from design fundamentals that are essential to high-functioning classrooms and the teaching and learning they support.
Classroom design for non-technological functions
The physical classroom is not simply a technological construct but one built on social and human factors—a shared space that encourages student engagement, socialization, and collaboration.
In support of these non-technological functions classrooms must be designed with careful consideration given to sight lines, acoustics, furnishings, and comfort. They must channel attention, reduce competing stimuli, establish a rhythm of focused listening and discourse, and communicate seriousness of purpose.
Even the large-scale pivot to fully virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic—arguably the most comprehensive stress test of physical educational facilities in modern history—underscored that digital platforms cannot replicate the value of a thoughtfully designed classroom.
Fundamentals are important. More classroom space per student is rarely desirable—the best classrooms are compact and intimate bringing students and instructors in close contact with each other.
Multipurpose often means that no purpose is supported optimally. Academic institutions and the designers who serve them must be explicit about each classroom’s target audience—rather than pretending that one design fits all.
Nonetheless, most well-functioning classrooms generally accommodate both didactive and interactive teaching and learning methods and achieve this with designs that do not unrealistically assume that furniture must be rearranged between classes.
A lecture hall is still the most space efficient form of classroom even if it not the most educationally efficient. A “flexible” classroom with moveable, modular furniture is the least space efficient. Institutions and their designers must strike a suitable balance.
The quantity, type and design of social and interactive spaces located in close proximity to classrooms are also important, supporting individual and team work across the arc of the day. What portfolio of interactive spaces is most appropriate for the target audience and what blend of space types will provide the greatest benefit while using the least space?
Classroom acoustic requirements have evolved significantly—sound stage quality acoustic performance is important, particularly in classrooms intended to support remote or hybrid learning. The added cost of optimized acoustic performance is insignificant while the resulting benefit can be great.
Spectrum of specialized spaces
Beyond classrooms, an appropriate teaching and learning environment increasingly includes a broad spectrum of specialized spaces—teaching labs with specialized functions that must be designed to support specific programs effectively and efficiently.
Instructors broadly prefer classes that are entirely in person or entirely remote over hybrid classes. When hybrid learning is required, the remote experience should mirror the in-person experience to the greatest extent possible.
These and many other human factors must be considered during the planning and design of an institution’s teaching and learning spaces. The most effective classrooms are not dictated by technology, but by how students and faculty feel and interact within them.
Information and instructional technologies are valuable tools in support of effective teaching and learning, but they are not ends in themselves. AI may be the topic of the moment, but it is simply the latest in an enduring tradition of information and instructional technologies transforming the way students learn and collaborate.
AI will not negate the essential social and physiological factors that sustain physical institutions of higher education and the physical classrooms in which much teaching and learning continues to be centered.