Campus learning environments: Exploring diverse perspectives of our vibrant learning spaces with Students as Partners

In this world where students are navigating physical and digital realms, they are always connected. As such, there is a need for learning spaces to support this reformed duality of presence with environments that accommodate individual strengths and elements of inclusion. This approach may support students throughout their academic journey.

These dynamics come from learning environments that have recently undergone a profound change in teaching and learning practice. Therefore, ensuring a diverse representation of students may aid in understanding how learning environments could be optimised in this emerging paradigm. At Deakin University the learning environments are recognised as integral contributors to teaching and learning. Therefore, in 2024, the Campus Learning Spaces working group established an Equity-First Students as Partners project.

The project aimed to explore how learning spaces can be optimised for diverse student needs by incorporating student perspectives. To achieve this a grant was approved to facilitate 80 hours with six students employed as ‘Learning Space Influencers’ with the aim to co-create recommendations for the development of future learning spaces. The process involved 4 workshops with student partners that gave them a platform to share their experiences with our learning spaces and empowered them to co-create suggestions for improvements to learning environments in Higher Education. This drew insights from the lived experiences of students from diverse backgrounds.

This presentation will showcase the student partners' narratives to prompt reflections on their realities and uncover aspects of learning environments that that do or could support diversity and inclusion. It will also describe the holistic improvements for learning environments proposed by the student partners. These suggestions include resources that guide students in utilising learning environments, how these environments foster connections within the university, a preference for online support and recognised a change in practice for learning activities within the learning spaces. This presentation will provide insights into how this work was established and the suggestions made by student partners for catering to the diverse and complex experiences of students throughout their learning journey.