Reshaping classrooms, giving flight to better education

The days of 100-seat lecture halls and passive note-taking are numbered. Health care students need spaces that encourage collaboration and inspire conversations like those around the dinner table.

Propeller-shaped tables—strategically designed to support out-of-the-box teaching—pilot new ways for graduate students to learn in Betty Irene Moore Hall. Each wing—seating seven students—creates an atmosphere in which new ideas are fostered and retained.

Students recognize the value and choose to invest in the innovative learning tool. Members of the master’s-degree leadership and doctoral classes, as well as the Master’s Entry Program in Nursing, pledged gifts for innovative learning in Betty Irene Moore Hall to ensure future students learn how to work together better. They are recognized with a plaque on the table.

“As a class, we understand that a big part of learning is attributed to the learning environment,” says Andrea Vega-Breaux, a master’s-degree leadership alumna who spearheaded the Class of 2017’s gift. “My hope is that the use of these tables will inspire team building, collaboration and the sharing of ideas, which leads to improvements in the way we deliver health to our communities.”

While active learning dates back ages, new research validates that student-driven education promotes retention far better than lecturing. School of Nursing educators embrace this new generation of learners, leverage these tables as tools and prepare effective health care leaders for the future.