A learning lab at university. Why? How? What for?

The LETS Learning Lab project is part of a context in which educational innovation is highly valued in higher education institutions.

By innovation, we mean revising curricula and the way they are implemented (Bajada et al., 2019). It is therefore an engineering approach aimed at enriching social practices (Chevallard, 1982). It is an innovation that goes beyond the technological dimension and is context-dependent (Lison et al., 2014). It takes different forms, concerns different levels, and the challenge often lies in developing a culture of innovation (O'Banion et al., 2011).

As part of the LETS Learning Lab project, a consortium of four universities conducted design-oriented research (Sanchez & Monod-Ansaldi, 2015) with the dual objective of developing a network of learning labs and documenting the design process, implementation, and challenges to be overcome. During this webinar, the learning lab model that emerged from the consortium's work will be discussed and the implementation process will be described based on experiences and observations in Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Switzerland.

This project led us to define a learning lab as a physical, digital, and human space offering teachers, students, and education researchers the opportunity to observe, discuss, experiment with, and evaluate learning and teaching methods at university (Sanchez et al., 2021). It also enabled us to identify the main challenges for the design and implementation of a learning lab.

These challenges consist of institutionalizing it and building, developing, and maintaining a learning community.