Not just a pretty face: putting the learning into the Learning Commons

The newly opened Alan Gilbert Learning Commons (AGLC) provides a flexible learning space catering to students from across the University of Manchester With over 1000 study spaces, ranging from informal to formal, enclosed to open, complimented by state of the art innovative technology, the AGLC is an attractive central hub for students to visit anytime of the day and night. However, the Library's vision for the AGLC travels far beyond the physical space and seeks to engage with students at a much deeper level enhancing and developing their learning. To this end, the AGLC was a driver for the library to deliver its own unique training programme and open learning materials in support of the learning and development needs of all students, irrespective of academic discipline. This is achieved through collaboration and partnership between the current providers across campus, with the Learning Commons providing a central focus for a wide range of activity, to exemplify the best of what the University of Manchester can offer to enhance the student learning experience.

This paper describes the development of the Learning Commons, from planning to launch, in particular highlighting how ‘the learning' was put into the learning commons. It will illustrate some of the ways in which the Learning Commons joins up existing and newly developed activity from across the campus to proactively encourage and support engagement with learning as well as providing a physical space that students really want to learn in. It will describe the current open training programme and this is now being developed further from a pedagogic perspective and through partnerships with other skills providers across the University to enhance the AGLC offer and to ensure effective integration of student skills provision.