ICT-Enhanced Teaching Activities in Flexible Learning Spaces

The incorporation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Web 3.0 tools and applications in university education is widely seen as central to the transformation of Higher Education Institutions, providing opportunities to enhance traditional modes of teaching and learning, consistent with the need to fulfil the learning demand of the ‘Digital Native’ generations. Moreover, the recent COVID-19 outbreak forced universities to shift their teaching to e-learning and blended learning modes, creating several challenges and opportunities for both teachers and students. Within this context, the University of Urbino has recently implemented a three-year experimental project called “Aula 3.0 e Multimodalità Didattica” aimed at promoting active, blended and learner-centred pedagogical practices that can integrate or replace traditional face-to-face teacher-directed instruction. To this end, the university has been equipped with four highly technological and flexible learning spaces (“Aule 3.0”), all furnished with movable tables, Wi-Fi, mobile devices, an interactive whiteboard and a projector, in which innovative and multimodal teaching approaches are being experimented and tested. In addition to this, since the academic year 2015/2016 the university has adopted a Moodle platform which provides a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) where teachers and students can share teaching materials and take part in distance learning activities. In particular, one experimental course was carried out in the academic year 2018/2019 (“Didactics of Modern Languages I”, Master in Foreign Languages and Intercultural Studies), in which a multimodal blended teaching and learning approach was used, combining ICT-mediated and web-based activities, face-to-face collaborative tasks, e-learning on the Moodle platform, and teacher-direct instruction. The purpose of the action-research project was to explore students’ attitudes and perceptions towards this multimodal ICT-enhanced teaching and learning approach and the flexible learning space, to determine the degree of participation and satisfaction with the various activities. Twenty students enrolled in the experimental course expressed their opinions by completing an online questionnaire after they attended the lessons. Besides giving valuable insight into students’ perceptions, the research findings also provided a few suggestions for further improvements of the room’s functionality and features, as well as valuable indications for the planning of future e-learning and blended learning courses.