Collaborative Spaces Promote 21st Century Business Skills

Colleges and universities that offer collaborative classrooms are ahead of the curve.  Some institutions are designing these spaces as core components of their new buildings, while others are remodeling existing classrooms to make them better suited for the next generation of students. Either way – collaboration is the new business model.

So, why are these group study spaces spreading like wildfire?

Collaborative design promotes the very skills that today’s employers want in new hires, such as a love of learning, preference for collaboration, and comfortability with technology. As a result, this trend towards space optimization and group learning is sure to continue through higher education.

In New York State, Onondaga Community College recently opened the WhiTn3y Commons, a space that encourages business students to work in teams and practice the skills they’ll need for the 21st century workplace.

In a similar fashion, MIT offers a wide variety of technology-enabled learning spaces to meet the demands of students and faculty across all disciplines. Today’s university common areas are more than communal spaces – they’re design showcases.

In 2016, SUNY Stony Brook installed eye-catching writable surfaces called glassboards in the Mendelsohn Quad, developed by Henry Joseph and Keith Bradley. Clarus™ extends writable surfaces beyond the classroom – with superior aesthetics, high resolution logo printing, easy cleaning, and anti-microbial properties, glassboards are at-home anywhere on the university campus.

The competition for academic talent has been an instrumental part of the nationwide push for simultaneously beautiful, functional, and engaging architecture that integrates cutting-edge tools. No matter how limited the wall space, placing Float™ and Wall2Wall glassboards around students generates organic communication and inspires teamwork. Adding a go! Mobile™ to the classroom or collaboration area brings an unprecedented level of flexibility in group learning and brainstorming. Hanging View brings technology together with an incredible writable surface for the optimal learning experience.

The world’s top companies, like Amazon and Google, are utilizing these innovative solutions to meet the needs of open work environments – is your university preparing students for the open office of collaboration?

To learn more about space optimization solutions from Clarus that naturally encourage collaboration, check out our education forum.