What attracts students towards Informal Social Learning Spaces? A Case Study of Business School in Sri Lanka

Abstract

It has been found that a considerable portion of students’ learning happens outside of formal spaces (Marsick & Watkins, 2001). Given the modern nature of learning in higher education, the development of purpose-built informal social learning spaces as a strategy to enhance the student experience, has become more prevalent, although empirical research is scant. Despite the unwavering popularity of learning spaces across the higher education sector, a key driver should be that, learning spaces to be updated, novel and be expanded to assure relevancy of them for learners, and those decision making must be evidence based. Therefore, this area of learning space studies requires further research work. The objective of the study is to examine, what attracts students towards purpose-built informal social learning spaces in a Business School in Sri Lanka. A qualitative case study approach is adopted in the study. The data are gathered through focus group discussions held at three different purpose-built informal social learning spaces at the selected Business School and thematic analysis is used. In this exploration, the thoughts, feelings, emotions and judgments of students are brought into discussion. The findings disclosed that students are attracted towards social learning spaces because of both physical environmental characteristics (comfort, functionality, layout and availability of workspaces) and psychological attributes of those spaces (privacy, concentration, social interaction and the ability to personally make the choice). Lack of empirical research in this area would provide little evidence for higher education institutions to focus their attention and invest the resources for designing and building informal SLS as to facilitate improved learning experience for students. This study contributes empirical insight into an under-researched area and implications for administrators in higher education institutions.