Flat Classrooms in Huntsman Hall Will Offer Opportunities For Team Work

Huntsman Hall Flat Classroom

Last week I showed you an artist rendering of what our tiered classrooms will look like and promised to show you some more images of Huntsman Hall this week. For now, I’m going to keep you in the classroom. I’ve included in this blog a rendering of what our flat classrooms will look like.

I wrote about all the benefits of a tiered classroom, especially when it comes to teaching with the case-study method. Flat classrooms come in handy when the coursework involves a lot of team work, interacting, and the opportunity to explore new innovative ideas. As you can see, our flat classrooms will have lots of movable white boards on two sides of the room, two projectors and rolling desks and chairs. If you had a professor who wanted to constantly change things up, he or she could do that for quite a while without much reputation. 

Ken Snyder

Again this world, as envisioned by architects, is quite formal and involves silent observers who stand in a back corner to watch what's going on. We have no plans for such a dress code or for mysterious observers but, who knows, a professor working a flat classroom could try some pretty innovative approaches. In this case, there's lots you can do inside the box. 

See What Class Will Look Like at the Huntsman School of Business in the Future

Ken Snyder

In my last blog I announced that we have officially been given permission to break ground and plan to do so later this year after the weather warms up. Our architects have been creating some renderings that will help us better visualize what Huntsman Hall will look like when it’s done.

Last November I talked about case-study teaching and how tiered classrooms with wide isles would make this approach even more effective. So today I wanted to share with you what our large tiered classrooms are going to look like.

A Future Huntsman Hall Classroom

No, we aren’t going to require our students to wear formal attire to class. My guess is that these are all award-winning, student scholars and they are in class just before the Annual Fall Awards Banquet is to be held. Do your see yourself in there anywhere?

Do you want to see more? When I do my next blog I’ll share another image of another part of the building. For now we’ll be envisioning things one artist rendering at a time, but it won’t be long before ground will be broken and the vision will become a reality. There are probably some of you reading this right now that will take classes in a classroom that looks just like this. Maybe you’d better shine up your shoes just in case.

Pouring Concrete in Sub-zero Temperatures?

Ken Snyder

Here’s an ice cold thought for those of you who are out there thinking that you don’t really want to get back to work in January.

Do you know how hard it is to pour concrete when the temperatures are 8 degrees below zero? When it comes to pouring concrete, contractors consider it cold weather when average temperatures are below 40 degrees.

Pouring concrete correctly is a sophisticated and time-consuming process. It’s not impossible to pour concrete in weather like this, it’s just a lot more complicated. It could involve bringing in heating equipment and insulating the work area with about six inches of straw which has to be contained in plastic sheeting. And keep in mind concrete should not dry too quickly. Lots of things can go wrong if each step isn’t done properly. Temperatures have to be controlled.

When it’s this cold, concrete pouring takes more time. And right about now most people I know, with the exception of skiers and snowboarders, are not in favor of things that require more time outdoors. So next time you think your job is hard, put on three or four coats and take a walk out in front of our building and watch the people working below ground there. They are not skiing. They are working all day in these bone-chilling temperatures. Then let that image firm up in your mind and go back into the warmth with increased insight and a solid understanding of the benefits of indoor work in January. 

Ken Snyder is A-Twitter Over the New Building

It was recently announced that the Pope Benedict XVI has started his own twitter account—in eight languages. Just 10 hours after the announcement was made the Associated Press reported that the Pope had nearly 250,000 followers in English alone.

It just so happens that I have launched my own twitter feed but I can guarantee you I won’t be competing with the Pope in terms of followers or pearls of wisdom. I do expect, to have a competitive edge over him when it comes to information about Huntsman Hall, our new building. In fact, the primary purpose of my tweets will be to give people a heads up that I have posted an update to the Huntsman blog.

Those of you who are interested in my missives might consider subscribing to my twitter feed. If you do, you’ll never be able to say, “I haven’t heard a tweet out of Ken Snyder lately.”

While there may be value in getting a consistent flow of tweets from someone like the Pope or some other wise person, I do not intend to update you constantly on what I had for breakfast or what I think of Donald Trump. I’ll leave that to other tweeters. My tweets will be about new developments in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, especially those that apply to Huntsman Hall.

My twitter handle is @KenSnyderHSB. I invite you to follow me. I’ll probably follow you back. 

Ken Snyder

The World is Round but Some Classrooms Will Always Be Flat

In my last blog I wrote about the benefits of a tiered classroom, especially when it comes to using the case-study approach, where a professor can challenge students by having them come up with solutions to real-world business problems. Given all those benefits one might wonder why Huntsman Hall will feature 12 flat classrooms. Why not make them all tiered classrooms?

Some of our professors prefer a flat classroom because the topics they teach can be most effectively taught in a setting where students are collaborating and working together on projects. A flat classroom gives them the ability to move tables and chairs around, creating small-group discussions that involve every student.

As you may know, studies have shown that the more students are involved in the learning process, the more they are likely to retain. The standard lecture approach has its limitations, even with the best professors. You’ve probably noticed how much more you retrain when you are in a situation where you are expected to learn something that you need to teach others. This is true even if that teaching amounts to just explaining what you understand to other members of a small group.

Anytime there is a topic like leadership, management or collaboration, a professor appreciates the flexibility to teach in a setting that allows students the opportunity to lead, collaborate and manage a project to a successful conclusion. When the educational process is working as it should, students can learn as much from each other as they do from the professor. People learn best when they can put into practice the things that are being taught.

When a new building is constructed people often focus on aesthetics, such as how it will look and how it will represent the philosophies being taught. Those things are important, but it is still in the classroom that much of the educational process unfolds. We are now at a rare point where we have a chance to design classrooms and facilities in a way that best help our students reach their goals.

It’s interesting to note that is was through a collaborative approach that we have come to our ideas about what should go in Huntsman Hall. And one of those conclusions is that if our students are to discover new ideas and explore new insights, some of our classrooms must be flat.

Ken Snyder

The Best Part of Huntsman Hall Will Be Mostly Invisible

The thing that excites me most about Huntsman Hall is something you can’t see at all—unless you know what you are looking for. The classrooms are designed for effective, case study teaching.

The best way to learn most things is through experiencing it. We call this experiential learning. In a classroom, the best way to simulate experience is through the case study approach. This approach is used at top business schools. Students study real examples of challenges that real business leaders have faced. Then we, as faculty, ask students to propose solutions to these challenges. It is a very interactive, effective way of teaching. When done properly, it helps the students learn from thinking through challenges, and learn from each other things that might not have even been introduced by the professor.

Our new classrooms will help our professors, myself included, use the case study approach more effectively. How does that happen? The classrooms are designed so that there are two aisles that cut through the tables making it easy for a professor to walk up to and talk directly with every student. The classroom design also makes it much more difficult for an unprepared student to hide in the back. It’s surprising how much focus a student can have when the professor is standing right next to them, challenging their ideas.

When I use the case study approach I often select a student to get the discussion going. I suggest they put themselves in the shoes of the business leader and I ask them how they would solve the challenges that are a part of the case study we are analyzing. Each student is supposed to be prepared to do just that when they come to class.

With the case study approach I can guide the students to consider specific issues that are important in such scenarios, and help them see the upside and downside of any particular solution. For example, because we emphasize the importance of ethical leadership at the Huntsman School of Business, I press students to consider the ethical implications of their decisions. The beauty of a case study is that there isn’t just one right answer they can unearth but multiple innovative solutions that could be tried.

Can you tell I love this approach to teaching? Huntsman Hall will be an impressive and beautiful structure but I think the best part of the building will be what’s happening in the classroom. I can’t wait to teach a group of MBA students in one of the new “case study” classrooms.

Ken Snyder