Læringsverkstaden is ready to help

Programming, making a podcast, shaping Lego robots, creating a website, using VR glasses, or other digital tools. As a student or employee at the university, you can test it out at the Læringsverkstaden, get help to use the aids correctly, become really good with them - and learn how you can teach them to others.

Have you visited the Learning Workshop at the University of Volda? If not, you should test it out! You can drop in both physically and digitally.

Physically, they are located in the library at the university - look for a big red L on the first floor. Digitally, you can chat with them in Teams.

Opening hours (both physical and digital): Monday-Thursday at 13.00-16.00.
 

Lots of equipment

Chat with them? Who are they? Who are the people behind the Læringsverkstaden and what do they offer?

The leader of Læringsverkstaden is the advisor for digital learning at the university, Sindre Sandbakk. Sandbakk lets the talented students he has appointed at the Learning Workshop talk.  They are the ones you meet as a user of the Læringsverkstaden.

Aurora Dimmen Bratli, Karsten Quix, Tomer and Rebekka Lichy warmly welcome us and explain:

– This is a resource center where both students and employees can learn how to best use digital tools. And in what way these can be useful to use in your daily study or when you have to teach others to use it, as staff at the university or student teachers do.

Eagerly, the quartet, who are the student employees at the Læringsverkstaden, begin to pick at and show us various technical tricks. They are not only eager, but also skilled, according to Sandbakk. And yes, it is clear that they know what they are talking about when Lego robots, bluebots, dobots, digital boards, VR glasses and 3D printers come up.

– You can come here and try this out at your leisure and get help. Here we offer coffee and take our time with those who come by. We are also happy to answer online. In the chat function, you can ask questions and get tips and advice. In addition, we post answers to things that we get questions about from students in our team in Teams. It may be useful for many to take a look there.
 

Podcast studio and film room

Up a flight of stairs and into a door. We have left the head quarter of Lærinsverkstaden and are now on the second floor of the library. In a room where acoustics have clearly been thought about.

Around a pair of microphones that give associations to a radio studio, there are two good chairs. As made for podcast it will appear. Close to it, the wall is green and has a view of a film camera. An easy but good way to make film clips. While at the other end of the room, there is a PC set up where it is possible to play games or play movies, so that the large screen on the other end wall turns the room into a very intimate movie theater for a few people.

– We have prepared simple instructions for all the equipment in this room that tell you what to do from start to finish. So it should be okay for everyone to use, tell the students, and continue:

– The podcast equipment, for example, has a very simple setup. You can use it for fun, just to test it out and learn it. It can also be useful for students in colloquium groups. They can talk about a part of the syllabus that they have read, and other group members can do the same with their part of the syllabus. It may also be that student teachers who are going into practice will create a podcast about what they are going to teach their students.

The same applies to the film equipment. It is entirely possible to create simple news broadcasts, which can be a slightly different way of teaching the curriculum to children and young people. Here you are very free.

Læringsverkstaden has some equipment that it is possible to borrow.
 

Course for employees

In addition to what has been mentioned, Læringsverkstaden offers a whole range of courses intended for employees at the university. They offer both physical and digital courses. You can find the digital courses at the bottom of the Læringsverkstaden`s website. The course can be included in the university pedagogy subjects HPE204 and HPE205.

Employees are also warmly welcome to ask questions if they need help with something via the chat in Teams. For example, it can be Canvas, Panopto, Teams, Zoom and much more.

There is also an own team for employees in Teams that Læringsverkstaden has set up. Employees can also ask questions and get answers there. You can find it under "Team for tilsette" here.