Learning from a new learning landscape: Visualisation of location sensing data in the Augustine House Experiment

Funded by the UK JISC Institutional Innovation Programme, the Augustine House Experiment sets out to investigate how the location sensing data collected over students' uses of the iBorrow notebooks can be visualised to reveal aspects of the new learning landscape during a 1-week sensing period. Indoor real-time location sensing technologies are considered new tools for collecting quantitative evidence in search of emerging patterns of occupation and uses of the learning spaces. The experiment centred on testing a novel data visualisation method designed to render the location sensing and associated user data sets with reference to three-dimensional (3D) virtual architectural models of the Augustine House. The hypothesis is that an overlay of the iBorrow notebooks tracking data collated with student user data on the 3D virtual architectural models could facilitate a better intuitive grasp of the learning landscape. Questions and lessons are drawn from this experiment regarding how indoor location sensing, learning space user data collection and interactive architectural modelling can be synthesized into a credible research apparatus applicable to longer-term post-occupancy evaluation of new learning spaces.