The classic classroom lab layout has both advantages and disadvantages.
Computer labs involve more than just a room full of computers. You must take care to ensure that your lab is easily accessible and fulfills its intended purpose. If you’re looking to build a new computer lab, you’ll want to use a layout that caters to both the needs of your students and your hardware. Many educational institutions don’t put enough thought into the design of their lab, and end up simply filling the room with computers any way they see fit. Here are four of the most popular computer lab layouts and how they’re used.
Classroom Lab Design
For many high schools and colleges, computer labs stick to the default classroom design. There are two major advantages here. First, the classic classroom is great if you’re going to be delivering a lot of presentations, but also lets instructors pick up on nonverbal cues from students to see if they are learning the material or need more help. Unfortunately, the classroom layout isn’t ideal for peer-assist, collaboration or high traffic environments.
Four-Leaf Clover Computer Lab
In this design, computers are arranged in a four-leaf clover shape, offering the maximum amount of privacy. This a great design for reducing the possibility of cheating, and also eliminates the potential for students to disturb one another, making it great for an exam environment. Four-leaf clover designs aren’t particularly useful for presentations, as students may have an easier time surfing inappropriate websites and not paying attention.
U-Shaped Computer Lab
With a U-Shaped computer lab layout, students are encouraged to engage with the instructor. Instructors can easily work with students one-on-one or the whole group. It’s also the best layout for computer maintenance and technicians to have access to the machines without disturbing students. This design is not great for test taking and doesn’t let teachers monitor fully what their students are doing. It may also take up more space than other layouts.
Inverted U-Shape Computer Lab
The inverted U-shape layout is just like the U-Shape layout, but flipped so that students are facing outward instead of inward. This lets instructors work with students while also being able to easily monitor what everyone is doing. This layout minimizes the distance instructors must walk between workstation to workstation, making it easy for teachers to assist students one at a time.
Conclusion
There is no perfect layout for designing a computer lab. Instead, make sure your lab performs according to your teaching methods. Choosing a suboptimal layout can impact the ability for students to learn and engage with one another and the instructor.
Educational Furniture from Glover Furniture
Looking to create a better classroom? Glover Furniture can help. Glover Furniture and Design Group is a woman-owned and operated business that serves the Delmarva region with educational, institutional, and commercial furniture and design services. For information on how we can optimize your office design, give us a call at 1-800-966-9016 or contact us online. To see examples of our work and stay in touch, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.