Laurie Alexander
Associate University Librarian for Learning and Teaching
University of Michigan
Justin Schell
Learning Design Specialist
University of Michigan
The Shapiro Design Lab (SDL) is a new creative learning environment at the University of Michigan Library enabling efforts to bridge disciplines, build networks, and discover new contexts for scholarship. Utilizing an iterative learning approach, spaces like the SDL allow us to reimagine how to use design (broadly conceived) to enable a culture of engaged and community-driven learning, knowledge creation, interdisciplinarity, and connected learning. The SDL emphasizes student engagement by training peer consultants to lead learning and research projects and partnering with faculty as they re-imagine the when, where, and how of learning. We will share the techniques, both successful and not, used to enable digital scholarship in these spaces across disciplines and our early strategies in engaging campus voices into the iterative design of this space, not just building a space but also the communities that will use and develop this space.