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New rooms bring students better class experiences
The opening of flexible, contemporary and digitally-equipped learning spaces will ensure class experiences match quality of teaching for on- and off-campus students at Avondale University.
The spaces are four renovated and refurbished rooms in the Ellen G White Memorial Building on the Lake Macquarie campus. They feature: seating that promotes freedom of movement and group work; technology that helps students connect class content to their interests and ideas, and; creative design that brings students and lecturers together.
The impetus: bringing learning spaces up to the high standard of teaching—undergraduate students rank Avondale number three in Australia and number one in New South Wales for quality teaching according to the 2025 edition of The Good Universities Guide.
Off-campus students on videoconference application Zoom compared class experiences before and after the renovation and refurbishment of the rooms. Cythnia Barlow (Master of Ministry) and Phil Liggett (Associate Degree in Theological Studies) spoke about clearly hearing their lecturers and classmates. “I get a whole lot more out of classes,” said Cynthia. It used to feel “like you were sitting on the sidelines hoping to glean some nugget of information,” said Phil. “Now I feel I’m actually in the room.”
With multiple cameras and screens, ceiling-mounted microphones and a whiteboard camera, Cynthia and Phil can see their lecturer Pr Neil Thompson as he moves, can talk as easily with him as can students in the room and can see what he writes on the board. Giving off-campus students the opportunity to share their voice as easily as those on-campus is important, says Neil, because, tending to be of mature age, “they bring a broader lived experience to in-class conversation.”
Funding for the spaces came from a property trust operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific—Avondale is an entity of the church—from Avondale and from alumni and friends, who donated more than $75,000 to an end-of-financial year campaign in 2023.
Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Malcolm Coulson thanked the staff members—the chief financial officer, a learning designer who collaborated with an interior designer, information technology specialists and the property manager—“who had the vision to create great spaces for our students.” Noting the donors attending the opening, he acknowledged those who maintain a connection with their alma mater, “but it’s another thing to put money down.” That, he said, helped make the renovation and refurbishment possible.
The opening of the rooms—on September 25—featured as part of a week-long learning and teaching festival presented by the Centre for Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
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