The entire campus will be the beneficiary of a new plan to provide more coordinated support for teaching and learning at McMaster. The Centre for Leadership in Learning (CLL) will join forces with the Learning Technologies Resource Centre (LTRC) in newly renovated and custom-designed space on the second floor of the H.G. Thode Library.

“We've wanted to find a permanent home for CLL for a long time in addition to finding a way to provide faculty and students with much better facilities and opportunities to enhance learning,” says Fred Hall, associate vice-president, Academic. “This integrated solution will put academic resources, academic technologies and critical support services all in one place. It's a one-stop-shop model and I believe it will enhance the training, development and support that will be available to everyone who teaches at McMaster.”

The Thode library is currently undergoing extensive renovations. Chief librarian Jeff Trzeciak says the move complements plans to make the library a campus-wide resource that encourages the exploration of emerging technologies and methodologies.

“There won't be any impact on the collection in the Thode library as the second floor space was always intended to provide space to support faculty and student development and the use of new technologies.”

The new Faculty of Science iSci program will also be located in the Thode library creating an incubator for new strategies designed to teach this generation of learners and the hi-tech/hi-touch facilities they expect an innovative university to provide.

Carolyn Eyles is the co-chair of McMaster's Task Force on Teaching and Learning. “The task force has identified support for innovation as one of its major recommendations so the timing of this integration of two essential facilities on campus could not be more perfect. The integration of CLL and LTRC within the Thode Library provides an incredible opportunity for faculty, students and staff to work together to develop exciting new ideas and approaches in their teaching.”

Hall says, “We want McMaster students to have the very best learning experience and in order to make that happen we need to provide support for our faculty to try new technology and teaching methodologies to fully develop the potential of the 21st century learner.”