CNDLS provides pedagogical guidance on:
- Teaching in classrooms
- Designing your course, your assignments, and class activities that make use of your learning space
- Using the technology in your classroom to maximize learning
We work closely with Classroom Education Technology Services (CETS) in the development and upgrade of learning environments across both the Main and Capitol campuses.
Instructional space support
Keeping classrooms updated and ready is the work of many campus partners.
Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship (CNDLS)
We help faculty understand how to use the various classroom spaces at Georgetown to make best use of the space, share ideas for activities that work well in different types of classrooms, and pilot experimental classrooms.
Individual consultations available by emailing cndls@georgetown.edu.
Classroom Educational Technology Services (CETS)
CETS configures and supports classroom technologies, hardware, and applications, including built-in computers, projectors, and external monitors. CETS is available when you have difficulty using the technology in your classroom or would like an orientation in advance of your first class.
Reach CETS by completing a CETS request form, call (202) 687-7491, or visit in person in ICC 121.
Georgetown registrar
The registrar assigns classroom spaces to faculty according to a matrix of factors, including the type of class. For example, lectures, recitations, and seminars will be assigned to rooms with desk spaces and seating set up to support the interactions of that class type. This office manages the General Purpose Classrooms (GPC), accessible to current Georgetown University students, faculty, staff or identified organizations. Approved users may log into the Georgetown University Room/Space Request System using their NetID credentials. Within groups, access is limited to specifically authorized locations/facilities.
Types of classrooms
Georgetown has a variety of classroom types that fit different pedagogical needs, class sizes, and teaching and learning approaches. Our campus learning spaces include small discussion rooms, seminar layouts around conference tables, mid-size rooms with mobile furniture for flexible use, large lecture halls, wet labs, dry labs, studios, and a telepresence room. All rooms are capable of projecting (wireless or hard-wired), and they are equipped with ceiling mics and two cameras for remote participation and lecture capture.
Innovation Classrooms
Some classrooms on campus have been designed as experimental classrooms.
Car Barn 315
A large classroom with mobile tables and chairs, multiple touchscreens with wireless sharing, and a set-up especially suited for hybrid experiences: The Kubi, superior audio quality, and Zoom Room technology help create as seamless a remote learner experience as possible in online courses.
Capacity: 30-40
Contact: cndls@georgetown.edu
White Gravenor 204
A medium-size classroom that includes everything you need to manage a fully interactive remote or hybrid class, including active learning furniture, multiple interactive touch displays, fully integrated audio equipment, and a panoramic camera. Read more about this classroom’s upgrade process and impact.
Capacity: 20-25
Contact: univregistrar@georgetown.edu
Language Learning Technology Center (ICC)
CNDLS supports a robust language learning technology center that hosts three spaces in ICC. The language lab (ICC 224) is a teaching space for classes up to 14 and a walk-in space for independent language and collaborative learning. The technology classroom (ICC 227) houses 20 student computers, audio-visual equipment, and software for language learning. The consultation and development space (ICC 226) provides equipment to create multimedia language assets for courses, in addition to space for consultations.
Capacity: 15-25
Contact: cndls@georgetown.edu
McCourt School at Capitol Campus
The McCourt School at Capitol Campus will be part of a collection of new buildings at Georgetown’s downtown Capitol Campus that represent a larger experimental environment for Georgetown. CNDLS consulted with campus and external partners on best practices for creating learning spaces that allow for flexible classroom design, innovative pedagogy, as well as seamless and forward-looking technology that is accessible for all. In preparation for this new project, our team set up a preview classroom, highlighted in the video below.
If you are interested in teaching in one of these spaces, please contact cndls@georgetown.edu. You may also wish to consult this listing.
Teaching Modes
What are the different modes I can teach in?
In order to guide our planning as teachers, and also for administrative purposes (registration, classroom assignments, etc), CNDLS generally thinks about the interaction with students as happening in three ways: in person, hybrid, or online.
In practice, most courses don’t fall entirely into one category or another. It’s perhaps more helpful to see courses as falling somewhere on a continuum from in-person to hybrid to fully online. Generally, the modality, as we define it below, is a rough view of the entire course rather than what happens in any one class period. Faculty also need to consider whether online engagements are synchronous or asynchronous. These differences influence what’s most effective—and even what’s possible—in a class, and should similarly shape our pedagogical choices.
Who decides which mode I’ll be teaching in?
Note that in many cases the mode of teaching will be determined by the department, and that their use of these terms may be specific to the department. Be sure to check with your Chair so that you can be aware of their particular expectations for you.
Learn more about how to adjust your teaching for different modes in our Teaching across Modalities teaching guide or get in touch with us.