Universities in Australia and worldwide, are building a new generation of learning and
teaching spaces which are designed to encourage and support active and collaborative
modes of learning and teaching. However, there is little evidence to show that students will
recognise the contribution these spaces make to their learning. Temple (2008) argued that
spaces may become more salient to students once they are satisfied with the quality of
learning and teaching that occurs within them. In the present study, ten teachers worked
collaboratively to develop and implement active and collaborative approaches to learning
and teaching in their respective units. These approaches drew upon the affordances of one
of these new generation spaces at Macquarie University, namely, the Collaborative
Learning Forum. Evidence from a student evaluation survey (n=279) confirms Temple’s
(2008) proposition and also suggests ways to encourage students to adopt a deeper
approach to learning and to increase their satisfaction with the value and quality of their
learning experience.