Hi James

From my experience of academic development centre spaces (quite a few years, quite a few changes, quite a few different department names, and managers with different visions; as well as visiting a lot of other institution's spaces) my key suggestions for success would be: 

- offices with open doors;

- Onto a shared mixing space with coffee etc on tap; 

- areas for informal conversations and regular cake; 

- Some flexible hot desk space for staff who come and work with you on projects; on sabbaticals; on secondment; and one -day a week roles (whichever of these you might have at some point in your Centre's "life") 

- being in an accessible place with high visibility; 

- a high quality workshop room

- a high quality technical space (for people to try out new technology in a safe space with support before they use it in their teaching) 

Of course, in the end, the people and the coffee make it work though!

Best wishes

Diane 

Dr Diane Nutt

HE Consultant 

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Internally we are discussing possible locations for our academic development centre. Various places has been mentioned... library, IT Services, a building close to the administration block etc. 

I would appreciate if you could share with me information about the location of your academic development centre. 

I am also interested to learn about the physical layout of the centre. In addition to offices for permanent staff at the centre, do you offer 'hot desking' for temporary academic developers? Do you have dedicated learning spaces for workshops or do you make use of learning spaces which are also used for student teaching? Any advice will be welcome.

Thanks,

James Cilia

University of Malta