Fordham Rose Hill Campus Learning and Innovation Technology Environment Brings Gabelli School Students’ Innovative Ideas to Life

Undergraduate | Jun 08, 2023 | Gabelli School of Business

While finals time is usually filled with trepidation, for the students in Clinical Assistant Professor Julita Haber’s “Innovation and Resilience” class, the final exam was actually something to which they looked forward. Throughout the Spring semester, students developed techniques to generate, evaluate, and present new ideas to achieve one of the course’s key learning objectives: to engage in the process of innovation at the individual, team, organizational, and societal levels. This culminated in a final exam that provided the opportunity to explore their ideas as they apply to real products and situations by utilizing the emerging technology resources of Fordham University’s new Learning and Innovation Technology Environment (LITE), located on the ground level of Walsh Library on the Rose Hill Campus.

LITE, which re-opened in 2022, was designed to spark creativity, foster collaboration, and give students, faculty members, and researchers access to state-of-the-art technology that opens up new possibilities and encourages them to take their ideas in new directions. A collaboration between Fordham’s Office of Information Technology and University Libraries, LITE contains a maker space with multiple 3D printers, 3D scanning, and a laser engraver; recording and podcasting studios; an augmented and virtual reality area; and high-end computer workstations for multimedia production. It also functions as an integrated technology information center that offers IT support similar to Apple Stores’ Genius Bar.

During the “Innovation and Resilience” final exam, groups of students collaborated at each of five stations that use LITE’s resources to realize creative solutions to a challenge with which they were posed. At one station, students used Google’s Jamboard, a digital white board that lets individuals collaborate in real time, to redesign the first floor of the Walsh Library in a way that brings more of the campuses’ stunning external environment into the building. At another, students redesigned a Starbucks store to include more collaborative work spaces. In the recording studios, students developed edutainment podcasts based upon Thomas Edison’s Five Competencies of Innovation; and in the VR space, a group created onboarding programs using VR to redesign the experience. Students at the final station used Tinkercad, a web app for 3D design, to create a new product with an option to produce it on LITE’s 3D printer.

The final session of the exam took place in one of the collaborative work spaces at LITE. Each group presented their work and shared their experiences working with LITE’s resources to apply their knowledge and bring their ideas to life.

“Using these resources and engaging with new technology supports the purpose of this class and helps students to achieve learning objectives,” Haber asserted. “In addition to amplifying the theme of what I am teaching, it also allows students to develop skills and experience with technology that they can use in other classes and beyond. The team at LITE worked with me to design the activities and helped make the final exam a very unique, fun experience.”

Nicole Zeidan, Ed.D., assistant director, Emerging Educational Technology and Learning Space Design, added, “LITE aims to optimize the teaching, learning, and research experience by collaborating closely with faculty and students to leverage our resources effectively. We proactively adapt to meet the evolving needs of faculty and students, by integrating state-of-the-art technology.”

Written by: Michelle Miller, Associate Director of Communications, Fordham University Gabelli School of Business