RADFORD – Radford University’s Young Hall is reopening in August, fully equipped with technologically-sophisticated classrooms that will establish the facility as RU’s flagship classroom building.

Young Hall is in the final stages of a $6.5 million renovation, and will reopen before students return to campus for the fall semester.

The classrooms in Young -- most of which have a capacity of 30 or fewer students -- will be innovative spaces that have been designed to provide opportunities for instructors to engage students in a wide variety of active and collaborative learning activities.

“Those who enter the building in August will discover that the facility has been transformed into a truly remarkable teaching and learning environment,” said RU Provost Wil Stanton.

The reopening of Young will coincide with the genesis of the new Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL).

The center, located in Walker Hall, will provide a wide variety of faculty development and training programs to promote innovation, collaboration, community and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Under the direction of Krista Terry, currently the director of RU’s Technology in Learning Center, the CITL will provide workshops, learning communities, consultations and other events designed to encourage the exploration of topics related to innovation in instruction, scholarship and engagement. The center will host New Faculty Orientation and the New Faculty Institute in addition to continuing the instructional design, technology training and special projects support previously provided by the Technology in Learning Center.

The new CITL includes an iLab, which will be used as a training, research and exploration classroom to help faculty best investigate the pedagogical possibilities for teaching in the new Young Hall classrooms.

The Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning will work closely with faculty, particularly those who will be teaching in Young in upcoming semesters, to provide both an orientation to the pedagogical possibilities and training on how to use the technology.

The classrooms in Young combine state-of-the-art electronics, which provide many options for accessing and displaying digital resources, with non-traditional furnishings that are focused on grouping students around tables to maximize student-faculty collaboration and group work possibilities.

Young Hall classrooms will include:

• Non-traditional seating arrangements designed to facilitate collaborative learning and group work;

• Multiple projection options, including a latest generation Smartboard interactive display and two high-definition digital monitors;

• Portable whiteboards that allow for student work and the ability to capture the resultant work with a digital image;

• A mobile podium, which allows the classroom instructor to move fluidly throughout the room while connected wirelessly to projection system; and

• A touch-screen control panel to easily switch between the multiple display options.

Young Hall’s innovative classrooms and the CITL fall within a vision outlined in the university’s strategic plan, 7-17, Forging a Bold New Future, to provide and support learning spaces to enhance teaching capabilities and e-learning technologies that integrate with the teaching and learning process.

“Young Hall will be one of the most innovative and technologically-sophisticated classroom buildings in the United States, and the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning will assist faculty in their efforts to facilitate student learning, both in Young and in other locations,” Stanton said.

Radford University promotes nationally recognized faculty-student collaborations and a diverse curriculum of more than 140 undergraduate and graduate programs focused on student achievement and career preparation. A student body of more than 9,100 studies in seven colleges: Business and Economics, Education and Human Development, Humanities and Behavioral Sciences, Science and Technology, Visual and Performing Arts, Waldron College of Health and Human Services, and the College of Graduate and Professional Studies. RU is located in the scenic New River Valley near the Blue Ridge Mountains in Southwest Virginia.