The Live Learning work package (WP2) is grounded in the recognition that professions are fundamentally practice based, social endeavors. NTNU Live Studio is one of the main targets of the Live Learning work package. Live Studio projects take architecture students out of the university environment and into real-world situations that enable them to gain insights, skills and understandings that cannot be academically ‘taught’ (Harris 2014). The problems students confront in live projects are embedded in real-world constraints, and require physical and social solutions.

WP2 is now linking the experiences from Live Studio with theory and practice from the Department of Product Design (IPD) with a focus on user-centred design, and also with the Faculty of Medicine through problem-based approach to learning. These developments will help to establish new and generic approaches to 'live learning', with a greater transfer value to other disciplines. A project based on user-centred design, the Aging Simulator, has exemplified live learning at IPD.

Furthermore, students not only learn more efficiently by engaging all their senses, but also acquire a wider understanding of the significance of their profession. Experience shows that students acquire the capacity to improvise, to communicate effectively, and to demonstrate social responsibility. WP2 investigates the relationship between student ownership, risk, project quality and learning outcomes. Rooted in “communities of practice” approach Lave & Wenger (1991), the Live Learning WP will develop open source (online) modules to facilitate peer coaching and personal and group reflection. This will encourage students to review their projects and personal development. The added focus of reflection will help to establish a knowledge base for future project, developed by students and based on experience. This can be a useful tool in making Live Studio projects more accessible to greater number of students.

See the NTNU Live Studio website for more information, photos and videos.