In the first week of March, I went on a business trip to the USA. I joined the team of SURF.nl (the national network of research on higher education) to participate in EDUCAUSE’s Learning Initiative 2020 in Seattle, a large conference about educational innovation in higher education. Unfortunately, the conference was cancelled because of the corona virus, COVID-19. Fortunately, we had other meetings planned. In retrospect, I think we were lucky to be received by Microsoft in Redmond (WA) shortly before they closed their HQ. Their briefing about, for example, Microsoft Teams fell in fertile ground. I never expected that I would be using Teams on a day to day basis shortly after I came home! A highlight of our trip was the visit to Oregon State University. Their ‘learning spaces’ are truly innovative. The best example is their large 360 degree ‘rotunda’ lecture room (photo). This set up decreases the distance between lecturer and students. In OSU’s experience, the rotunda also facilitates discussions between students because of the shorter distance between them.
