What if a classroom could be transformed into an interaction laboratory? At HEC Lausanne, the SCALE (Student Centered and Active Learning Environment) room embodies this strategic shift: reinventing learning around collaboration, agility and student-centered pedagogy.
Located in the Internef building on the UNIL campus, this room is resolutely looking to the future and to pedagogical innovation. Gone are the rows of seats and frontal teaching: replaced by a modular environment designed for group work, dynamic exchanges and the active involvement of each individual. “The SCALE room was born out of a clear need and a strategic desire on the part of the Dean’s Office to create a teaching space where students interact directly with teachers,” explains Emmanuel Fernandes, pedagogical engineer at HEC Lausanne (UNIL) and project manager for this new environment.
Designed as a lever for pedagogical innovation, the SCALE space offers a fully modular layout. Its three partitioned zones, with a total capacity of up to 150 people (2 rooms with 36 seats and an L-shaped room with 78 seats), are interconnected both visually – thanks to touch screens broadcasting identical or differentiated content in each space – and audibly, via a sound system capable of covering several zones simultaneously or separately. Tables on castors enable rapid reconfiguration as required. This flexibility makes a wide variety of uses possible: collaborative debates, correction of exercises in participatory mode, student presentations, team project management or cross-disciplinary discussions.
“The SCALE room has been designed to encourage student involvement, provide an environment conducive to exchange and motivate students to learn face-to-face,” explains Emmanuel Fernandes. Designed with an evolutionary vision, the room has already hosted a number of pilot courses, generating enthusiasm from teaching staff and students alike. “It’s not just a change of furniture, it’s a change of posture. The teacher is no longer fixed behind a desk; he or she circulates, interacts, adapts.”
The result: an enriched learning experience, where exchanges take precedence over unidirectional transmission. A challenge that is fully in line with HEC Lausanne’s values, notably Collaboration, and reflects the faculty’s determination to translate its strategy into concrete action.
The SCALE room was designed for teaching at HEC Lausanne, but it is also open to the entire university community. “We hope it will serve as a model, a catalyst for other initiatives. Pedagogical innovation also depends on the spaces in which it is deployed,” concludes Emmanuel Fernandes.
What happens next? A phase of observation, listening to usage, and gradual adjustments. For while the SCALE room has already found its name, its potential is only just beginning to express itself.
We would also like to thank the entire Unibat team and the Faculty’s IT department for their invaluable collaboration throughout this year-long project.
For any questions about how the room works or to request a visit, please contact Emmanuel Fernandes (Emmanuel.Fernandes@unil.ch ). Reservations are made via the UNIL room reservation system (reference Internef 001).
