Makerspaces in Higher Education

Leah Seupersad

1. Introduction

Mask Making, Sewing Basics and 3D Printing are just a few of the classes on the calendar at Georgia State University’s EXLAB.

EXLAB is a makerspace that is described as a collaborative environment centered around experiential learning, creativity, and innovation. It’s is just one of more than 150 makerspaces on university campuses across the United States and one of three makerspaces on Georgia State’s campus.

 

The maker movement is the technology side of the do-it-yourself culture that consist of hobbyists and artisans who build things, whether for learning, interest or profit (Reiser and Dempsey, pg. 65). Like Georgia State, makerspaces on college campuses often include design and fabrication tools such as 3-D printers, laser cutters, mills, sewing machines, and soldering irons. At universities they tend to provide training on how to safely use these traditional and digital tools (Wilczynski, pg. 1).

Makerspaces were first popular in engineering departments, but higher education academic makerspaces now have expanded to support multidisciplinary learning across all aspects of the university. Makerspaces can also be found inside university libraries, residence halls or in its own building on campus (Wilczynski, pg. 1). 

The video below shows when President Barack Obama spoke during the first-ever White House Maker Faire. Since then the White House has continued to support opportunities for students to learn about STEM through making, expand the resources available for maker entrepreneurs, and foster the development of advanced manufacturing in the U.S.

Higher education academic makerspaces are often open to all members of the university, thereby serving an important role as a common location for individuals with diverse backgrounds to meet and work together (Wilczynski, pg. 1). Wilczynski says there is no single model of what constitutes an academic makerspace, with each institution providing the resources and structure that best meets their needs for design-centered functions.

Although the number of people who use a makerspace can vary by the day, researchers say the size of higher education academic makerspaces currently ranges from 100 to over 1,000 active members in spaces spanning a few hundred to several thousand square feet (Wilczynski, pg. 1). Some of those institutions have been ranked in the Great Value list of colleges with makerspaces. 

In chapter 7 of the Reiser and Dempsey textbook, Brent Wilson of the University of Colorado, Denver, highlights the maker movement as an example of constructivism. Constructivism sees learning as a process of constructing or making something (Reiser and Dempsey, pg. 61). Tonia A. Dousay, a researcher at the University of Idaho, says “the intersection between constructivism, constructionism, collaborative learning, and problem-based learning comprises the heart of the maker movement.” The social nature of learning defined in constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978) takes shape in a makerspace through interacting with others, learning from those more experienced, proceeding at the learner’s own pace, and disconnecting from most formal learning expectations, Dousay explained.

2.  Case Overview: EXLABS at Georgia State

The first EXLAB at Georgia State University opened Sept. 14, 2017 in room 200 of the university’s Arts and Humanities building in downtown Atlanta. Since then the university has opened locations in the university’s Dunwoody Campus library and in the Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII).

EXLAB is community driven and hosts a variety of student-led workshops based on the requests of Georgia State University students. Students can soundboard ideas, fabricate robots, learn how to 3D print custom jewelry, understand the fundamentals of VR gaming or learn to create their own patterns and to sew.

“Makerspaces are community driven at heart,” said Elliot Kirkpatrick, Experiential Learning Labs Lead at Georgia State University. “The community of makers and users is more important than even the tools or the physical space.”

Having EXLAB available to the students, staff, and faculty of GSU creates a community where it is easy to form more meaningful connections, and collaborations, he said. Faculty can work with EXLAB to create workshops or projects that will give students the ability to learn through experience. And students can work together on projects and express their inspirations and creativity without the barriers of access to equipment.

“Over the years, we have worked with and consulted with medical simulation labs to help create a simulacrum of a limb to give training doctors a realistic experience in doing things like setting broken bones,” Kirkpatrick said. “We used 3D printing to help a biology lab replace small parts of a piece of equipment used in vital experiments. We have worked with the accessibility and occupational therapy to 3D print various items that help those with disabilities perform tasks that would otherwise be very difficult or impossible.”

One of the most common challenges in operating any makerspace is to provide safe and consistent access to the tools and technology in the space, Kirkpatrick said. The COVID-19 Pandemic also presented some very unique challenges to the operation of EXLAB when the physical locations temporarily had to close.

3. Solutions

Training at EXLAB is heavily focused on giving users the knowledge and experience they need to be able to safely make their creative visions a reality.

“We do this by having ongoing and ever-evolving training and support for our equipment,” Kirkpatrick said. “Most of the students who come into the space can finish the training for most of our equipment in around 30 minutes and we are here to support them in the learning steps if they should need. We also have ongoing workshops where the users can get hands-on experience with the guidance of our student assistants, who are trained on all equipment. At EXLAB, we also offer some workshops for digital design programs that would give our users the ability to create their own designs on the equipment.”  

The main principle of EXLAB, is to do as much as it can to eliminate barriers to the creativity to the users of the makerspace. In the downtown campus, the EXLAB creates workshops that provides experiential learning about the topics users request most. In the CMII space, they have more direct and open-ended training where staff works directly with the user to be able to use the equipment with fewer restrictions. Staff in the Dunwoody and downtown campuses have worked with faculty and clubs to provide a space where members can work in an open environment with whatever equipment they need.

“As the space grows and evolves, we are able to gear our tools and training to the needs of the community that the space is in,” Kirkpatrick said. “Growth in those spaces comes primarily from working within that community and creating the resources, such as training, workshops, or programs, that the users need. A big part of serving our community is helping individuals solve problems using the tools and experience we have access to.”

When asked how instructional design is specifically considered to plan makerspace activities, Kirkpatrick said he realizes not everyone learns the same way, so the lab offer multiple training paths.

The first path to training is a document that uses simple step-by-step language as well as detailed and clear pictures to show how a piece of equipment is meant to be used.

“This often includes a basic overview of the equipment itself, so the user understands what parts are called and how they function,” he said.

The second path are student assistant led workshops.

“For the users that learn better by experience or by direct one-on-one training, these workshops offer an alternative to self-study,” he said. “If someone needs additional help with equipment to get the end results they need, we have staff present that are able to help the user get the most out of our equipment.”

Among the many advantages of being a makerspace in a university is that the EXLAB can train staff that will support the users. 

“We can consult, giving the user the ability to leverage our experience, with the tools or just making in general, to bring their ideas to a physical reality,” Kirkpatrick said. “We are also able to support our equipment on the back end, ensuring a more constant uptime as well as managing back-end processes like profiles and settings that eliminates some of the more complicated aspects of using our advanced equipment.”

COVID 19 Pandemic Solutions:

This case also explores some of the challenges that were presented for EXLAB during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many universities across the nation, Georgia State’s campus closed temporarily.

“In the beginning when campus was closed off, the physical spaces focused on helping local organizations provide PPE to those in need,” Kirkpatrick said.

EXLAB worked with groups like Atlanta Beats Covid, an organization that brings together makers across the state. EXLAB’s laser cutters and 3D printers were used to generate components for face shields. The  face shields were distributed through the Atlanta Beats Covid network to area hospitals and doctor’s offices in need of the equipment. EXLAB volunteers also made fabric masks to supply to essential Georgia State employees as well as to distribute to medical facilities through Sewing Masks for Area Hospitals – Atlanta (SMAH Atlanta).

During this time, the lab also switched the focus of staff to create and facilitate online workshops and programs.

“We held workshops focused on assisting our users to make whenever, wherever they were,” Kirkpatrick said. “We created maker projects people could follow along with online and held workshops teaching skills with digital making tools.”

Now that the lab is opening, the university has organized the space so that visitors can make and social distance. 

“We clean and disinfect stations and equipment before and after use,” Kirkpatrick said. “We are holding workshops in both a physical and digital space so that we can continue serving our community while allowing for users to be safe.”

4. Outcomes

The COVID-19 pandemic provided the makerspace staff, students and volunteers an opportunity to work with the community on a real world problem. There have been more than one-million cases of COVID in Georgia, according to CDC.

The EXLAB’s ability to transform to a virtual facility that was able to collaborate with community organization adds to its list of success stories.

A report in the “The Bridge,” published by the National Academy of Engineering, discussed the many lessons related to the collaboration of university makerspaces and manufacturing during the pandemic. The article notes that university makerspaces were able to respond to the pandemic directly in partnership with manufacturing community by addressing needs, challenges, and opportunities, including the existing supply chain was unable to meet the dramatic increase in demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) and the traditional demand for many manufactured goods suffered a sudden drop, creating excess capacity (McGuffin-Calwey, pg. 20). The article also notes that a number of makerspaces reconfigured to support their institutional mission, producing parts to support distance learning—such as classroom models and demonstration components—and projects, courses, and laboratories. 

5. Implications

I believe the work that is being done at Georgia State and other higher education makerspaces are clear illustrations of how making and working collaboratively are making an impact on the communities around them. The COVID-19 pandemic was just one example of how even if the physical space of a makerspace closes, students, faculty, staff and volunteers of makerspaces will continue to work together to learn and help solve society problems. 

I’ve also learned that there is currently a lot of research that can be done related to makerspaces in higher education. Dousay discussed potential frameworks for makerspaces in higher education and Charles M. Schweik, a professor of environmental conservation and public policy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, also shares four untapped potentials of making in higher education:

No. 1. Connecting making to mission. Colleges and universities could connect student maker activities to their educational and scientific mission in far more significant ways.

No. 2. Longitudinal making. Students take the baton from previous students and develop a project further.

No. 3. Cross-organizational making. Benefits of combining online collaboration tools, open-access documentation and intellectual matchmaking between students and faculty members in two separate universities and with other organizations.

No. 4. Expanding making into nontechnology areas. Joining students from different majors with faculty members with the expertise to tackle a problem, and adding maker principles, can lead to powerful educational experiences that really motivate students. Encouraging open-source documentation and online collaboration leads to both longitudinal and cross-organizational collaborative opportunities that are unusual in current-day higher education.

Finally, in a study of makerspaces at community colleges in California, researchers noted engaging with a makerspace during their time at a community college can mean that students have developed skills they would not have otherwise gained (Feinstein, pg. 7). Specifically, this includes twenty-first century learning skills (creative thinking, critical thinking, collaboration, communication), twenty-first century literacy skills (technology literacy), and twenty-first century life skills (flexibility, initiative, social skills, productivity), as well as problem solving abilities, which are key skill sets for entrepreneurs, small business employees, and those in the STEM/STEAM economy.

The article also noted that community colleges can use the establishment of a makerspace as a means to position themselves as a key stakeholder in their region’s innovation economy since they are ideally situated at the crossroads of higher education and workforce development (Feinstein, pg. 9)

Other Maker Resources:

To learn more about makerspaces, visit https://hackerspaces.org/ or the https://www.nationofmakers.us/. an organization built to support makerspaces.

References:

Wilczynski, Vincent (2018). The Value of Higher Education Academic Makerspaces for Accreditation and Beyond. Planning for Higher Education Journal. V46N1 October–December 2017.

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2017). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (4th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

Dousay, T. A. (2017). Defining and differentiating the makerspace. Educational Technology, 57(2), 69–74.

Schweik, Charles M.(2019, May 15). The Untapped Potential of Making and Makerspaces. Inside HigherEd.

McGuffin-Calwey, James D., Wilcznski, Vincent (2021, May 14). University Makerspaces and Manufacturing Collaboration: Lessons from the Pandemic. The Bridge, Volume 51, Issue 1.

Feinstein, Laura, M. Daniel DeCillis, Harris, Laurie (2016, April). Promoting Engagement of the California Community Colleges with the Maker Movement.

Additional Reading:

Diers, Melissa (2019). Makerspaces the Next Big Thing in HigherEd. University of Nebraska.

Klawe, Maria (2020). Creating a College Makerspace. Forbes. December Issue.

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