UBC Sauder Learning Labs

What are the UBC Sauder Learning Labs?

The UBC Sauder Learning Labs are designed to foster strategic design, an emerging business discipline where multi-disciplinary project teams use creative and critical thinking, and data analysis to create, test, and launch solutions to ‘big picture” problems.

The learning labs are not typical classrooms. The instructor does not stand behind a lectern at the front of the class, but instead circulates freely throughout the space. Teams of students cluster at tables throughout the room for brainstorming and lively discussion. Wall-to-wall back-lit whiteboards serve as large canvases for ideas and mind maps. At each table, a video camera and large LCD screen allow students to view media and communicate with other teams in the room or collaborators from anywhere in the world.

The learning labs are home to one of the school’s most unique courses, COMM 388 Design Methods for Business Innovation. In this project-driven course, students from Commerce, Arts, Engineering and Environmental Design employ analytical and creative thinking techniques to both ask questions and find solutions to real world business challenges. They also learn about sustainable business practices and effective teams.