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Key drivers that influence space design in today's higher education environment are technology, changing demographics, increased focus on student engagement, and carbon footprint. Just as important, but not typically on the list, is the growing population of students with Learning Disabilities (LD) for which the physical environment plays an increasingly important role in successful learning outcomes. The research goal was to examine the role of “place” as a component of academic success for those students with LD. Methodology included both literature review and the development of a case study analysis of three post-secondary institutions in the United States. The universities were chosen based on the size of the university, the campus setting, and the mission of the Disabilities Services team. The conclusion of the research surfaced three specific components of the physical environment that hold an increased value for a student with LD. These components are wayfinding, formal learning spaces, and disability services spaces. The key to integrating a sense of place with the needs of students with LD is moving beyond meeting the minimum standards of the legal mandates and bridging the principles of universal design to the built environment.

Whether in school buildings or university campuses the educational process involves many activities that include knowledge acquisition and assimilation, testing students' motivation and academic performance, and faculty and teachers' productivity. The way in which we approach the planning, design, and our overall perception of learning environments makes powerful statements about how we view education; how educational buildings are designed tells us much about how teaching and learning activities occur. Concomitantly, how these activities are accommodated in a responsive educational environment is a critical issue that deserves special attention. While it was said several decades ago that a good teacher can teach anywhere, a growing body of knowledge-derived from knowledge on “evidence-based design” suggests a direct correlation between the physical aspects of the learning environment, teaching processes, and learning outcomes. In its commitment to introduce timely and pressing issues on built environment research, Open House International presents this special edition to debate and reflect on current discourses on sustainable learning environments.

This chapter focuses on the challenges and the possibilities that exist for College and University leadership, academic planners, instructional technologists, campus planners, architects, and others involved in building the transformative student experience that has been the underpinning of education since the Raphael’s School of Athens. Students need to engaged in the learning and have meaningful interactions with the faculty and classmates.

Economic and societal influences during the first decade of the 21st century have illuminated the demand for access to education through emerging technologies in both physical and virtual spaces. These new opportunities have not developed without painstaking disruptions to conventional models for academic and campus planning. The disruptions have led to opportunities to pilot new modalities for curriculum development that blend both online and on ground learning. Parallel opportunities exist for piloting learning spaces that support blended learning.

Academics and campus planners alike have realized that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to planning effective formal and informal learning spaces. What is clear is moving the student experience from one that is transactional to transformational requires adhering to grounded best practices in teaching, learning, and campus planning, establishing a team of informed and engaged stakeholders, and developing empathy and authenticity in the planning process for both the spaces and the pedagogies.

As posited by the ecological model of health, improvements in the nutrition and physical activity environments of worksites may facilitate healthier dietary intakes and physical activity patterns of employees. This cross-sectional study describes current policies and practices targeting these environments in five large Texas-based hospitals employing approximately 40,000 adults. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The environmental assessment tool survey, an observation tool, was used to assess these policies and practices in August and September 2012.

Results demonstrated major policy and practice deficiencies, including a lack of policies supporting on and offsite employee physical fitness, no healthy catering or healthy meeting policies, minimal subsidizing of healthy food and beverage options, few health-promoting vending services, and no performance objectives related to worksite health improvement. Hospitals having an active employee wellness staff consistently performed better on implementation of policies and practices supporting healthy eating and physical activity.

This study supports practice recommendations including engaging executive leadership to prioritize worksite wellness and using policies to create an infrastructure that promotes healthy eating and encourages physical activity among employees.

This study is the first to compare and contrast the nutrition and the physical activity environments of large hospitals, allowing for the identification of common environmental barriers and supports across multiple hospital and foodservice systems.