WHEN YOU WALK INTO THE TRAINING ROOM, how does it make you feel? Do you feel confident, excited, motivated, and inspired? If not, your training room might benefit from a little Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese science of balancing the elements within the environment. This article will not focus on the ancient art of Feng Shui but this article will introduce and illustrate various room configurations and their tradeoffs.

Many people associate the layout of a training room with the layout of their grade-school classroom; thus, desks and chairs arranged in rows, all pointing towards the teacher. However, training does not have to conform to this ridged structure. Many room configurations are possible depending on the type of training and learning activities, the level of formality desired, and the number of participants attending the training.

Use the interactive movie below to explore and learn about the four different training room configurations: straight, theater, herringbone, horseshoe, and circle. 

Room Configurations: descriptions, when to use them, and disadvantages (King, King, & Rothwell, 2001; Mitchell, 1998; Silberman, 1998).

How would you configure these rooms?

The configuration of the room does effect the effectiveness of the learning and the level of participation from the students. If it is physically possible and time permits, take a few minutes either before class or before an activity to rearrange the room. If you have a variety of learning activities, try to pick a configuration that accomodates most of the activities. Remember, students can help the instructor move the furniture.

For more information on this topic, refer to the following EET articles:

Computer Labs

Ergonomics in the Computer Classroom

Loret E. Gomez, Instructional Designer

Gomez, L. (2004). Feng Shui for the training room. In B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Technology. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from file:///D:/实验室/eet/articles/fengshui/start.htm