Increasingly, instructors at UCLA are designing courses that focus the responsibility for learning much more fully on the student. Assignments, both inside and outside the classroom, ask students to do more original research, to tutor each other and to complete group projects. Studies suggest that students retain concepts much more fully, and attain greater depth of understanding, when learner-centered methods are used, but how easy are they to adopt, and when are they appropriate?

The use of technology in instruction appears to facilitate student-centered learning in several ways. Students have access to more information than previously possible. In addition, students are creating and contributing information in new ways, using new media to create new data as part of their studies or their research. This means instructors can design assignments to use primary resources to make learning much more easily relevant to students. Innovative techniques at the undergraduate level, such as electronic peer review, can also be employed.

However, the move to student-centered learning has profound implications for the educational process at UCLA. It may change the power relation between instructor and student, and the interactions between students. It may mean that how we spend time in and out of the classroom will be very different. It may also change the way that campus support staff needs to function.

The question has to be asked, are we ready for this? Are instructors comfortable with the idea that they may not be able to predict what students create in their courses, and are students prepared to use the wealth of information available to them without being overwhelmed? Finally, how can technology help or hinder in the process?

To discuss this subject we have assembled a panel of faculty, TA's, and students, who have a variety of perspectives on learner-centered instruction.