The Design for Learning Co-Lab is an ambitious new initiative powered by the Education Market Association (EDmarket) and led by Dr. Lennie Scott-Webber acting as the Senior Fellow with Jolene Levine and Dave Broz as Associate Fellows. The Co-Lab supports EDmarket’s mission to empower a collaborative community of education leaders, A&D professionals, facilities, dealers, and manufacturers building connections to innovate and transform learning environments. Through research-based thought leadership, partnerships, and professional development, we drive student success and shape the future of education.
Grounded in research and driven by collaboration, the Co-Lab connects thought leadership with community engagement to help reimagine the future of learning today. By linking curated, cutting-edge evidence with real-world applications, the Co-Lab empowers change-makers to design transformative learning experiences and environments that better serve today’s students and tomorrow’s world. The platform gives educators the tools they need to utilize the spaces and affordances available to amplify the ability for students to achieve success.
The last five years of research have confirmed what many have long suspected: the physical environment significantly impacts student learning outcomes. Yet, outdated classrooms with rigid row-by-column seating and passive teaching models remain the norm. Learning places must support a wide range of learners’ physical, psychological, and emotional needs, as well as the evolving pedagogies and changing skill-set development.
The Design for Learning Co-Lab is here to facilitate a future-focused transformation. By creating a common vocabulary and uniting educators, architects, product developers, and researchers, the Co-Lab is building a comprehensive, accessible blend of the most impactful evidence-based insights guiding design strategies.
The goal of the Design for Learning Collaboratory is to become a trusted, curated place to find ideas, evidence, and trends all purposefully shared to contribute toward a future-ready experience for all learners in which every learning place and learning experience is shaped by the evidence of what works.
Our mission: To empower and enable educational change makers with the evidence and tools to create transformational, future-ready learning environments — today.
Our vision: To be the leading global hub for evidence-based learning and a catalyst for connecting extraordinary ideas and innovations, guiding learning experiences toward a future beyond our imagination.
Our values: As an evidence-based Co-Lab, we will live by the ethics of scientific inquiry and integrity, innovation, curiosity, respect, and joy as our primary values.
We empower and enable educational change makers with the evidence and tools to create transformational, future-ready learning environments —today.
The Co-Lab will accomplish this ambitious goal through a suite of programs and initiatives including learning programs, research projects, publications, awards programs, and symposia. Each effort intentionally works to amplify evidence-based knowledge, foster professional exchange, and engage the global education community in shaping the next generation of learning environments.
Are you an education innovator inside or outside the classroom who knows that learning environments can be better, should be better, and must be better? Then the Design for Learning Co-Lab wants to hear from you.
Ways to Engage:
- Partner with Us: Contribute to and sponsor research, publications, or initiatives and raise your organization’s profile as a thought leader in educational innovation.
- Volunteer: Help shape events, support research, or lead programs. Gain experience, recognition, and the chance to make a meaningful impact.
Visit edmarket.org/DesignforLearningCoLab to learn more, connect with our team, and join the movement. Together, we can redesign not just classrooms but futures.
Thanks to our Founding Sponsors:
