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Providing The Best In Personalized Learning
Providing The Best In Personalized Learning
The name of Algonquin College’s newest building is a testament to innovation. The DARE District – the acronym stands for discovery, applied research and entrepreneurship – is a state-of-the-art structure devoted to providing the best in experiential, personalized learning.
The $45-million structure, which opened in mid-2018, is a multidisciplinary space where students, employees, industry, and the community can engage in a wide range of applied research and entrepreneurial activities.
As a catalyst for cutting-edge learning, the DARE District avoids the traditional classroom. Instead, it provides open spaces – from a new wired library and learning centre and communal kitchens, to numerous labs and research centres with the latest tools and technology. Available to all aspiring discoverers, the spaces are intended to spark creative collisions, conversations, and community encounters that will prompt innovative and marketable products.
Algonquin’s commitment to Indigenous education and the celebration of Indigenous identity is also evident throughout the building. In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, the College made sure that numerous Indigenous elements were incorporated in the structure and design of the DARE District.
This includes an Indigenous Commons known as Nawapon, an outdoor courtyard named Ishkodewan, and a space for Indigenous entrepreneurship called Pìdàban – all Algonquin words that translate respectively as “gathering strength for the journey,” “there is fire,” and “past, present, and future.”
Algonquin College President Claude Brulé describes the three-storey structure as a “re-imagined building” that increases “the representation of Indigenous culture, teachings, and values through the design of its physical space.”
Innovation efforts like this have been a hallmark of Algonquin College’s history since its establishment in 1967. What began as a one-building campus on a farm field has become one of Ontario’s premier polytechnics with about 20,000 full-time learners and nearly 40,000 part-time attendees spread across three campuses in Ottawa, Perth, and Pembroke. Full-time students enjoy access to nearly 200 programs, including apprenticeship, co-op, collaborative degrees, and bachelor’s degree programs.
The Innovation Agenda
The DARE District, located on the Ottawa campus, reflects and extends this legacy, both as a statement of where the College has been but also where it is going.
The future is well demonstrated by the DARE District’s Office of Applied Research, Innovation & Entrepreneurship (ARIE). With its various research centres, ARIE is devoted to everything from construction research and data analytics to environmental science, resource management, and social innovation.
These centres generate innovative ideas, nurture start-up enterprises, and drive leading-edge education within the College and among the wider community:
“ A RE-IMAGINED BUILDING ... THAT INCREASES THE REPRESENTATION OF INDIGENEOUS CULTURE, TEACHINGS, AND VALUES THROUGH THE DESIGN OF ITS PHYSICAL SPACE.”
- — Claude Brulé, President and CEO, Algonquin CollegeThe Innovation “Classroom”
The DARE District also gives new meaning to the notion of “classroom.” No longer do students sit in a room listening to lectures. Now they are active participants in their own education – personalized, hands-on, student-centred learning:
Algonquin College