Networking Learning Processes: A Virtual Campus to Support Housing Studies

A Virtual Campus has been carried out with the support of the EuropeanLifelong Learning Programme (LLLP) in 2007-2009 and 2010-2011. Wehave developed, implemented, tested and evaluated a blended pedagogicalmodel which combines on-line learning activities carried out in web-basedenvironments with seminars and design studios physically situated at the participatinguniversities. A digital platform was created specifically to supportthe pedagogical methodology of the Virtual Campus, which consists of twoenvironments: Workspaces and a Case Repository. The former supports project-based learning, such as the development of a project – architectural and/or urban – in a collaborative manner. The latter is a digital repository housingcase studies which is constructed collaboratively by learners and tutors.Learning activities have been implemented with the participation of thepartner institutions which help to develop and test the pedagogical modeland the supporting ICT environment. The activities included four joint workshopsin Ghent, Grenoble, Bratislava and Istanbul each one addressing aspecific theme regarding contemporary housing: life-long dwelling, housingfor diversity, effective housing and proximity. Urban and housing projectswere carried out in local design studios and joint workshops, as well asin the learning environment provided by the digital platform. Communityrepresentatives, local authorities and housing experts participated in theseactivities, contributing to the identification of design projects, formulatingprogram needs, and assessing project results.The goal of the virtual campus is to use ICT to create a learning spacewhich fosters the collaboration of learners –students and teachers– beyondthe limits established by institutions, disciplines and academic programs.Therefore, this virtual campus is not meant to be a surrogate of the “actual”university. It is a network of learners and activities, as opposed to an organizationof schools with a shared curriculum, a space where learning activitiesare designed collaboratively and carried in conjunction with other pedagogicactivities taking place at the participating institutions. The uniqueness ofthe blended-learning model we have applied is that it broadens the interweavingof on-line and off-line learning activities within a single institutionto multiple institutions in different countries.The integration of on-line and off-line activities across partner institutions isa distinctive trait of this pedagogic model. Typically, after having defined atheme to be developed collaboratively by different partners, the learning activitiesare first carried out at each institution as a preparation for the work to bedone in a joint workshop. In this preparatory period, the collaboration betweenstudents and teachers from the different schools takes place on the project’sdigital platform. After the completion of the workshop, students and teachersbring the knowledge acquired to the courses and seminars at their schools.Then the collaboration continues through the learning environment, in differentways: assessing peers’ work; using the outcomes of one course as input foranother; making distant presentations and critics of design studio work. Thiscontinuous flow of activities –from the physical to the virtual environments.

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1