Digital and circular project based learning course

This Master Project aspired to bridge the gap between discipline-based pedagogies and engage in an interdisciplinary collaboration within the institute of construction and infrastructure management with Prof. Hall and Prof. Habert. The collaboration opportunity extended beyond the institute to students from environmental engineering, architecture and environmental systems in the form of trans-disciplinary group work. We proposed a project-based learning environment to develop problem-solving skills.

We proposed this idea of interdisciplinary collaboration between the departments and the students as a way to cognate the disciplines and embraced new domains of knowledge. The student groups worked with defined individual tasks, but a common thematic was seen as a productive methodology for students to engage in discussions, ideation, negotiation, problem-solving and decision making. We have received feedback from the students that these skill-sets are vital for them to meet future challenges whilst grounding in the real world. Students presented how the collaboration improved their process for the project and found it useful to work with people from different disciplines/roles towards a common goal.

Because of Covid-19, lectures and others, all meetings had to take place remotely; this required much organization work beforehand. We prepared a very exhaustive schedule of events for the students to follow, and in the first run, most of the teaching was done through Zoom meetings. Students had to apply for the course with their CV and motivation letter explaining their expertise, courses taken, what interests them in a particular role and why the motivation to participate in a group project. If some prior technical knowledge was missing, but the student was interested in the role, the teaching team provided relevant tutorials to keep students up to the pace. They were also provided with extra materials during the course and had one-hour expertise meetings every Friday, which were adapted to their needs (presentations, workshops, instructions/hands-on training, etc.). For the digital model, Revit was used, and connecting teams, workflows and visualization of data and building Autodesk Forge were used. Students could work together on their models, and teachers could see and critique the model and design process each week. We have successfully tried this pedagogical practice for two consecutive years.

The project goals were successfully achieved, and we think the adopted pedagogical model can sustain the coming semesters.

Deviations and Challenges
Because of Covid-19, lectures and others, all meetings had to take place remotely; this required much organization work beforehand. Another challenge we faced was from the DARCH department in supporting the course. ECTS points for students D-ARCH (6 points) and D-BAUG differ (12 points) D-ARCH (Masters in Integrated Building Systems) students find this unfair as for the same amount of work, DBAUG students receive more credits. Prof Hall was in his transition to the TU Delft during the second run, and therefore we have discussed with his team to have them participate as experts in the tutoring and minimise their involvement.

At the beginning of the project, students were prompted to describe their pedagogical expectations from the course. The students were very motivated because they had to work on a real project (HIC Building), and ETH Immobilien, Basler and Hoffmann and several industries and academic experts were involved in the critiques. During the course, students were asked to give intermediate feedback. The only feedback was to improve course planning, although the course team invested much time in the schedule.

We realize that much of the pedagogical offerings of the course are transferrable if not in large cohorts but in small classes of 15-20 students. We have already tried implementing small-scale projects within the different courses we offer.