CEBE Educational Development Grant projects 2004-2005

Antony Wood, School of the Built Environment, University of Nottingham

Construction is often viewed in Schools of Architecture as a distinct subject taught separately from design. When integrated into design studio, it is often conducted as an add-on project, set after the design is ‘finished’. This process is largely accountable for the increasing technical ill-preparation of UK architectural graduates for the realities of working practice. This project aims to bridge the divide between academia and architectural practice, in better preparing architectural graduates for the realities of architectural practice / the building industry. A ten-lecture course series in the form of a Teaching Pack will be produced to address a perceived deficiency in current approaches to Construction Teaching in Schools of Architecture.

Read Article (also published in Newsupdate, issue 12, February 2005)

Click here for further information and to download project resources

Marilyn Higgins, School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University

Improved student learning is at the heart of the national requirement for all courses to include PDPs for students at every level of higher education by 2005/06. This project uniquely combines good practice guidance on PDPs with good practice guidance on inter-professional learning. Assessment of PDP, a contentious and difficult issue, will also be provided. All built environment professions are now building PDPs into membership requirements and also promoting better integration and teamwork between disciplines. There has been a recent trend for many built environment departments to combine disciplines, but research and anecdotal evidence shows that action is required to maximise the potential educational benefits to students. This project will present model exemplars for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and will relate to a very wide audience within the sector.

Click here for further information and to download project resources

Dilanthi Amaratunga, School of Construction and Property Management, University of Salford

Researchers play a key role in developing the UK as an innovative knowledge economy. According to Sir Gareth Robert’s, ‘SET for Success’ report, there is ample room for improvement in developing supplementary skills for quality research and researchers in the built environment. This project aims to create a knowledge base and to rectify current deficiencies in the provision of research training materials on supplementary skills. Steps will be taken to develop and nurture understanding of supplementary skills and provide a common frame of reference for use and further discourse. Guidance will be published which consists of different work packages addressing good practice guidelines on communication skills, personal development, planning and organisation, presentation skills, team work and leadership, paper/report writing skills, time management and professional competence.

Read Article (also published in Newsupdate, issue 12, February 2005)

Click here for further information and to download project resources

John Counsell, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of the West of England

Based on a sustainable, award winning Studio building which was built on the UWE campus between 2001 and 2002, this project is creating a flexible and accessible web based repository of digital resources for use by remotely located staff and students. Construction of the new campus building offered the opportunity to capture the construction process using webcams, video and panoramic images on site, and to acquire technical drawings and other construction information, that for example, demonstrate excellence in flexible artificial lighting control and control strategies for natural ventilation. Unlike previous projects of a similar nature, this model differs because it includes logged and live data from sensors in the building that can be compared with matching data about the external environment. This live and on-going data adds a new dimension to the analysis and understanding that can be gained by students. Staff and students from a range of institutions may also add their own materials via a web interface i.e. additional teaching materials (including video, images, and drawings), presentations, and be able to organise peer group appraisal of student work. The project will act as a test bed and model for a network of similar digital building case studies for virtual study without the hazards and time constraints of site visits.

Paul Murray, School of Engineering, University of Plymouth

This project aims to make available to building academics nationally, approximately 60 categorised case studies of flexible learning techniques successfully used by building lecturers. This will help to address the needs of lecturers at a time when building academics face increasing pressure to provide excellence in teaching and research in the face of increasing workloads. The project builds directly upon the success and momentum of the Student-centred Learning in Construction Education project (SLICE), which up until May 2004 disseminated a wide range of topic specific resources on student-centred learning. By collating and disseminating this material nationally, the project will further the impetus and opportunities available to building lecturers to try out simple and relatively risk-free ideas that can enrich the student learning experience and will promote excellent teaching and learning practice throughout the sector.

Click here for further information and to download project resources

David Vila Domini, The Scott Sutherland School, Robert Gordon University

Traditional design studio teaching techniques rely heavily on tutoring at an individual level. Whilst this has obvious advantages, it does also have some downsides, especially in the current climate in which staff -student ratios are less generous. While in more advanced years, students need individual input in order for them to develop their personal projects, in the earlier years (1st and 2nd particularly), much of what the students need to learn is of a basic nature and therefore common to all. This project will develop materials and approaches which will deliver efficiency and flexibility in learning and open up new ways of dealing with some of the basic problems of architectural design. The project aims to develop students' learning in studio through short, focused exercises; increase staff efficiency in enabling student learning in the Architecture Design studio; develop teaching materials closely related and specifically designed to achieve the learning outcomes of the appropriate course and level; provide greater parity of learning (basic outcomes) across a group of students and enable clear means and parity of assessment.

Click here for further information and to download project resources

Ian Frame, Department of the Built Environment, Anglia Ruskin University

It is important that construction students (building surveyors and architects in particular), have a good understanding of the fundamental issues and principles associated with very complex Building Regulations, SAP Ratings and the new Carbon Index (CI ) method of assessing the environmental impact of buildings. Current computer software does not explain the principles and the manual calculation methods are too complex for students to complete and fully understand. Students need an e-learning based interactive tool that can take them step by step through all of the issues so that they can understand the factors that infuence the energy performance of domestic properties. This project is developing a self-contained student centred toolkit that could be used to investigate all the factors that influence the environmental performance of a domestic property.

Click here for further information and to download project resources