SUSTAINABLE BUILDING ENGINEERING BY BLENDED LEARNING

Abstract

The sustainable building engineering education at Mid Sweden University has since it started 1994 a strong focus on sustainable building. It is also committed to be a pilot case for blended learning. All courses in the building engineering program were from the autumn 2012 adapted to a blended learning concept. That means that all courses are available in an integrated mix of ordinary campus and online distance education in real time.Blended learning is a way of taking in account different needs concerning student study situation. Adult students, bound with house and families, often prefer more distance education while younger students need more campus education.The results of the case study show that blended learning attracts more students, and allows students with different backgrounds to study and gives a more solid base of students for the program. It also allows a more flexible way of allocating resources by integrating two previous modes of delivery for the same program. This provides an education with a well thought through quality assurance. Another strength of blended learning is the possibility to connect individual students to a larger collective of students, making it possible for them to relate to and learn with and from others by social interactions that are difficult to achieve in solely online education.The pilot case is so far limited to the sustainable building engineering program but in a next stage the concept is planned to be spread to other engineering programs and other education programs at Mid Sweden University.