Aims


Communication skills are becoming the key requirement for employability in the increasingly interconnected and globalised world. This project aims to explore an innovative approach to international problem-based learning in the Built Environment education using a real-time online platform, in order to enhance employability skills.

The project will develop an online Hub to demonstrate and test methods, practices, technologies to support the student international collaboration, and to facilitate dissemination and scalability.

The objectives of the project are to:

  • Trial an innovative approach to international collaboration of student design project using a real-time online platform;
  • Examine the student employability skills (i.e. communication, multi-disciplinary, teamworking within international context) developed through the implementation of this approach;
  • Identify critical success factors of international student collaboration based on the proposed approach;
  • Develop guidance of effective practice for academic staff in other institutions wanting to adopt this approach; and
  • Engage wider stakeholders (e.g. academic community, educators, students, employers, professional organisations), as a community of learning to enhance the process and develop effective practice.

The students will design a building in a team whose members are based in the UK and Canada, and who are multidisciplinary. The innovative aspect of the project will be to set up and support these activities within virtual teams requiring co-creation of knowledge at a distance within a real-time, online Building Information Modelling (BIM) platform, which represents an emerging technology platform of international collaboration in the building industry.