E-LEARNING FOR ARCHITECTURE

It has been for a few years now that new technologies have been entering the learning field and new educational methods are taking full advantage of these available technologies, testing and verifying the possible synergy between teaching innovations and the changes that these technologies have already brought to the practice and to project designs of professional studies. Education is undergoing a rapid process of evolution, particularly in Higher Education where there is a concurrence between technological advancement due to e-learning and the need to modify traditional educational models. For these reason many universities and teaching institutions are strongly pointing towards long-distance teaching environments, such as telematic universities that train students who are not obliged to attend lessons, giving them maximum flexibility in time and learning mode, thanks to e-learning environments implemented in Internet.

The Council of Europe (Lisbon 2000) has set a major aim for Europe to become before 2010 "the most dynamic and competitive knowledge society in the world, with sustainable economic growth, higher and better employment, and greater social cohesion". In March 2001 the Council of Europe presented an e-learning action plan calling for a significant program of updating and coordination between European education systems. These include:- developing and integrating ICT in education and training;- developing high quality educational materials;- creating flexible infrastructures to make e-learning accessible to all;- promoting a universal digital instruction;- creating lifelong learning opportunities.

The main goals that the work develops are:
1. the construction of an interactive course on architectural design for architectural long-distance teaching, with the support of online thematic databases, and definition of guidelines for the methodology of architectural e-learning;
2. the selection of the appropriate platform in order to release the courses, taking into account the technological requirements as interactivity, the catchment area, the system expansibility;
3. verify the efficacy of e-learning through the observation and the monitoring of the courses and the arrangement of tools and tests for quality and quantity verification. The work take into account the experience of the Multimedia Laboratory of Architecture (LaMA).