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Dr. Haifa Al Khalifa Calls for the Integration of Technology into Design Courses in Architectural Education
In a Study Presented at the Conference of Colleges of Architecture in Arab Universities
Dr. Haifa Al Khalifa Calls for the Integration of Technology into Design Courses in Architectural Education
A scientific study at the University of Bahrain (UoB) called for a reconsidering architectural education method for design courses, stressing the importance of integrating e-learning with traditional learning to keep pace with the global development in architectural education, and to take advantage of technology and the current information revolution.
The study was presented by the Head of the Department of Architecture and Interior Design at the College of Engineering at UoB, Dr. Sheikha Haifa bint Ebrahim Al Khalifa, during the First Scientific Conference of the Forum of Colleges, Departments and Schools of Architecture in Arab Universities, which was held recently under the title: “Virtual Communication in Architectural and Urban Education”, which was under the sponsorship of the Association of Arab Universities.
The scientific paper of Dr. Haifa Al Khalifa was under the title “Virtual Architectural Studio: Evaluating Education Quality Methodology Using Digital Programs”, and she presented it within the second axis of the Conference: “Digital Transformations in Architectural Education”.
The Head of the Department of Architecture and Interior Design talked about the experience of the architecture program in the Department regarding the digital transformation of its courses, highlighting the practical design studio course, which requires direct communication between the professor of the course and the student, to work on developing the student’s project in terms of the idea and the functional and urban analysis of the project, as well as the application of different theoretical concepts related to the nature of the project.
Dr. Al Khalifa stated that converting the course into a virtual studio in which the professor and student communicate through the Microsoft Teams platform or Blackboard constituted a great challenge, noting that “The study compared the design studio for first- and fifth-year students, and discussed the various factors that had an impact on the success of the courses.”.
As the survey found that a large percentage of students expressed their satisfaction with the educational process of the virtual studio in the design studio course in the fifth year, while the results differed greatly in the first architectural design course, where students found it difficult to fully understand the different stages of design.
According to Dr. Haifa Al Khalifa, the study recommended reconsidering the architectural education method for design courses and working to integrate e-learning with traditional learning to keep pace with the global development in architectural education, and to benefit from technology and the information revolution in the present era.
It is worth mentioning that the Conference reviewed a set of experiences carried out by educational institutions in the Arab countries in the field of architectural education, in order to determine the role of educational institutions in facing the challenges of virtual education in architecture and urbanism.
The participation of Dr. Haifa Al Khalifa at the Conference represented UoB and the universities of the Kingdom of Bahrain in the field of virtual architectural education, within the participation of more than thirty-five Arab universities.
