Coping of Off-campus Class during the COVID-19 Crisis for the Architecture Pedagogy in Bangladesh

Abstract

Many of the private universities of Bangladesh have decided to continue their academic activities through online off-campus learning amid concerns that traditional classes could spread the COVID-19 virus. Teaching is moving online, on an untested and unprecedented scale. There are challenges and possibilities unveiling in the technical tertiary level education like Architecture. A Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) programme need to be comprising of both theory and sessional studio courses. The learning modes are not same for these two areas. Modification and new invention of teaching methods need to be introduced to coping of off-campus class. In this study, the first-hand experience of on-line teaching in B.Arch program of the author and the similar experience of faculties of the different universities of Bangladesh are triangulated to come up with a model of off-campus class. This article finds out the systematic process of teaching method to coping of off-campus class during the COVID-19 crisis for the Architecture pedagogy. The process has three domains and four major areas. The teacher’s domain and the student’s domain are connected through the domain of virtual classroom. The four major areas are live streaming, live discourse, prerecorded lecture and assignment and feedback. A well synchronization of these areas can establish the model of off-campus class for architecture pedagogy.