Evaluating the effectiveness of online teaching in architecture courses

In recent decades, there has been an increase in online learning in many disciplines including architecture. In 2020, this situation accelerated as architecture programs world-wide transitioned to online learning. This paper uses surveys and semi-structured interviews to evaluate the effectiveness of online teaching for architecture courses. A total of 15 courses from three Australian universities were included in this study, survey results from 88 students in these courses were collected, and three in-depth interviews with course convenors were conducted. The results indicate that students have relatively positive learning experiences in online courses, in particular due to the increased flexibility that they can enable. However, there is also a need for further development of the online teaching tools associated with architecture studio courses, and an opportunity to enhance teaching for online lecture-based courses which presently show sub-optimal student engagement.