Virtual communities of learners in construction IT

Abstract

All over the world, institutes and faculties are developing the structure and delivering distance learning courses. With such environments, students learn at their own place and, in some cases, at their most convenient time, where the institutes guide the students in the self-learning and making assignments. This pa-per reports on the curriculum development of an inter-university post graduate program in Construction IT and on the experimental course, which took place in the beginning of 2004, where lectures from Carnegie Mellon University (USA), Dresden University of Technology (Germany) and University of Maribor (Slove-nia) provided a virtual seminar to students located at Dresden University of Technology and University of Maribor. This experience recognized that co-operation and projects that involve institutions from different countries have several advantages, 1) best knowledge and best practice exchange 2) becoming familiar with the use of advanced IT tools, as for example, distance communication tools; 3) experience working in a global network community and 4) possibility to expand cultural horizons.