Comparative analysis between virtual education and direct education in fundamental courses in architecture, case study: “introduction to architecture design studio”, in Shiraz University

Abstract

This paper attempts to demonstrate and compare challenges and opportunities in virtual and direct education in architecture in Iran, specifically in fundamental courses. Two different programs (direct and virtual education) have been run in two different branches of Shiraz University, in Shiraz and Dubai, for two successive fundamental courses. Both cases were observed accurately by the authors during two semesters and the result qualities were collected and assessed. The main questions of this paper are: what are the advantages and disadvantages of virtual and direct education? And which method ends to a better quality in result in architecture fundamental courses? The query is based on the case study method using a combination of strategies and content analysis techniques. The information is collected through library and fields studies, and completed through questionnaire and analyzing it's components by the statistical software.
Keywords: Architecture, virtual education, direct education, statistical software, Iran.