The Higher Education Academy and Jisc are collaborating on the Hefce-funded Open Educational Resources (OER) programme to enhance sharing of teaching materials in the built environment. The project aims to repurpose and provide these resources online under a flexible intellectual property license while fostering a culture of sharing among educators and learners. Key outcomes include the development of structured learning packages addressing various advanced topics, along with a community of practice to support ongoing collaboration in the field.

1. open resources in built environment education
The Higher Education Academy and JISC are working in partnership to develop the HEFCE-funded Open Educational Resources (OER)
programme, supporting UK higher education institutions in sharing their teaching and learning resources freely online across the world.
Open Resources for Built Environment Education (ORBEE) plans to repurpose teaching and learning materials; making them
freely available online under an intellectual property licence. This permits their free use especially to address sector needs on ‘work
place, work related or distance learning’. Consequently, by harnessing the knowledge capital of HEI-Industry engagement, a range of
relevant re-calibrated open educational resources are to be provided.
Learning Design Objectives
The aim of this project is to encourage and enable the universal sharing of built environment
General Principles educational resources that targets academics and allows learners to study in an interesting and
challenging way that best suits them. Key outcomes include:
Content should be broken
down into 5 Credit (or 50 • Analysing, repurposing and creating selected materials for open access - To evaluate,
extend and establish a range of existing and tailored learning materials in built environment
notional learning hours)
education for wider consumption via open VLE.
learning packages.
• Encouraging and embedding positive ORBEE culture - To investigate attitudes of learners
This allows created and academics to promote sharing and searching for open resources in built environment
materials to be easily education to build evidence based approaches.
repurposed so that the
content can be clearly
defined and understood Themes
(by both academics and
Core • Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment
learners). These provide the foundation and part of the • Advanced Construction Technology
curricula expected by relevant professional bodies for • Design Economics: Morphometrics for Cross Scale
Each learning package is a competent Built Environment professional. Urban Analysis
based on the principle of • Project Management
Future Skills
‘tell me about it’, ‘show • Procurement Supply Chains
These areas are designed to stretch the minds of our
• Finance Risk Management
me how it works’ and ‘let • Building Adaptation Conservation
learners so that they can shape the future through
me have a go’ being exposed to cutting edge exemplars.
• Health and Safety Management in Construction
• Environmental Science and Building Services • Building Information Modelling
• Constructionarium: Building to Learn • Advanced Manufacturing
• Construction Contract Law Administration • Low Carbon and Environmental Sustainability
• Design Management • Digital Design Management
• Innovation
Resources Released Specialised
These are classified as underrepresented within the
• Industry Facing - Future Skills Interventions
• Nuclear Island
discipline and are areas of potential growth.
• Threshold Concepts in Construction Law
Core Specialised / Niche
Areas
Future Skills
Examples:
OER Delivered as
Modules Advanced manufacturing
building adaptation conservation
Examples:
Topics Project management (Introduction)
With Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Building information modelling
visit: www.creativecommons.org
Examples:
Elements Presentations, lecture screen capture,
podcasts, and interactive media
Community of Practice
Examples:
Sources A community of practice will be formed within the Built Environment disciplines to support the
Recognised theory and practice, case
studies and demonstration projects project and provide continuity after the project ends. If you wish to become part of this
community of practice please contact Aled Williams.
Contact Details
Aled Williams, Deputy Director • UK Centre for Education in the Built Environment • School of the Built Environment
University of Salford • Maxwell Building • Salford • M5 4WT Tel: 0161 295 5944 • Email: a.w.williams@salford.ac.uk
Partners