Online Architecture Degrees

Can You study Architecture Online? Can You Obtain a Master or Bachelor Architecture Degree Online?

Yes! Athabasca University and RAIC did it! There are online International Architecture Degrees Available. Read on to find out more
about the new RAIC Center for Architecture at Athabasca University

Why is Architecture so Hard to Do Online? Can You really Find Online Master and Bachelor Degrees? With the popularity of online programs
growing annually in post secondary institutions and even through businesses, one would imagine that every university and college would
be trying to put up as many of their courses and even entire degrees as possible online to attract students and fight back the rising costs of
education.

However, there remain some programs which are not only difficult to put online, but are rare to find even courses for online.

One of these unfortunately is the architectural degree. Although some aspects of architecture can be found online, such as interior
architecture and design, the more traditional forms of architecture and building design cannot so easily be found on the internet.

There are a number of reasons for the obscurity of an online architecture degree. Architecture is a unique degree because it mixes science
and art and so the major reason for it is the way that the course is taught.

A large portion of the degree involves hands on aspect which includes building projects and work in a studio classroom. Some refer to this
as ‘knowing in action’; that is, that the knowledge gained through an architecture degree cannot be learned through books and lectures but
rather through trial and error.

In this way, students are supposed to learn that it takes hard work and a certain amount of frustration along the way for a project to be
finished successfully. This importance placed on the hands-on aspect of designing projects makes it nearly impossible to put such a degree
online at this time, at least not in the way that is often pictured by students and professors.

Instructors and students often prefer to work face to face in this portion of the degree, further discouraging online course work. Even
through an online degree, the student will still have to get hands on experience under the tutelage of an experienced architect. This can be
very helpful for the student as it forces them to get more hands-on experience which will help in the job world, but it can also be problematic
if the student lives in a community where there are no easily accessible architects to apprentice under.

There is also the worrying problem that many architects will soon be retiring, further cutting down the number of people who could mentor
the new students.

Finally, many universities and colleges do not offer architecture as a degree in the first place, let alone have the resources necessary to
put it online. The difficulty is further compounded by the fact that many of the degrees for online architecture are either fraudulent, or at
best depend on the students already having a lot of life experience, so the ‘degree’ is simply a piece of paper to make the bearer seem more
credible.

Belford is one such college which offers an online degree for architecture, but it relies on the student already having life experience, so the
degree is nothing more than a confirmation of this experience. Schools such as Belford use the fact that even architects with no formal
education can work so long as they have certification and work within certain limits and know that this type of student only want to add a bit
of polish to their skills.

Online architecture degrees are also difficult to obtain because there are many instructors and employers as well as architectural
organizations which either mistrust the prospect of an online degree as opposed to the traditional means, or who do not believe that it is
worth the time and effort to work on. The idea of having an online degree has not occurred to many students or faculty in universities and
there are many businesses which prefer to know that their students got the type of education the employer received.

There is also a sense that either architects are supposed to work alone in their offices or in small personal groups in a larger offices; neither
view supports the idea of having online work with the need for collaborations between people across a country or even the world.

There are even students who are uncomfortable with the prospect of collaborating with so many others in the fear that they will lose their
creative signature in the process of doing the work. To put it simply, the technology is ahead of the people trying to use it when we look at the
prospects for online architectural design.

Architecture is slowly growing to be a more popular degree because of the need for updating and building new places across the western
world. The booming population means that new homes are being built and new hospitals and universities are springing up across Canada
and the United States.

Architecture is also considered an enjoyable degree which allows students to make real money after graduating. However, it is also one of the
last degrees where finding even basic coursework online can be very difficult. Accredited and most traditional universities and colleges simply
do not know yet how to allow the traditional hands-on approach to the degree to transfer to the virtual classroom.

Moreover, the trades’ schools which would traditionally offer the architecture program do not offer it online in any event. Even when colleges

figure out to put the degree online successfully, it is still expected that students will work under the supervision of an architect in their area,
much like an apprenticeship in other trades programs.

Despite the popularity of the degree, it is still not offered in enough schools to create a large young workforce to replace those who will be
retiring and this is a concern for many architects across the world.

Advantages/Disadvantages of an Online Architectural Degree

One of the ways that proponents of architecture as a career path want to draw in students is by encouraging architecture through online work.
An online architect degree is a bit unique though from say a history degree or a biology degree because of how the classes are taught.

Much of the coursework relies on the student doing projects and building things or at least doing a lot of design work with their own hands in
order to pass the class rather than doing written assignments and exams.

With an online architectural degree, students would have to go out to find their own means of gaining hands-on experience rather than
having it done for them in a studio design class. This can be viewed as an advantage or a disadvantage to the student, depending on their style
of learning and whether it’s possible for them to gain hands-on experience in their community.

Advantages:

The pros of an online architectural degree run parallel to the advantages of any online degree; the freedom to decide when to do your class
work and indeed when to go to class at all and the more widespread use of computer programs when learning.

Architecture is relying more and more on the use of computers in the work, so in this way, going online is not only advantageous, it makes a
great deal of sense. Having the degree taught online would also encourage students from communities that need architects to take the courses
and thus work to help their town without having to move.

The online degree would also allow students to gain a professional degree (equivalent to a bachelor’s degree) and then get accreditation
quickly and easily since the student would have already worked in the field for a number of years to get the degree.

The student can also decide how quickly he or she wants to go through the program and so can finish quickly and thus be working all the
faster instead of taking usual three to five years or more in a traditional setting. Many students consider this advantage to potentially
outweigh any difficulties they might come across in finding an online degree or even the online courses for architecture.

Online, virtual work would also make the learning process less disparate. With the traditional university method of teaching, students can get
a very fragmented education that is hurried through a set number of years. The course work is based on separate and different subjects to do
with architecture and students rarely get to see the whole picture during their learning process.

Online work would make the whole picture immediate and consequential, as the teacher would be able to spend more time and effort on
weaving everything together and the students would be able to see for themselves what it is that the coursework is building towards in their
education.
Another advantage lies in collaboration.

Students from different schools would be able to work together and professors from other schools would be able to teach students in all
different schools. Were there enough organization, a professor from one school could teach something he or she specializes in for a few weeks
and then pass the reins to another professor for another specialty. This could be beneficial to the student in that they would be a specialist in
a given field and an advantage to the professor who would be able to concentrate fully on what they do best rather than trying to do a lot of
different topics over the span of a semester.

If nothing else, an online architecture class would allow students to learn from all different people and even from different cultures and about
different architectural styles. Collaboration also allows professors from different schools to come together in order to decide what a more
national or even international curriculum would look like.

This would make transfers between schools much easier and ascertain that students are getting a similar level of education, instead of some
degrees being ‘better’ than other (perceived or otherwise). The need to force teamwork in this system is also something that many employers
and clients find desirable in their architects.

Clients in this age want their architects to be able to have open communication about what they are doing and be able to be flexible and
willing to utilize all different styles of design and building in their work. Online collaboration gives this education alongside the learning of
design and software.

It also reinforces the idea that in our society, knowledge is as important as physical skills, if not more so, and in this field, architecture has
always been at a slight disadvantage as it has long been seen as a ‘trade’ not as a knowledge based profession, perceived or otherwise.

Computers have been used in the field for over thirty years now and any employer expects their workers to be fluent in technology. The use of
the internet in architecture allows students to go beyond the traditional learning and thus be able to bring more to their employers.

A big e-learning disadvantage lies for students from smaller communities-who are also more likely to take online courses in order to have
access to classes they would not ordinarily have access to-where getting an apprenticeship for architect work which would be required in an

online degree would be very difficult or even impossible.

Even with the addition of a virtual design studio for students to do their work in, it may still be difficult for students from smaller
communities to put in the time and energy needed to do the work and find the software that they would need in order to get the most out of
the degree.

For example, finding the necessary software would be easy in a large city such as New York or Toronto, but much harder in a more rural
community. If one lives in a larger city, one may well decide that an online degree is not for them anyway, so one would not need to worry
about the apprenticeship which would be easier to get.

The course work is also very different online when compared to the traditional classroom. There would be far more virtual work being done
and projects would be sent rather than seen in the studio.

Virtual building is very different from doing it hands on and so students would be learning several different style of architecture rather than
simply the traditional one. Once again, this can be both advantageous or a disadvantage, depending on how the person learns.

Many who are good with their hands may not be so good with a computer and vice versa. The biggest disadvantage though is the
unavailability of such a degree in even the traditional sense, let alone online, from most colleges and universities. Finding an entire degree for
architecture is most commonly found in trades schools, not in universities, and there are not very many trades’ schools in Canada which offer
the entire degree.

Students often have to go to multiple colleges in order to get all the courses they need or want. When going online, the number of available
courses shrinks still further.

This is usually because it is either very expensive to have an online design studio for the school and not considered worth the costs because
there are not enough students, or because the faculty are simply unaware of any demand for online architectural work.

It is a challenge, but it is one that some schools are beginning to rise to, using various technological advances, experiments, and a drive to go
where architecture has never gone before.

The results are varied as are the responses, but it is beginning to look certain that doing architectural degrees and work entirely online will
soon be moved from the realm of dream to reality.