Abstract

In Chile a "social outbreak "took place in 2019 followed by the pandemic due to the Coronavirus. Face-to-face courses had to be transformed to online courses in a few weeks. It is in the first years of the career when the highest potential of desertion in Architecture takes place. For this reason, this research takes in consideration Construction courses at the beginning of the career of architecture at the "Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana''. Many challenges had to be faced, examples of it are: proportion between synchronous and asynchronous activities, how to adapt practical activities like the construction of prototypes done in groups to individual scale models done at home, and to think about the amount and the type of evaluations between many other problems. Also, there are new challenges in comparison to face to face courses like: student engagement, flexibility in the use of the camera, the time needed for deadlines, decrease of the number of evaluations required as part of the university policies to avoid stress. In parallel professors have been learning new methodologies, how to use different new platforms and software to improve online education. The methodology used is to compare: 1) quality of work done in relation with learning outcomes 2) grades, 3) synchronous assistance, and 4) asynchronous follow-up of courses of "Construction I "and "Construction II "during 4 terms starting in 2020. The purpose of this paper is to know if: it is possible to transform education in a short period of time, is it possible to meet learning outcomes? Is it possible to increase the motivation of students in construction courses specifically and in the architecture studies in general?