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Day in the life of an architect

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Day in the life of an architect

What could be more stimulating than bringing to life a physical structure, straight out of your mind’s eye? That’s what draws architects to their craft – the ability to create something both imaginative and utilitarian, that real people can use and be inspired by. According to the Australian Institute of Architects, “A career in architecture offers opportunities to shape, perhaps even transform the environment in which we live.”

An architect’s process

It’s more than creativity that architects need in their skill set – they must gather skills in design, environmental awareness, technology and science to influence the way people live and interact with the built environment. They begin with the logistics like budget, and the client’s expectations, in order to create a brief. From there, it’s through to the design phase to unleash creativity, as well as analyse the conditions of the site. The design must be further developed to finalise technical detail and gain approvals, until finally, construction begins and the vision is realised. It’s a long process that can take years, but the satisfaction gained can be immense.

Joe’s brilliant career

We chatted about the architecture industry with Joe Toscano of DP Toscano Architects, who focuses on the residential and small commercial market. “The building industry is quite a technical industry – we need to know about design and running the business, but we also need a fairly strong understanding of building construction.”

Joe Toscano drawing plans

Joe Toscano – Architect in Melbourne

For those looking to get into architecture, Joe recommends getting on a building site to witness the end goal coming to fruition. “It gives people the opportunity to understand [what it takes] to transition from drawings to the actual built form.”

The demand for architects in Australia

Professional architects are expected to be in high demand in Australia leading up to 2020, according to figures from the Australian Government’s Job Outlook initiative. Architects currently have a lower than average rate of unemployment, and Job Outlook’s figures also show that architecture is a large occupation, with 24,500 practitioners actively employed in November 2015.

Architecture graduates have a wide array of career opportunities, including work in private practice or government. Some will also specialise in heritage, sustainable design or commercial projects. There are many possibilities to pursue a passion outside of mainstream architecture practice – such as project management, urban planning, construction law, interior design, disaster relief.

Study architecture online

While in theory, anyone can design a building, there’s a lot of study involved with gaining the title ‘architect’, explains Steven Feast – who is the Online Coordinator for Architecture and Interior Architecture at Curtin University. A career in architecture starts with a 3 year undergraduate degree, such as the Bachelor of Applied Science (Architectural Science) from Curtin University through Open Universities Australia (OUA).

This course covers the design of buildings, the technical aspects of building construction, and how architecture relates to the way people live. Feast describes it as a broad-focus degree where students work through increasingly complex projects each year. It leads to employability in architectural building design firms and development companies in areas such as urban design, environmental research, building conservation, heritage matters or community development.

For those looking to study at Postgraduate level, Curtin University also providers the Master of Architecture. It features two years of advanced studies in design project work, architectural history, theory and research, management, law and professional practice. Given the course’s online nature, students can be working in the industry while completing advanced design projects, analysing urban contexts, and considering urban design and place-making – putting their new skills to use immediately.

We’re excited to provide a number of online courses in architecture, planning and construction – offering a level of study for anyone.

If you’d like to chat about your career goals, fill out the form on this page, and we’ll put you in touch with a friendly student advisor. 

Coursera Extends East Coast Reach with New York City Office

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Coursera Extends East Coast Reach with New York City Office

Today we’re excited to announce the opening of our New York City office to support the expansion of Coursera’s fastest growing business line, Coursera for Business. The new Manhattan location will serve our rapidly expanding customer base in North America and on the East Coast, with particular emphasis on the financial and professional services verticals. The office will be led by Stéphanie Durand, who built our EMEA enterprise hub from the ground up and will now be focused on scaling the enterprise team and customer network stateside.

Coursera for Business is growing at an exponential rate in North America as more companies realize that talent transformation is mission-critical in the changing economy. In the last year, Coursera for Business saw 300 percent year-over-year customer growth. To date, we have helped over 1,800 companies and governments worldwide achieve their talent transformation goals, including more than 60 companies in the Fortune 500.

The new office will serve key East Coast verticals, including financial and professional services. With disruptors like blockchain and AI, we see great demand among these industries to train employees in technical skills and transform into data-driven organizations. Coursera’s Global Skills Index, for example, found that critical data science skills like machine learning and data management are increasingly popular in finance. We look forward to partnering with these companies to offer our transformative learning solution and equip them with the skills needed to compete.

Want to join our team and transform lives through education? We’re growing fast, so check out our open roles in our new New York City office.

 

How Tristen went from Account Manager to Technology Analyst with the Google IT Support Professional Certificate

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How Tristen went from Account Manager to Technology Analyst with the Google IT Support Professional Certificate

My name is Tristen, and I live in the state of Georgia. I completed the Google IT Support Professional Certificate program, which helped me land a Technology Analyst role despite no prior experience or education in IT. I had always been interested in learning about IT, so I found resources online and used the knowledge I had to fix computers for my family and friends.

I dropped out of college after my second year in order to financially support my mom. This was one of the most difficult decisions I ever had to make, but I needed to: my mom was making under $1,200 per month to support a household of five.

Before I began working in IT, I worked as a personal banker, a customer service representative, and a business account manager. My Google IT Support Professional certificate showed the hiring manager that I have the technical aptitude for troubleshooting issues. She also was impressed that I understood the importance of having great relationships with team members who might need my assistance.

I loved learning about networking and cybersecurity in the Google IT Support Professional Certificate program. As a Technology Analyst for a call center, I focus mainly on telephony technologies and application management. Because I am familiar with the principles of routing, configurations, and firewalls, I use my knowledge to develop processes so the team executes tasks more efficiently.

There’s never a dull moment in my new role — that’s why I love IT.

The Google IT Support Professional Certificate program also helped me understand the troubleshooting process and why providing excellent customer service is so important. At the call center, if phone ports are down or systems are malfunctioning, it makes for challenging situations with representatives and supervisors. Having an understanding and patient demeanor makes all the difference. Being able to explain the issue clearly shows colleagues that I care about them and their issue.

I come from an area with minimal opportunities for the poor and disadvantaged, especially in a field like IT. My progress in the IT field shows that anyone can accomplish whatever they set their mind to if they get the right opportunities. Google and Coursera are bridging the opportunity gap with this program. I thank them for helping level the playing field!

 

MOOC-Based iMBA to Replace On-Campus MBA

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MOOC-Based iMBA to Replace On-Campus MBA

On Friday, the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign announced that it will be ending its on-campus MBA programs in favor of its MOOC-based iMBA and other similar degree programs.

The iMBA, which the University of Illinois delivers in partnership with Coursera, was announced in 2015 and began accepting students in 2016. Since then, the program has enjoyed growing popularity, with applications up from 1,100 to a projected 3,200 this year.

Class Central has been watching the iMBA with interest since it was announced. Last year, we spoke with the first cohort of graduates and with Jeffrey Brown, Dean of Gies College of Business.

At less than $22,000 the iMBA costs much less than comparable on-campus programs, which, as the University of Illinois noted in its announcement, can cost $80,000 or more. Students who choose the iMBA earn the same degree as those in the residential program, with no indication that the degree was earned online.

With this move, the University of Illinois is capitalizing on a trend in which students are skipping the full-scale, two-year residential MBA and opting for shorter, more flexible executive or online programs. As Jeffrey Brown explained, “Market demand for traditional formats is declining nationwide. Meanwhile, demand, as well as the needs of businesses and individuals, is growing in these other areas. We believe in innovating and staying ahead of trends in business education and on top of the needs of business and society.”

In addition to the iMBA, Gies College of Business currently offers a MOOC-based master’s degree in accounting, the iMSA. With the end of its residential programs, the college plans to expand its online catalog and may add degrees in fields such as finance and technology management.

Current and incoming students will be able to complete their studies in the on-campus programs. Incoming students will also be offered the option of enrolling in the iMBA instead.

Digest #137: Lessons Learned From Learning Scientists Teacher Workshops

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Digest #137: Lessons Learned From Learning Scientists Teacher Workshops

In the beginning of January, we were on tour in England to provide workshops to teachers. We enjoyed this opportunity tremendously because it gave us not only an opportunity to reach out to teachers and to disseminate knowledge about learning and teaching strategies from Cognitive Psychology, but also allowed us to learn what strategies teachers are currently using in their classrooms. Furthermore, we had engaging Q&A sessions with quite hard questions from the audience. We did our best to provide answers, but in many cases it became apparent that research is still a long way from addressing all important practical questions and that further research is needed to close knowledge gaps. This was an exciting experience. In today’s weekly digest we want to take the opportunity to, first of all, thank all teachers in the audience of our workshops for their input and questions: Thank You! Second of all, we would like to highlight blog posts by teachers who took the time to write a reflection on the lessons they learned from our workshops. Enjoy!

*Header image by Mark Miller (@MarkMillerTeach)

Word + Quiz: farrago

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Word + Quiz: farrago

: a motley assortment of things

_________

The word farrago has appeared in seven articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on June 20 in the movie review “‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Brings the Gang Back. Sigh” by A.O. Scott:

…The reawakening of the slumbering franchise in 2015 gave birth to “Jurassic World,” one of the highest-grossing terrible movies of all time, a lumbering walk in the rebooted park that squandered the charisma of the big lizards and the charm of the human cast in a witless farrago of blockbuster self-importance. “Fallen Kingdom,” directed by J. A. Bayona, is in most respects a dumber, less ambitious movie than its immediate predecessor, and also, for just that reason, a little bit more fun. Some of its high jinks have a hokey, silly, old-fashioned mad-scientist feeling to them, especially when the dinosaurs are chasing people or vice versa. Which is reasonably often.

_________

How Do You Feel About Your Body?

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How Do You Feel About Your Body?

When you look at yourself in the mirror, how do you feel about what you see? Why do you feel the way you do about your appearance?

In “5 People Who Can Help You Love Your Body,” Emma Pattee writes about the importance of body positivity:

If you’ve ever been on a diet, you probably told yourself that as soon as you lost those pounds, you’d love your body. Maybe you did actually achieve that goal weight, or maybe you didn’t. But chances are, you didn’t end up with a long-lasting love for the way you look.

Whether it’s weight loss or some other element of your appearance, you shouldn’t wait for some magical change to start loving your body. Loving your body as it is, regardless of your exercise routine or diet is one of those rare “life hacks” that doesn’t have a downside.

But after a lifetime of wanting to be different, suddenly falling in love with what you see in the mirror isn’t so simple. So how do we learn to love our bodies, and who can teach us? Here are five people who have been down this road, learned to love their own bodies, and most importantly, are on a mission to help others learn to love themselves, too.

The ultramarathoner Mirna Valerio suggests:

“When people ask me how they can move their bodies more, I tell them to just start with a walk around the block, and to notice how their feet feel, how their legs feel, how things look and smell. Movement is about so much more than losing weight.”

Megan Jayne Crabbe, an author and influencer, encourages her readers to question why they don’t like their bodies:

“When you think about the first time you thought your body was wrong,” she explained, “most likely you were a young child and the idea that some bodies are good and some are bad was told to you.”

Zach Miko, a model, tells men who want to be more confident in their bodies to stop apologizing for their bodies or making jokes at their own expense:

“Take yourself seriously. Post a photo of yourself doing something you love, or having a great time, and resist the urge to beat people to the joke. Who you are is not a joke.”

The model Mama Cax says:

“I didn’t see body appreciation being shown to people with disabilities or people with scars, so I started sharing my story on Instagram. I was sharing for women who don’t see themselves as beautiful and don’t see their bodies celebrated.”

And the author Jes Baker shares:

“People don’t realize that their obsession with physical health and beauty norms is taking a toll on their mental health,” she said. “What is it costing them to hate their body? Anxiety? Depression? How much happier would they be if they weren’t so focused on how they look? Not to mention the fact that our mental health directly impacts our physical health.”

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

— How do you feel about your body? Are you in love with the image you see in the mirror every day? Or do you tend to pick it apart? Where do you think the beliefs and attitudes you hold about your body came from?

— How much do you think your feelings about your appearance impact your sense of self-worth? Why?

— How often do you see bodies that look like yours in mainstream media? How does this make you feel? In your opinion, how important is it to see a variety of bodies in popular media?

— What role do you think social media plays in how you view your body? Do you mostly follow people who look like you, or people who you want to look like? How do you think this affects your feelings about yourself?

— Ms. Pattee writes: “Loving your body as it is, regardless of your exercise routine or diet is one of those rare ‘life hacks’ that doesn’t have a downside.” Do you agree? How important do you think it is to learn to love the way you look? How might you apply the advice from the article to your own life?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Learning With: ‘Why Apollo 10 Stopped Just 47,000 Feet From the Moon’

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Learning With: ‘Why Apollo 10 Stopped Just 47,000 Feet From the Moon’

7. The article concludes:

In the annals of history, the mission of Apollo 10 has been overshadowed by later journeys to the lunar surface. But the astronauts of Apollo 10 were trailblazers, and their story adds richness and humanity to the history of the race to the moon. Their achievements, and the risks that they took to help America to win that sprint, deserve to be remembered and celebrated.

Do you agree with the author that we need to celebrate the Apollo 10 crew even if they didn’t reach the moon on their mission? How should we best remember and honor the trailblazers who make history and glory possible for others? Can you think of other historical figures who were there for the “dress rehearsal” but not for the actual performance?

Finally, tell us more about what you think:

— Mr. Bell writes:

Imagine if Ferdinand and Isabella had sent a ship to the New World in 1491 and asked its captain and crew to find new lands to the west without getting out of the ship to set foot on them, because the next captain and crew were scheduled to do that in 1492.

Or picture President Thomas Jefferson sending a party to scout passage to the Pacific Ocean in 1803, then saying, don’t touch a thing, especially not the ocean — because Lewis and Clark are scheduled to do that the following year.

Do you think Mr. Bell’s historical comparisons are fitting? Can you think of any other hypothetical examples that might capture the unique situation for the Apollo 10 crew? How would you have felt if you had been an astronaut on the Apollo 10 mission? Would you have been tempted to try to land on the moon? Why or why not?

— In March, the Trump administration announced its ambitious goal to send American astronauts back to the moon by 2024:

American astronauts will walk on the moon again before the end of 2024 “by any means necessary,” Vice President Mike Pence declared on Tuesday at a meeting of the National Space Council.

“It is the stated policy of this administration and the United States of America to return astronauts to the moon within the next five years,” Mr. Pence said at the United States Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. On the stage nearby was a model of an Apollo landing module that first transported American astronauts to the lunar surface 50 years ago.

Do you agree with this goal? Should the United States make manned space missions to the moon a priority? Why or why not?

— What do you think the next 50 years hold for human spaceflight? Will humans live on the moon someday? How soon do you think astronauts will land on Mars? Do you think ordinary people will ever make interplanetary space trips, the way people take intercontinental plane rides today? Would you like to travel to space?

Further Resources:

Remembering the Moon Landing, Nearly 50 Years Later: ‘We Were All Completely Silent’

That Moon Colony Will Be a Reality Sooner Than You Think

Can the U.S. Really Get Astronauts to Mars by 2030?

The Rich Are Planning to Leave This Wretched Planet

Let’s Not Move to Mars

Over 140 Picture Prompts to Inspire Student Writing

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Over 140 Picture Prompts to Inspire Student Writing

Think The New York Times is only for readers at a high-school reading level? Think again.

Besides written articles, The Times also offers a rich collection of visuals — photos, illustrations, graphics, GIFs and short videos — that are accessible to learners of all levels. Since 2016, we’ve been featuring these images in our daily Picture Prompts: short, image-driven posts that invite a variety of kinds of student writing.

Teachers tell us they use these prompts in all kinds of ways. Some use them to encourage students to develop a daily writing habit. Others as an exercise to practice inferences, spark discussion or support reading. This year, one elementary school music teacher told us how her class used the visuals as inspiration for writing short stories accompanied by music.

For more ideas, we have a lesson plan on how to teach with Picture Prompts and other Times images, as well as a free, on-demand webinar that explores how to use our thousands of writing prompts for everyday low-stakes writing practice across the curriculum.

Below, we’ve categorized the 140+ prompts we published during the 2018-19 school year based on the type of writing they primarily ask students to do — whether it’s penning short stories and poems, sharing experiences from their own lives, telling us their opinions, or interpreting an image’s message. All are still open for comment.

You can find even more images in our Picture Prompt roundups for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years.

If you use this feature with your students, or if you have other ideas for how to use photos, illustrations and graphics to encourage writing, let us know in the comments section.

_______

Empowering mothers through social work

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Empowering mothers through social work

“I had a dream when I was younger that I would study sociology,” says Shiree, Project Coordinator at child protection agency Barnardos “It was a long time coming when I started studying as a mature aged student”.

At 19, Shiree became a mother. A great deal of responsibility had fallen into the lap of such a young woman, leaving her without the capacity to earn a uni degree like she’d always imagined. As the years went by, she was still bothered by her sense of unfinished business, and decided finally to enrol into Griffith University’s Bachelor of Arts degree, online through Open Universities Australia.

Shiree at work

It was during a community event, that Shiree crossed paths with a senior manager at Barnardos, with whom she got talking about her passion for sociology. The manager was impressed by her university essay, and offered her a role as a support worker for Barnardos – the rest is history.

Now a valued staff member at Barnardos, Shiree coordinates a project called ‘Beyond Barbed Wire’, which supports mothers while they’re in custody, and post-release. Having been a young mother herself, Shiree has a lot of empathy for mothers, recognising the pressure on them to raise their children while making a living, often on their own. Sometimes life can derail, impacting both mother and child. “It’s heartbreaking when you look at the statistics. The number of children who are currently in out-of-home care in New South Wales has just gone through the roof” says Shiree. Aside from her regular day-to-day duties, Shiree has the opportunity to get involved in research that could influence policy down the line, and to take part in community events. “Working for an NGO, it’s all about that grass roots feeling – it’s something that keeps me really passionate about the work that we do.”

“It’s heartbreaking when you look at the statistics. The number of children who are currently in out-of-home care in New South Wales has just gone through the roof”

Before beginning her Bachelor of Arts degree, online through Open Universities Australia, Shiree had some concerns around social isolation. But once she jumped in, she found herself easily connecting with her tutors and peers. Initially her goal was to work in juvenile justice, but after moving through subjects, Shiree turned her gaze toward sociology and locked it down as her major. For Shiree, the best thing about her degree was the vast selection of elective subjects, which enabled her to choose what she was truly interested in, to align with both her career goals, and her personal thirst for knowledge.

To others considering social work, Shiree’s advice is to take the leap and start a qualification. “Get yourself a degree – it’s essential, not just for the piece of paper, but for the learning behind that”.

It’s not too late to get started

Whether you’re at the beginning of your career, or decades in, it’s not too late to make a change, and pursue work that excites you. It all begins with study. Through Open Universities Australia (OUA), you can:

  • Find the right course – Choose from over 270 degrees and 1600 single subjects from universities across Australia.
  • Earn the same degree as on-campus – Enrol through us, then study online with your chosen uni (and graduate with them too).
  • Study, regardless of your history – Start with single undergraduate subjects without any entry requirements.
  • Gain credit towards your degree – Apply for credit for past study or work experience, and finish faster.
  • Feel supported from start to finish – Get help from a friendly student advisor, right through to graduation.

To express your interest in this course, or any that we offer – fill out the form on this page, and we’ll put you in touch with a friendly student advisor. If you’re keen to explore on your own, simply head over to our website to browse the extensive catalogue of courses from universities across Australia.

Related courses through OUA:

Bachelor of Behavioural Studies – Swinburne University

Bachelor of Psychological Science and Sociology – University of South Australia

Bachelor of Arts – Macquarie University

Bachelor of Arts – Murdoch University

Master of Social Work – Griffith University

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