On 11 June 2020, the Building Biology Institute rolled out its first-ever online seminar as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic and associated travel restrictions. A record 45 students participated in IBE 211 Indoor Environmental Quality, from throughout the United States and Canada, and as far away as Finland, Australia, and Israel.
- “Stephen is a great teacher. Clear, organized, experienced and love the dry sense of humor!” – Student Review
Stephen Collette, our IBE 211 instructor, completely revamped the text book and accompanying PowerPoint presentation, prerecorded 21 individual video lectures — including an actual Healthy House inspection — and led five live Q&A sessions via Zoom. Those sessions were recorded and put into an online student folder the same day for those who couldn’t attend the live sessions.
- (Stephen was) “great and I like how he emphasized common sense and provided examples from his own experiences.” – Student Review.
While everyone missed the in-person interaction and camaraderie, the seminar was an unqualified success.
- “Stephen’s actual stories and case studies were very helpful and really helped me to see the practical application of the concepts and to envision applying them myself. Also, the example reports Stephen sent were super helpful.” – Student Review
Our next two scheduled seminars, IBE 214 Indoor Environmental Quality for New Construction and IBE 215 Healthy Design & Community Planning have also been moved online, and thanks to Stephen’s trailblazing work, we are confident we’ll be batting three for three.
- “The audio/visual part was seamless! I can’t believe this is the first time a seminar was offered online because it didn’t seem like it at all.” – Student Review