Creating better buildings through failures education: Wikis, forums, synths, tweets, case studies and discussion posts

This paper introduces and discusses a number of teaching and dissemination topics, tools and techniques for engaging students and practitioners that show promise in the creation of an environment of active learning, participation and enthusiasm as it relates to failures and forensic engineering education of all types. The context of the discussion centers on a course titled Building Performance Failures and Forensic Techniques (Building Failures) offered to graduate and upper level undergraduate students in Architectural Engineering (AE) at Penn State. Case Studies of specific failures and categories of failures are integrated extensively throughout the course modules in multiple formats including self study, research and writing, conventional lectures, industry guest speakers, on-line discussion forums, and direct observation (aka The Campus is Our Lab). Of particular note is the success of the creation and use of an on-line failures dissemination wiki site, Failures Wiki and a resource and web-based discussion "blog" known as Building Failures Forum. Both of these on-line resources are failures dissemination and education resource efforts which are being monitored as outreach efforts related to committee activities of the Technical Council of Forensic Engineering (TCFE) of ASCE.