A computer-simulated reality and the human-machine interactions facilitated by computer technology and wearable computers may be used as an educational methodology that transforms the way students deal with information. This turns the learning process into a more participative and active process, which fits both the practical part of subjects and the learner’s profile, as students nowadays are more technology-savvy and familiar with current technological advances. This methodology is being used in architectural and urbanism degrees to support the design process and to help students visualize design alternatives in the context of existing environments. This paper proposes the use of virtual reality (VR) as a resource in the teaching of courses that focus on the design of urban spaces. A group of users—composed of architecture students and professionals related to the architecture field—participated in an immersing VR experience and had the opportunity to interact with the space that was being redesigned. Later, a quantitative tool was used in order to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual systems in the design of urban environments. The survey was designed using as a reference the competences required in the urbanism courses; this allowed the authors to identify positive and negative aspects in an objective way. The results prove that VR helps to expand digital abilities in complex representation and helps users in the evaluation and decision-making processes involved in the design of urban spaces.

At present, university professors lack the tools to know which is the most sustainable activity and/or strategy that should be incorporated into large-group theoretical classes in order to improve our students’ learning process whilst taking each scenario into account. These scenarios have different order thinking levels, numbers of students, available time, classroom size and professor skills, among other factors to consider. In architecture schools we have this problem in theoretical lectures. This project has developed and applied a new multi-criteria decision making tool incorporating a mathematical algorithm in order to choose the best set of active learning activities for each case for these lectures in architectural technology courses. This process has relied on seminars involving experts and the use of The Integrated Value Model for Sustainable Assessment. This tool has been very useful to solve the aforementioned problems because architecture professors have been able to choose the most sustainable activity for each scenario considering the alternative sustainability indexes. This first application has been highly useful to assist professors to incorporate active learning methodologies in their classes and to promote lecturers’ management of their course contents and time. Future improved versions of this tool will increase its interactivity and broaden its scope.

This article presents the first results of the project Architecture 360, which focuses on learning alternatives for developing working skills in higher education courses, and specifically construction competences for architecture students. The project aims to help teachers to choose the best learning solutions for their classes from numerous alternatives of strategies, dynamics and activities. The assistance is based on developing a new approach that combines several methods (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT); multi-criteria decision-making; Delphi; and the Knapsack problem) and draws from teachers’ experience, a panel of experts’ expertise, the revised Bloom Taxonomy and neuroscience for education. The new approach to assisting university teachers in choosing the best practical learning alternatives was successfully developed and validated for the case study of a course at Barcelona Architecture School. In general, the approach defined the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of 26 learning alternatives. In the case study, the following optimized set of alternatives were identified: blended learning, challenge-based learning, reflective learning, videos of real cases, case studies, site visits, interactive simulation and gamification. Moreover, 23 activities were analysed. It was concluded, for instance, that active alternatives would improve implementation, including teachers’ available teaching materials and dedication outside class.

The qualitative improvement of learning spaces in higher education has often been linked to the technicalization of classrooms, and to the dissolution of the physical and temporal framework of teaching. The main objective of this research was to examine the relationship between learning and space, beyond its formal and functional values, and how this relationship contributes to promoting an efficient, cohesive educational community that strengthens links with the society that it aspires to serve. Methodologically, a quantitative approach to the design of learning spaces is proposed in relation to three aspects: formal diversity, functional flexibility, and sociability of the university community. The proposed methodology was applied to the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya's Sant Cugat Campus, which is recognized for the innovative nature of its pedagogical model, based on project‐based learning, and the adaptation of learning spaces to educational projects. With an educational model that tends to the spatial–temporal dissolution of learning and university spaces designed under the principles of form and function, improvement in the quality of learning is related to the improvement and quality of learning spaces using the principles of functional flexibility, spatial diversity, and sociability.