ONLINE WOOD DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, AND CODE COURSES
The SLB is committed to furthering educational opportunities for design and construction professionals, code officials, developers, students, and faculty of postsecondary institutions. The SLB’s online learning management system, the Wood Institute, launched in July 2020 as the first comprehensive, one-stop-shop for wood education.
The Institute’s expansive catalog of courses on wood design, construction, and current codes and standards allows architects, engineers, contractors, and building code officials to earn continuing education credits on-demand from the SLB’s funded programs—American Wood Council, Think Wood, and WoodWorks—and additional third-party partners.
The Institute’s 190+ contemporary course offerings have been carefully developed by expert professionals in wood design and construction. Find continuing education courses on light-wood frame, mass timber, carbon, sustainable forestry, codes, building science, prefabrication and construction process, interiors, decks, and more. Courses have been approved for credit by leading organization including the AIA, GBCI, ICC, NCSEA, and others.
All courses are free to explore to expand your knowledge and skills in wood design and construction. The SLB and its partners are adding new course content regularly, as well as taking steps to provide ongoing project support and drive building conversions from other building materials to wood.
The SLB’s funded programs focus on education extends beyond the Wood Institute, with more than 156,300 hours of education taken by professionals in 2023.
POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION
The scarcity of faculty who can teach wood design is an obstacle to expanding the topic in postsecondary architecture and engineering programs. To address the lack of faculty with sufficient expertise, or confidence, to teach a wood design course a series of faculty development workshops were realized in 2023 that built on the success of the pilot held at Clemson University. Each host will provide a unique approach and different programming to help educators develop the skills, knowledge, and strategies needed to expand wood education at their own schools. The Tallwood Design Institute at Oregon State University, Clemson University, and UMass Amherst hosted SLB-funded workshops in 2023. Five workshops are planned in 2024 for architecture, engineering, and construction management faculty.
Through a partnership with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ASCA), the SLB has launched several new education offerings, including the Timber in the City: Urban Habitats Competition and the Timber Education Prize.
- Timber in the City: Urban Habitats Competition
The ASCA, in partnership with the SLB, hosted the 2023 Timber in the City competition, which challenged students to design a carbon-friendly midrise, mixed-use complex using mass timber and integrating biophilic design. This was the fifth year of the competition, with the focus on the interrelationship between housing, urban transit infrastructure, equitable living, and climate change. - Timber Education Prize
The Timber Education Prize recognizes effective and innovative instruction that create a stimulating and evidence-based environment for learning about timber. Using wood as a building material can achieve multiple design, construction, and performance objectives. Therefore, these courses will equip students with the knowledge and design skills to achieve green building goals in a range of project types. In August 2023, five courses were selected to receive a cash prize and support to lead their courses at their host institution within the next two years.