National Institute of Building Sciences Rolls out Building Sciences Online Academy

The National Institute of Building Sciences’ buildingSMART alliance presents its first course— “The Introduction to COBie”—on the Institute’s newly launched Building Sciences Online Academy. 

The two-hour, self-paced course, developed by the Alliance with funding and oversight provided by ACAI Associates, focuses on the Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie).  “The Introduction to COBie” course, approved for 2.0 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Continuing Education System learning units (LUs) for registered architects, is perfect for planners, architects, engineers, construction contractors, sub-contractors, facility operators, maintainers and owners around the world to learn the benefits of this valuable new standard.

Many organizations now require COBie for their projects because of the benefits it offers to improve efficiency at all stages of the building life cycle. COBie enables information to flow from the design phase; allows information to be added during construction; and is available to deliver the information to the facility manager upon completion. Historically, these information transmittals for a building under construction have been done on paper and, therefore, a significant portion of the information is lost once the building is completed. COBie keeps this information in a usable format for everyone to access throughout the building's life cycle.

The United Kingdom is currently using COBie as the information base for its building information modeling (BIM) implementation, which goes into effect for all government projects in 2016. In the United States, COBie is one of the reference standards included in the National BIM Standard-United States®.

“The Introduction to COBie” consists of seven modules, which can be taken all at once or over a period of time. The course explains the value and benefits of using information exchanges and describes the relationships among the COBie standard, facility management software and BIM authoring software.

The Institute established the Building Sciences Online Academy to provide members of the building industry with continuing education opportunities relating to the latest technologies being developed within the Institute's programs and projects. The educational courses and training seminars to be offered through the Online Academy will be created by members of the Institute, who are industry leaders and experts in building sciences.

The “Introduction to COBie” course is $95 for members and $195 for non-members. As part of their member benefits, Alliance Sponsor Organizations receive access to ten free classes each year to distribute to their employees.

Be one of the first to take the COBie course on the Institute’s new Building Sciences Online Academy. Register today!

More about COBie

Initially developed through the Institute’s Facility Maintenance and Operations Committee (FMOC) through a grant for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, COBie is spearheaded by the Alliance through a cooperative research agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). Find out more.