Earlier this year, higher education institutions made swift decisions to move classes online—faculty members around the world had to convert their lectures, studios, labs, seminars and discussions to online platforms in order to stop the spread of COVID-19. In most cases, this shift was very fast, and occurred over a few days. Initially, it seemed that the online classes may be temporary, but now we know that is not the case.

The perspectives on online education are polarized and cover a wide spectrum—some praise its flexibility and convenience, while others assume that it lacks interaction present in physical classrooms and lecture halls or question its quality. Nevertheless, spring semester of 2020 will be remembered by many students, faculty, staff, and administrators for a very long time. And perhaps it will also be remembered as a game-changer for higher education because it made us realize that online education has indisputable benefits? The major benefit of online education is that we are not bounded by physical location and geography—it democratizes access to courses in an unprecedented manner. More importantly, it offers opportunities for continuing education for professionals unlike any other method. When we combine these two aspects, online classes could become the future of life-long learning.

This article reviews the outcomes of an online summer course, focusing on high-performance facades, which integrated students and professionals within the same learning environment.