Construction management course via Skype

NORTH ANDOVER, MASS. — One of the instructors at Merrimack College will teach a construction management class via Skype, a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. The class will compare construction projects in the U.S. and the Middle East.

Associate Civil Engineering Professor David Westerling and Adjunct Lecturer Paul Zarba will both teach the course. Westerling will lead in the classroom, while Zarba will instruct from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he is currently working on a megaproject consisting of 21 buildings — six of which are high rise towers — and a 4,500-car parking structure. The project, which is valued at approximately $3 billion, will take several years to be completed.

According to Zarba, teaching from Saudi Arabia “will bring into the class a real world connection to construction management that is seamless between the West and Middle East.” Zarba plans to use the course to “show the similarities between how we do things in the U.S. versus” Saudi Arabia.