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BIMCERT Project: Digital Competencies Training for a More Sustainable Built Environment
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In the past several years, Building Information Modeling (BIM) adoption has grown significantly in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. In response to this trend, the industry and academia realized that BIM education in university curricula is an important requirement for satisfying educational demands of the industry, and a notable body of research has reported strategies AEC programs implemented to incorporate BIM in their curricula. However, no study has comprehensively reviewed and synthesized the research on strategies adopted by educators. To bridge this gap in the literature, this paper presents a systematic review of research on BIM curriculum design in AEC education. The authors report on the trends of research on BIM curriculum design (e.g. methods, timelines, and contexts) as well as a synthesis of implemented pedagogical strategies with detailed discussions on their implications and effectiveness across different studies and contexts. These strategies address a variety of important pedagogical issues such as enrolment of students, optional or required BIM use, important competencies and skills, tutoring methods, industry engagement, designing assignments, and assessment methods and criteria. This synthesis shows that designing pedagogical strategies for BIM education is complex and challenging, and AEC programs need to make trade-offs between advantages and disadvantages associated with these strategies. The results also highlight the need for more diverse research designs and settings to bridge the gaps identified in BIM curriculum research to date. Finally, the authors present a literature-based framework of BIM curriculum design strategies as well as a set of recommendations that can be used BIM educators and researchers as a guide for designing or assessing their BIM curricula in future research.
Background
Today, the architectural, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industry is motivated to employ graduates educated about Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools, techniques, and processes, which help them to better integrate visualizations and data into their projects. In line with today’s AECO industry necessities and government mandates, globally active BIM educationalists and researchers are designing BIM educational frameworks, curricula and courses. These educationalists and researchers are also generating solutions to the obstacles faced during integration of BIM education into tertiary education systems (TESs). However, BIM researchers have taken few efforts recently to provide an overview of the level of BIM education across the globe through review and analysis of the latest publications associated with BIM education in TESs. Hence, this study attempts to fill this gap by providing a review of the efforts of globally active educationalists and researchers to educate AECO students about BIM in the context of advanced engineering education with visualization. Method
In our study, an investigation of texts in the field of academic BIM education was conducted. Keywords such as “BIM education”, “BIM curriculum”, “BIM course”, and “visualization in engineering education” were used to search for publications ranging from 2010 to the present day. Textual and content analysis were employed to arrange BIM-related qualitative textual data into similar sets of conceptual categories for the purpose of analyzing trends in today’s global academic BIM education research. ResultsThis study generated six conceptual categories by arranging qualitative textual data from 70 collected BIM publications in order to build an understanding of active BIM educationalists and researchers efforts: (a) identifying needs for BIM in tertiary educational institutions (TEIs), (b) identifying essential BIM skillsets for BIM education, (c) developing BIM educational frameworks, (d) developing BIM curricula, (e) experimenting with BIM courses, and (f) developing strategies to overcome BIM educational issues. Through this process of review and analysis, current research gaps in academic BIM education across the globe are identified. Conclusion
This process of review and analysis of global BIM education research trends resulted in a conceptual categorization of BIM educationalists and researchers’ efforts in TES. This categorization and review of the collected publications can serve as a knowledge base for: (a) identifying major issues involved in BIM education, (b) developing strategies to incorporate BIM into TES, and (c) developing BIM frameworks and curricula in the context of tertiary education, which can assist BIM educators with taking BIM education in TES to the next level for visualization in advanced engineering education. Through analyzing global BIM education research trends, this study also provides future research suggestions on academic BIM education across the globe. Furthermore, our analysis highlights the relationship between current tertiary BIM education and visualization.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors driving Palestinian construction contractors to implement energy management strategies during the execution of construction projects.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was conducted by administering a questionnaire that comprised 26 drivers for adopting energy management strategies. Data were collected from 67 contractors in the Gaza Strip. Factor analysis was adopted to explore the underlying relationships among the identified drivers.
Findings
Drivers were grouped into one of the four categories: economic and financial, institutional and legal, organisational and managerial and educational and informational. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents were of the view that economic and financial factors were the most important factors driving the adoption of energy management strategies by construction companies in the Gaza Strip. Of the economic and financial drivers, the cost savings derived from the adoption of energy management strategies was considered the most important item. Energy management education and training programmes are scarce in the Gaza Strip, and local contractors have no formal energy management education and training. The government needs to allocate sufficient funds for policy implementation and regulation enforcement.
Research limitations/implications
Difficulties in accessing energy management data are deemed as a limitation to this study, as the topic of energy management in the construction has received no or very little academic attention so far.
Practical implications
This study provides a valuable reference for studying ongoing research in the practice of energy management development in other industries and locations. The priority of the drivers for energy management will help the local contracting companies to focus on weak and strong points of the company for energy use development to remove these weak points and invest in strong points. This paper results can increase the encouragement for greater social responsibility of the contracting organisations towards energy use. Government and concerned organisations can get benefits from the identified factors in encouraging contractors to adopt energy management strategy in their projects.
Originality/value
This study is the first investigation of energy management aspects in a local construction industry, especially from contracting organisations.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and occurrence, and peculiarities and dynamics, if any, of perceived challenges to the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) in construction site management; using South Africa as context for empirical study.
Literature on the constraints to technology transfer and ICT adoption in construction is used as basis for the study. A national survey of registered persons in South Africa was used to collect qualitative data. A robust multi-stepped analytical approach was used to derive results.
Findings suggest appreciable similarity between literature and primary data, in types of individual challenges and their categories. Lack of technology and management support, and knowledge and information related issues, are relatively more prevalent in site management. There is a fair level of commonality in perception of technical barriers among the various categories of respondents who are active in site management. However, project managers seem to be more sensitive to some inhibiting factors, more than other respondent groups.
Inherent limitations of survey strategy were experienced, but highly qualitative data were collected at a national level. The study highlights the range of barriers to ICT in site management, and compounding effects of technology-, knowledge- and management-related constraints.
The possibility of knowledge-based factors remotely manifesting in other categories was highlighted. There is need to consider all challenges in planning for ICT in projects, and prioritise technology-, knowledge- and management-related challenges. A classification for exploring challenges to ICT in the site management process is also proposed.
Appreciable paucity remains in research focused on ICT in the site management process, as opposed to the popular operations/application focus of IT/ICT studies. Furthermore, there is still scarcity of ICT research in Africa, with regard to the built environment and specifically site management.
This study contributes to research in ICT innovation adoption in the construction industry, by developing a better understanding of the dynamics of perceived challenges to ICT adoption in the site management process; according to types and classifications of challenges, and roles and age groups of stakeholders. The study further sets a baseline for future studies in this area by proposing a frame of categorisation that is focused on site management.
Purpose
Competency-based measure is increasingly evident as an effective approach to tailoring training and development for organisational change and development. With design stage widely reckoned as being decisive for construction waste minimization, this study aims at identifying designers’ competencies for designing out waste.
Design/methodology/approach
Due to paucity of research into competency for construction waste mitigation, this study corroborates Verbal Protocol Analyses (VPA) with phenomenological research.
Findings
Combining findings from the two methodological approaches, competencies for designing out waste are grouped into five categories, three of which are largely task related and two being contextual competencies. The study suggests that design task proficiency, low waste design skills and construction related knowledge are indispensable task competencies, while behavioural competence and inter-professional collaborative abilities are requisite contextual competencies for designing out waste. In concurrence with task-contextual theory of job performance, personality variables and cognitive abilities are found to influence one another. This suggests that both task and contextual competencies are not only important, they are less mutually exclusive with respect to designing out waste.
Practical implications
This study implies that apart from commitment and dedication of designers to waste minimization, design and firm practices are expected to be adapted to the industry’s standard.
Originality/value
Basis for training needs of design professionals as well as redeployment criterion are further elaborated in the paper. By enhancing competencies identified in this study, construction waste would not only be significantly designed out, adequate cost saving could be made as a result of waste reduction.
Implications of Construction Industry Trends on the Educational Requirements for Future Construction Professionals
- T Becker
- E Jaselskis
- C Mcdermott
Becker, T., Jaselskis, E. and McDermott, C. (2011). Implications of Construction Industry
Trends on the Educational Requirements for Future Construction Professionals.
International Conference Proceedings of the 47th Associated Schools of Construction,
Omaha, Nebraska, United States, 6-9th April, pp 1-12
Educating the Next Generation of Architects for Interdisciplinary BIM Environments
- S Jaradat
Jaradat, S. (2014) Educating the Next Generation of Architects for Interdisciplinary BIM
Environments, Proceedings of the AAE International Conference on Architectural
Education: common currency, University of Sheffield -3rd to 5th September, pp 127 -135