Hands-On Exercise for Enhancing Students’ Construction Management Skills
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 139, Issue 9
Abstract
This paper presents a hands-on exercise on construction project management to augment traditional teaching methods and help students improve their construction experience and project management skills. The exercise involved 100 students participating in managing and constructing a 3.8-m (12.5-ft) model of Canada’s CN Tower within a 30-min deadline. Before construction, the groups prepared method statements, cost estimates, and schedules for constructing the model. During construction, the groups had to manage limited resources, procurement challenges, and forced interruptions to keep the project on track. To experience new project-tracking methods, students were introduced to a voice-based prototype for collecting progress information and automatically updating the schedule. The results indicate that students gained better understanding of the real construction environment and how to apply their acquired construction management skills to handle the involved complexities and interdependencies. The paper can be of interest mainly to researchers and educators. It presents the design, planning, and implementation of this educational exercise and discusses its practicality and ability to enhance the project management skills of students.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the great effort done by all the students for their enthusiasm and hard work to make this a successful exercise. The support of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo is also highly appreciated.
References
Ahn, Y. H., Pearce, A. R., and Kwon, H. (2012). “Key competencies for U.S. construction graduates: Industry perspective.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 138(2), 123–130.
Al-Jibouri, S., Mawdesley, M., Scott, D., and Gribble, S. (2005). “The use of a simulation model as a game for teaching management of projects in construction.” Int. J. Eng. Educ., 21(6), 1195–1202.
Anderson, L. W., and Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives, Longman, New York.
Baldizan, M. E., and McMullin, K. M. (2005). “Evaluation of student learning for an engineering graphics course,” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 131(3), 192–198.
Bloom, B. S., Englehart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., and Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals, Handbook 1: Cognitive domain. Longmans, Green, New York.
Brown, K. (2000). “Developing project management skills: A Service-learning approach.” Proj. Manage. J., 31(4), 53–58.
Chipulu, M., Ojiako, U., Ashleigh, M., and Maguire, S. (2011). “An analysis of interrelationships between project management and student-experience constructs.” Proj. Manage. J., 42(3), 9–101.
Dantas, A., Barros, M., and Werner, C. (2004). “A simulation-based game for project management experiential learning.” COPPE / UFRJ, System Engineering and Computer Science Department Caixa Postal: 68511, CEP: 21945-970, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
EasyPlan (2013). [Computer software]. Univ. of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON.
Elrod, C., Murray, S., Burgher, K., and Foth, D. (2010). “Utilizing multimedia case studies to teach the professional side of project management.” J. STEM Education: Innovations and Research, Special Edition.
Felder, R. M., and Silverman, L. K. (1988). “Learning styles and teaching styles in engineering education.” Eng. Educ., 78, 674–681.
Forcael, E., Glagola, C. R., and González, V. (2012). “Incorporation of computer simulations into teaching linear scheduling techniques,” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 138(1), 21–30.
Hegazy, T. (2006). “Computer game for simplified project management training.” Proc., 1st Int. Construction Specialty Conf., Vol. 2, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, Montreal, QC, 1025.
Hegazy, T., and Menesi, W. (2010). “Critical path segments (CPS) scheduling technique.” J. Construction Eng. Manage., 136(10), 1078–1085.
Ifbyphone. (2012). 〈http://public.ifbyphone.com〉 (Apr. 2012).
Korman, T. M., and Johnston, H. (2011). “Enhancing construction engineering and management education using a construction industry simulation (COINS).” Comput. Civil Eng., 899–906.
Liegel, K. M. (2004). “Project-based learning and the future of project management.” PMI Global Conf. 2004–North America, Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Markham, T., Larmer, J., and Ravitz, J. (2003) Project based learning handbook, 2th Ed., Buck Institute for Education, Novato, CA.
Mengel, T. (2008). “Outcome-based project management education for emerging leaders—A case study of teaching and learning project management.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 26(3), 275–285.
Nikolic, D., Jaruhar, S., and Messner, J. I. (2011). “Educational simulation in construction: Virtual construction simulator.” J. Com. Civil Eng., 25(6), 421–429.
Park, M., Chan, S. L., and Ingawale-Verma, Y. (2003). “Three success factors for simulation based construction education.” J. Constr. Educ., 8(2), 101–114.
Sawhney, A., Mund, A., and Koczenasz, J. (2001). “Internet-based interactive construction management learning system.” J. Constr. Educ., 6(3), 124–138.
Smith, K. A. (2000). “Strategies for developing engineering student’s teamwork and project management skills.” ASEE Annual Conf. Proc., 5277–5288.
Tsai, M.-K., Yang, J.-B., and Lin, C.-Y. (2007). “Integrating wireless and speech technologies for synchronous on-site data collection.” J. Autom. Constr., 16(3), 378–391.
Tsai, M.-K. (2009). “Improving communication barriers for on-site information flow: An exploratory study.” J. Adv. Eng. Informatics, 23(3), 323–331.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 25, 2012
Accepted: Feb 19, 2013
Published online: Feb 21, 2013
Discussion open until: Jul 21, 2013
Published in print: Sep 1, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.