iVisit-Communicate for AEC Education: Using Virtual Humans to Practice Communication Skills in 360-Degree Virtual Field Trips
Publication: Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering
Volume 37, Issue 3
Abstract
To prepare graduates for the dynamic and complex working environment in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, educational institutions have distinctly emphasized the significance of communication skills. Field trips are a widely utilized strategy to provide students with a situated learning setting where students can communicate with professionals onsite. However, several challenges limit the application of this strategy, and virtual field trips become a potential and promising supplement or alternative approach. This study discusses the pedagogical use of a virtual field trip experience augmented with conversational virtual humans—iVisit-Communicate—to produce realistic field trips for students to practice their communication skills. This virtual experience is supported by immersive computing (i.e., 360-degree virtual space) and conversational virtual human technologies. iVisit-Communicate simulates two types of communication to provide student-professional verbal communication opportunities: guided scenario and conversational scenario. The paper provides a detailed description of the technical and pedagogical development of iVisit-Communicate components followed by a student-centered experiment, focusing on measures such as system usability, sense of presence, and communication skills of students. The contribution of this study is to provide an in-depth understanding of the significance of integrating communication opportunities in virtual field trips and illustrate how such on-the-site opportunities successfully facilitate students’ communication practices.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1821852.
References
Adedokun, O. A., K. Hetzel, L. C. Parker, J. Loizzo, W. D. Burgess, and J. Paul Robinson. 2012. “Using virtual field trips to connect students with university scientists: Core elements and evaluation of zipTripsTM.” J. Sci. Educ. Technol. 21 (5): 607–618. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-011-9350-z.
Anderson, A., C. S. Dossick, R. Azari, J. E. Taylor, T. Hartmann, and A. Mahalingham. 2014. “Exploring BIMs as avatars: Using 3D virtual worlds to improve collaboration with models.” In Proc., Construction Research Congress 2014: Construction in a Global, 179–188. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Anderson, A., C. S. Dossick, J. Iorio, and J. E. Taylor. 2017. “The impact of avatars, social norms and copresence on the collaboration effectiveness of AEC virtual teams.” J. Inf. Technol. Constr. 22 (May): 287–304.
Arslan, G. 2004. “Design of a web-based virtual construction site visit for education of civil engineering student (Part I).” In Towards a vision for information technology in civil engineering. 1–8. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Badler, N. 1997. “Virtual humans for animation, ergonomics, and simulation.” In Proc., IEEE Nonrigid and Articulated Motion Workshop, 28–36. New York: IEEE.
Bangor, A., P. Kortum, and J. Miller. 2009. “Determining what individual SUS scores mean: Adding an adjective rating scale.” J. Usability Stud. 4 (3): 114–123.
Brooke, J. 1996. “SUS: A “quick and dirty’usability.” In Usability evaluation in industry, 189. London: CRC Press.
Capon, N., and D. Kuhn. 2004. “What’s so good about problem-based learning?” Cognit. Instr. 22 (1): 61–79. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690Xci2201_3.
Cendan, J., and B. Lok. 2012. “The use of virtual patients in medical school curricula.” In Advances in physiology education. Bethesda, MD: American Physiological Society.
Chen, H. n.d. “A brief introduction to chatbots with dialogflow.” Accessed December 8, 2021. https://www.margo-group.com/en/news/a-brief-introduction-to-chatbots-with-dialogflow/.
Cheng, J., K. Chen, W. Chen, and C. Li. 2018. “A location aware augmented reality collaborative system framework for facility maintenance management.” In Proc., 18th Int. Conf. on Construction Applications of Virtual Reality (CONVR2018), 30–39. Auckland, New Zealand: Univ. of Auckland.
Clement, A., and T. Murugavel. 2015. “English for employability: A case study of the English language training need analysis for engineering students in India.” English Language Teach. 8 (2): 116. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n2p116.
Dossick, C. S., A. Anderson, R. Azari, J. Iorio, G. Neff, and J. E. Taylor. 2015. “Messy talk in virtual teams: Achieving knowledge synthesis through shared visualizations.” J. Manage. Eng. 31 (1): A4014003. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000301.
Du, J., Y. Shi, C. Mei, J. Quarles, and W. Yan. 2016. “Communication by interaction: A multiplayer VR environment for building walkthroughs.” In Proc., Construction Research Congress 2016, 2281–2290. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Eiris, R., and M. Gheisari. 2017. “Research trends of virtual human applications in architecture, engineering and construction.” J. Inf. Technol. Constr. 22 (9): 168–184.
Eiris, R., J. Wen, and M. Gheisari. 2020. “iVisit: Digital interactive construction site visits using 360-degree panoramas and virtual humans.” In Proc., ASCE Construction Research Congress. London: CRC Press.
Eiris, R., J. Wen, and M. Gheisari. 2021. “iVisit–Practicing problem-solving in 360-degree panoramic site visits led by virtual humans.” Autom. Constr. 128 (Aug): 103754. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103754.
Eiris, R., J. Wen, and M. Gheisari. 2022. “iVisit-collaborate: Collaborative problem-solving in multiuser 360-degree panoramic site visits.” Comput. Educ. 177 (6): 104365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104365.
Eiris Pereira, R., and M. Gheisari. 2017. “Site visit application in construction education: A descriptive study of faculty members.” Int. J. Constr. Educ. Res. 15 (2): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2017.1375050.
Fenner, S. 2021a. “One-way communication: Definition, advantages & examples—Video & lesson transcript.” Accessed April 14, 2022. https://study.com/academy/lesson/one-way-communication-definition-advantages-examples.html.
Fenner, S. 2021b. “What is two-way communication?—Definition, systems & examples—Video & lesson transcript.” Accessed April 14, 2022. https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-two-way-communication-definition-systems-examples.html.
Finch, E., and R. D. Wing. 1996. “A navigable walkthrough simulator for built environment education: Archiwalk.” In Facilities. Bradford, UK: MCB University Press.
Fischer, F., S. Helmer, A. Rogge, J. I. Arraras, A. Buchholz, A. Hannawa, and M. Horneber. 2019. “Outcomes and outcome measures used in evaluation of communication training in oncology—A systematic literature review, an expert workshop, and recommendations for future research.” BMC Cancer 19 (1): 808. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-019-6022-5.
Goedert, J., Y. Cho, M. Subramaniam, H. Guo, and L. Xiao. 2011. “A framework for virtual interactive construction education (VICE).” Autom. Constr. 20 (1): 76–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.07.002.
Grier, R. A. 2015. “How high is high? A meta-analysis of NASA-TLX global workload scores.” In Proc., Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 1727–1731. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Hart, S. G. 2006. “Nasa-task load index (NASA-TLX); 20 years later.” In Proc., Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 904–908. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Higuera-Trujillo, J. L., J. L. T. Maldonado, and C. L. Millán. 2017. “Psychological and physiological human responses to simulated and real environments: A comparison between Photographs, 360 Panoramas, and Virtual Reality.” Appl. Ergon. 65 (Nov): 398–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2017.05.006.
IBM. 2021. “Watson—Text to speech.” Accessed April 15, 2022. https://www.ibm.com/cloud/watson-text-to-speech.
Jaselskis, E., J. Ruwanpura, T. Becker, L. Silva, P. Jewell, and E. Floyd. 2011. “Innovation in construction engineering education using two applications of internet-based information technology to provide real-time project observations.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 137 (10): 829–835. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000297.
Landorf, C., G. Brewer, K. Maund, and S. Ward. 2015. “Onsite and online: A 4-dimensional multi-disciplinary learning environment for construction industry professionals.” In Living and learning: Research for a better built environment, faculty of architecture, building and planning. 987–996. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Univ. of Melbourne.
Lees, H. E., and N. Noddings. 2016. The Palgrave international handbook of alternative education. Berlin: Springer.
Littlejohn, S., and K. Foss. 2009. “Nonverbal communication theories.” In Encyclopedia of communication theory, 691–694. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Lok, B. 2006. “Teaching communication skills with virtual humans.” In IEEE computer graphics and applications. New York: IEEE.
Maghool, S. A. H., S. H. I. Moeini, and Y. Arefazar. 2018. “An educational application based on virtual reality technology for learning architectural details: Challenges and benefits.” Int. J. Archit. Res. 12 (3): 246.
Mei, Q., and R. Wing. 1999. “Robotic 360/spl deg/photography for virtual site visits.” In Proc., 1999 IEEE Int. Conf. on Information Visualization, 214–219. New York: IEEE.
Mokhtar, A. H. M. 2019. BIM as a pedagogical tool for teaching HVAC systems to architecture students, 123–133. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Murray, M., and S. Tennant. 2016. “‘Off-piste pedagogy’: Construction site visits for undergraduate civil engineers.” In Proc., 6th Int. Symp. of Engineering Education, 165–172. London: Univ. of Manchester.
Nachar, N. 2008. “The Mann-Whitney U: A test for assessing whether two independent samples come from the same distribution.” Tutorials Quant. Methods Psychol. 4 (1): 13–20. https://doi.org/10.20982/tqmp.04.1.p013.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 2020. “TLX @ NASA Ames—Home.” Accessed August 24, 2022. https://humansystems.arc.nasa.gov/groups/TLX/.
Pham, H. C., N.-N. Dao, J.-U. Kim, S. Cho, and C.-S. Park. 2018. “Energy-efficient learning system using web-based panoramic virtual photoreality for interactive construction safety education.” Sustainability 10 (7): 2262. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072262.
Ragan, E. D., A. Sowndararajan, R. Kopper, and D. A. Bowman. 2010. “The effects of higher levels of immersion on procedure memorization performance and implications for educational virtual environments.” Presence: Teleoperators Virtual Environ. 19 (6): 527–543. https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00016.
Raij, A. B., K. Johnsen, R. F. Dickerson, B. C. Lok, M. S. Cohen, M. Duerson, and R. R. Pauly. 2007. “Comparing interpersonal interactions with a virtual human to those with a real human.” IEEE Trans. Visual Comput. Graphics 13 (3): 443–457. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2007.1030.
Rossen, B., S. Lind, and B. Lok. 2009. “Human-centered distributed conversational modeling: Efficient modeling of robust virtual human conversations.” In Proc., Int. Workshop on Intelligent Virtual Agents, 474–481. Berlin: Springer.
Rubin, R. B., and M. M. Martin. 1994. “Development of a measure of interpersonal communication competence.” Commun. Res. Rep. 11 (1): 33–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824099409359938.
Sauro, J. 2019. “10 things to know about the NASA TLX—MeasuringU.” Accessed August 25, 2022. https://measuringu.com/nasa-tlx/.
Sharma, P. 2022. “Written communication: Meaning, advantages and limitations.” Accessed November 8, 2022. https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/business-communication/written-communication/written-communication-meaning-advantages-and-limitations/70195.
Sheth, T. D. 2015. “Communication skill: A prerequisite for engineers.” Int. J. Stud. English Language Lit. 3 (7): 51–54.
Shi, Y., J. Du, S. Lavy, and D. Zhao. 2016. “A multiuser shared virtual environment for facility management.” Procedia Eng., 145 (Jan): 120–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.029.
SkillsYouNeed. 2022. “Active listening | SkillsYouNeed.” Accessed November 8, 2022. https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/active-listening.html.
Slater, M., M. Usoh, and A. Steed. 1994. “Depth of presence in virtual environments.” In Presence: Teleoperators Virtual Environ. 3 (2): 130–144. https://doi.org/10.1162/pres.1994.3.2.130.
Slater, M., and S. Wilbur. 1997. “A framework for immersive virtual environments (FIVE): Speculations on the role of presence in virtual environments.” Presence: Teleoperators Virtual Environ. 6 (6): 603–616. https://doi.org/10.1162/pres.1997.6.6.603.
Sun, Y., G. Albeaino, M. Gheisari, and R. Eiris. 2022. “Online site visits using virtual collaborative spaces: A plan-reading activity on a digital building site.” Adv. Eng. Inf. 53 (3): 101667. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2022.101667.
US Census of Bureau. 2021. “Computer and internet use in the United States, 2018.” Accessed August 23, 2022. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/acs/acs-49.html.
Usoh, M., E. Catena, S. Arman, and M. Slater. 2000. “Using presence questionnaires in reality.” Presence: Teleoperators Virtual Environ. 9 (5): 497–503. https://doi.org/10.1162/105474600566989.
Weech, S., S. Kenny, and M. Barnett-Cowan. 2019. “Presence and cybersickness in virtual reality are negatively related: A review.” Front. Psychol. 10 (9): 158. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00158.
Wen, J., and M. Gheisari. 2020a. “A review of virtual field trip applications in construction education.” In Proc., Construction Research Congress 2020: Safety, Workforce, and Education. 782–790. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Wen, J., and M. Gheisari. 2020b. “Using virtual reality to facilitate communication in the AEC domain: A systematic review.” Constr. Innovation 20 (3): 509–542. https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-11-2019-0122.
Wen, J., and M. Gheisari. 2021. “VR-Electricians: Immersive storytelling for attracting students to the electrical construction industry.” Adv. Eng. Inf. 50 (Apr): 101411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2021.101411.
Wilkins, B., and J. Barrett. 2000. “The virtual construction site: A web-based teaching/learning environment in construction technology.” Autom. Constr. 10 (1): 169–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0926-5805(00)00075-3.
Wilkins, K. G., B. L. Bernstein, and J. M. Bekki. 2015. “Measuring communication skills: The STEM interpersonal communication skills assessment battery.” J. Eng. Educ. 104 (4): 433–453.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering
Volume 37 • Issue 3 • May 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 31, 2022
Accepted: Jan 11, 2023
Published online: Mar 9, 2023
Published in print: May 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Aug 9, 2023
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.
Cited by
- Zixian Zhu, Jiun-Yao Cheng, Idris Jeelani, Masoud Gheisari, Raja R. A. Issa, Virtual Onboarding: Construction Site Orientation for New Employees in a VR Environment, Construction Research Congress 2024, 10.1061/9780784485293.002, (11-19), (2024).