Journal of Civil Engineering Education

This paper describes a laboratory experiment that was designed to improve engineering education in fluids and hydrology courses. The laboratory module is part of a broader effort to enhance the undergraduate engineering laboratory curriculum to incorporate modern pedagogical methods and to improve a defined set of student outcomes. The experimental module design is based on a theoretical framework for hydrology and tied to specific student outcomes. The new laboratory module uses a low-cost tank that has been modified to create a hydrology apparatus. Students are first asked to design their own experiment using available materials. They then conduct their experiment and plot hydrographs to evaluate the impact of soil type, land use, and so on on peak flow and time to peak. To assess the effectiveness of the new laboratory module, three methods were used: a student survey, course observation, and pretest and posttest. Results of the pretest and posttest indicate conceptual understanding improved as a result of the laboratory module, with average gains of 0.39. The students also completed a survey that included more traditional laboratory modules in the class. All assessment methods demonstrate the value of the new, more engaging laboratory module for engineering education to enhance professional skills in students.

Engineering and construction industry workplace culture is known to undermine the mental health of workers and professionals, yet relatively little is known about the mental health of university students aiming to work in the industry. This is concerning, given evidence that students face increasing mental health risks in balancing study, work, and life demands within the context of declining government support for education in many parts of the world. To address this knowledge gap, an exploratory survey of construction management, civil engineering, and architecture students enrolled in one Australian university was conducted using the University Student Depression Inventory (USDI). The survey aimed to identify prevalence, symptoms, and support for depression in this student cohort. Overall, the prevalence of depression was found to be considerably higher than other student groups that have previously been tested using the same instrument. Architecture students scored the highest on the USDI, with female students appearing to suffer higher levels of depression than male students. The likelihood of students suffering depression was significantly shaped by their age, enrollment status, year of study, and number of hours studied. Students in all groups were generally cynical toward, and unaware of, the support structures offered by their university and employers. These results contribute to the emerging literature on mental health in the construction and engineering industry by providing insights into a relatively understudied part of the future workforce. The results will enable university and construction managers to develop better targeted strategies to improve the mental well-being of students.

Universities are preparing future professionals to face real problems. Sustainable development is a challenge that requires particular attention from educational programs. In their profession, civil engineers address many decisions that can compromise the sustainability of infrastructure. This paper proposes a sustainable decision-making module to promote student competencies relevant to solving real engineering decision-making problems while meeting sustainability criteria. The module is tested in a project management course for a master’s in Planning and Management in Civil Engineering program. Students were placed in a procurement process scenario with the objective of designing a sustainable decision-making layout for selecting the best construction company to construct a highway. The assessment of the student performance revealed that most students acquired higher-order cognitive skills, and the perception survey showed that this learning method has been widely accepted for developing competencies related to both decision-making and sustainable thinking. This study could serve as an example for engineering education to promote sustainable practices through the active exploration of decision-making in real professional situations.

This study investigates the effectiveness of role assignment in team-based learning (TBL) modules to improve technical writing skills in an undergraduate civil engineering (CE) materials lab course. Four standalone technical writing modules were integrated into the existing lab sequence: (1) logic/technical expression; (2) data representation; (3) references and citations; and (4) ethics and literature reviews. Technical writing skills were assessed using a standard rubric to evaluate lab reports. Two lab sections participated in this study, with one section having peer leaders assigned in each team and the other not having peer leaders. Scores on lab reports were compared between sections. The overall results indicated that TBL modules can improve students’ technical writing skills and their perceptions of their abilities over the course of a semester. The TBL team with an assigned team leader was observed to work differently than teams without an assigned team leader, with significant differences occurring with specific group reports. This case study applies a method aimed at improving students’ technical writing skills that has potential in other engineering disciplines.

This paper presents a case study of a hands-on exercise to improve students’ project management skills on repetitive infrastructure/modular projects. The exercise was to construct a large foam-board model of the University of Waterloo campus, involving over 40 buildings. The exercise design involved training on the integrated life-cycle decisions of a project, including quantity take-off, bidding, repetitive scheduling, assigning workers to single-skill trades, site organization, coordination, progress follow-up, and quality control. Student groups bid against each other in developing least-cost and least-waste execution plans under time and resource constraints. After execution, students gained firsthand experience on reasons for deviations and areas for improvement. Overall the exercise was fun, complemented theoretical concepts, and closely simulated how trades interact. Students also gained a better understanding of the challenges in managing repetitive projects and the role of efficient planning to reduce execution problems. The paper presents the design and implementation of this exercise, discusses its contributions to student learning, and provides guidelines to make hands-on exercises a success, particularly when a large number of participants are involved.

Engineering courses typically follow a similar framework for content delivery: preread, lecture, and homework. Innovations are starting to be embraced that increase engagement, student learning, and success. One technique that is being experimented with is the use of the flipped classroom. In the flipped classroom model, students watch videos of the lectures and spend class time working on active learning activities. In this study, the flipped model was applied to a junior level civil engineering course, Structural Analysis, with the goal of increasing student learning and success. A statistical analysis of the attainment of the student learning objectives (i.e., student learning) determined mixed results. Of the seven learning objectives for the course: four increased, two decreased, and one decreased less than one percent. The study found that the flipped model had a positive effect on student success. There was a 7.9% increase in students who earned a C grade or better in the course.

Enhancing students’ interdisciplinary design ability in a highway engineering context is important for the development of building information modeling (BIM). This paper proposes a new paradigm for highway engineering and its service areas based on the BIM platform, integrating road, bridge, tunnel, engineering costing; architecture; structure; water supply and drainage; heating and ventilation; and electrical engineering for a senior year capstone course. An overall and breakdown work system is constructed of the joint design process guided by the highway engineering discipline. BIM technology is utilized to integrate the design work content of nine majors, linking the originally separated design stages, and articulating the flow of interoperability information in highway engineering. A case study tests the course, evaluates the students’ performance, and identifies improvements in software training, time schedule, technology connection, interoperability issues, as well as how BIM affects teamwork. In applying BIM in an interdisciplinary situation, a visualization tool is used to enrich the body of knowledge of BIM education as it relates to highway engineering.

This Technical Note serves as one of the first review-based studies by analyzing existing trends of incorporating building information modeling (BIM) into the higher education of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC)-related disciplines. Assisted by a scientometric review approach, this study identified mainstream journals and conference proceedings publishing BIM educational research outputs and analyzed existing research keywords. The results show that the Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice was ranked as the top journal measured by the number of publications and the total citations received by all articles related to BIM education. However, the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management was the journal with the highest average influence per article despite its small number of publications in BIM education. The keyword analysis through visualized mapping and quantitative analysis revealed that existing BIM educational studies had focused more on construction-related disciplines. Discipline-specific pedagogical activities were reported (e.g., interactive display in construction education), and there had been educational efforts to bridge different AEC disciplines through integrated and collaborative approaches. Several research trends were identified following the keyword analysis, such as the need of incorporating BIM at the program level by extending from a single course (e.g., quantity surveying) and integrating BIM with other digital technologies (e.g., drone). This study reports the state of BIM education literature by providing an overview of the latest trends of adopting BIM in the AEC education. Based on the current review, some continuous work in BIM education is foreseen, including educational innovation addressing both technical and managerial aspects of BIM, as well as the interdisciplinary collaboration to reduce the fragmentation among AEC disciplines.