Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.

Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.

Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.

Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.

Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.

Simulations are one of the new pedagogical tools that are presented as supplementary materials in higher education. Many fields, such as aviation, medical science, and business, are incorporating simulation applications into their programs and using them as a part of the curriculum. However, the project management field suffers from an insufficient number of simulation applications. PERFECT is a project time management simulation application that was designed, developed, and tested at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln between 2013 and 2015. Two groups of students (with and without project time management knowledge) participated in the PERFECT-test. The results of both groups indicated that PERFECT was an effective and engaging tool in project time management education. PERFECT provides a first module of the whole project management area and promotes pedagogical tools in using simulation as a rich supplementary tool in higher education.

The construction management profession all over the world has been affected by several important changes in the industry, which are strongly connected to the need for more systemic and collaborative approaches in this sector. In fact, the literature on construction managers’ education and development suggests that those changes require a balance between management and leadership competencies, as well as between technical and social competencies. This paper explores the use of a particular learning approach, called action learning, to develop those two types of competencies in construction managers. Using an action research strategy, the learning process of a group of construction managers who took part in an action learning set was observed and analyzed, the focus being on how those managers integrated (or failed to integrate) their technical and social competencies. Based on this empirical study, a conceptual model has been developed that sets out to explain the interrelationship between construction managers’ technical and social competencies and make a contribution toward improving leadership and management development in construction.

The construction industry demands managerial skills for professionals working within it, especially from those having an undergraduate civil engineering degree, which is generally pursued through graduate programs [master of science (M.Sc.) degrees] in the construction management field. This paper checks how graduate students’ views are relevant in order to assess and improve these M.Sc. programs. The research is performed through a survey based on a sample of 534 graduate students from several American and European universities. Using confirmatory factor analysis with the survey data, it has been corroborated that the construction management field can be mapped according to two dimensions: infrastructure lifecycle and organizational breakdown. Furthermore, by means of an exploratory factor analysis, six components or approaches for a graduate program in the construction management field are highlighted as important by the respondents: leadership, built environment stakeholders, innovation and quality, economics, business management, and project management. The organizational point of view is clearly identified by the students: its four variables are highlighted as principal components. However, regarding the infrastructure lifecycle, certain important facets, such as feasibility analysis and operation and maintenance of infrastructure, are considered by graduate students less important than classical design and construction. The findings of this research can help improve the curricula of graduate programs in the construction management field.

The Hong Kong construction industry is facing a severe labor shortage due to an aging workforce and a lack of new entrants, even at a time of a construction boom. To improve this situation, ethnic minorities (EMs) have been attracted to join the construction industry. In many developed countries, however, some unofficial statistics show that EMs suffer higher fatality rates than their local counterparts. It is clear that the safety of EM construction workers requires more attention. This study evaluates the safety climate among EM construction workers in Hong Kong, predicts the impact of safety climate factors that affect the likelihood of injury occurrences, and determines the relationships between safety climate and the safety performance of EM workers. A questionnaire survey was administrated to Pakistani and Nepalese construction workers in Hong Kong. The results reveal that the overall average safety climate score for both EM groups was not very high and that the Pakistani worker scores were higher than the Nepalese worker scores. Frontline EM workers scored less than EM supervisors and managers. Among seven safety climate factors, “Workers personal involvement in safety and health” was ranked highest and “Perception of safety rules and regulations” was ranked lowest. “Risk-taking behavior and perception of work risk” and “Workers personal involvement in safety and health” were identified as significant predictors of injury occurrence. Furthermore, the safety climate is significantly associated with the degree of safety participation and safety compliance. It is expected that the findings of the study will provide insight into the level of safety climate among EM workers, enabling organizations and practitioners around the world to improve safe working among EM workers.

Although construction is a complex and challenging process, an extensive search of the literature revealed that little research on project complexity has been carried out. The objective of this investigation is therefore twofold: First, to establish the general consensus of large contractors operating in Kuwait on the perception of the complexity concept in the construction industry; and second, to identify and rank the perceived importance of the contributors underpinning the project complexity principles. A structured questionnaire survey was thus distributed to a statistically representative sample of contractors. The results obtained show that contractors discern projects with high degrees of interdependencies, interactions, and interrelationships among the parts as most complex to construct. On the other hand, uncertainty, organizational complexity, and inherent complexity are recognized as the most significant principles of the complexity concept, followed by overlapping of construction activities, number of trades, and rigidity of sequence, respectively. The findings further distinguish the following factors as primary contributors to project complexity: (1) lack of uniformity due to frequent changing orders; (2) poor communication channels; (3) shortage in availability of required skilled labor; (4) lack of efficiency in information generation, transmittal, usage, and feedback; (5) lack of working or detailed drawings; (6) managing a role for the first time; (7) shortage in availability of required site management technical staff; (8) interdependencies among the different trades; (9) number of cost-significant packages or activities requiring specialty subcontractors; and (10) discrepancy and obscurity in contract documents. The outcomes can provide useful insights into the main parameters differentiated to impact project complexity, which may further be used to develop a modus operandi for complexity measurement. This will assist in identifying and evaluating, at an early stage of a project, the complexity criteria, where effective planning and control systems can be efficiently applied. Even though the results represent the perception of industry practitioners in Kuwait, the principles of data collection, analysis, and use are generic, and hence could be applied to advantage in other settings.

This study used a Delphi technique to identify relevant modeling and simulation practices required in present-day workplace engineering. Participants consisted of 37 experts divided into two panels: 18 experts in academia on one panel, and 19 experts from industry on another panel. Panel members participated in three rounds of data collection in which they offered their opinions about the relevance of specific modeling and simulation skills, and opinions about when these practices should be introduced into the undergraduate and graduate engineering curricula. The guiding research question was: What are the required modeling and simulation practices to be integrated as part of the engineering curricula at the undergraduate and graduate levels? Findings from this study were used to inform a preliminary learning progression for modeling and simulation in undergraduate and graduate engineering education. Outcomes from this study represent a linchpin for future research about learning and achievement of modeling and simulation practices, which can delineate the nature of productive instructional pathways toward modeling and simulation proficiency.

Although the use of games to help students learn is explicit in the literature, little research has been conducted on student-developed games to assess student learning. The objective of this research is to establish the use of a Game Design Module as a way to assess students’ mastery of course content where students modify existing board games to teach players (i.e., their classmates) course content. Three variations of the module were implemented in three sections of CON 252: Building Methods, Materials and Equipment at Arizona State University (180 total participants). The module was assessed using a mixed-methods approach of student surveys, reflective journal entries, and rating-scale/rubric evaluation of student work. Module results were compared with a Control Activity representing a traditional assessment method. Results show that using board game design as a method for assessing student retention of concepts improved student performance and increased student satisfaction. Overall, students reported greater enjoyment of the Game Design Module than the Control Activity because it involved creativity and teamwork and allowed active demonstration of course concepts.

This study examines the relationship among civil engineering students’ approaches to learning, their perceptions of the teaching–learning environment, and their study success. The aim was to identify civil engineering students’ approaches to learning and how their approaches to learning are related to their perceptions of the learning–teaching environment and their study success. The data of the study consist of the students’ answers to a questionnaire ($n=215$) and their study success data ($n=204$), which were gathered from their university’s study register. The study success data consist of the cumulative study credits and weighted averages of their course grades. The students were classified into four clusters according to their approaches to learning. Differences in their perceptions of the teaching–learning environment and study success between the clusters were statistically significant. Students who belonged to clusters that emphasized the deep approach to learning experienced their teaching–learning environment more positively than did other students. Students who belonged to clusters emphasizing organized studying earned more credits and higher marks in their studies than did other students.

Guanxi is the Chinese word for personal relationships or connections. Infrastructure project procurement in China is dominated by the government, and the entire tendering and bidding process is subject to administrative control in which business-to-government (B2G) guanxi is thought to have a significant impact. To date, however, little is known of its impact and perception in infrastructure procurement. This paper aims to bridge this research gap through a questionnaire survey of 149 contractors’ and consultants’ perceptions of B2G guanxi in terms of its importance, mode of establishment, and impact on infrastructure bidding in China’s eastern coastal cities. The results indicate that over half of the respondents surveyed consider B2G guanxi to have important benefits for current practice whereas others hold different perceptions. Four groups of perspectives are identified by K-means cluster analysis, ranging from a low/moderate perception of B2G guanxi (48%) to passive-high/positive-high (52%). A chi-square test suggests the differences between groups is attributable to the types of organizations involved, with contractors and quantity surveying consultant organizations placing significantly more emphasis on the benefits and establishment of B2G guanxi. Finally, the current informal tendering and bidding processes in China are questioned as a contributing factor and suggestions are made for increased government and legislative intervention, leading to a greater emphasis by bidders on improving their technical and management capacity in order to develop their competitive advantage in the market.

The construction industry frequently offers an unwelcoming environment for women, and those who do manage to enter have high rates of turnover and abandonment. Within this scenario, this research aims to identify the barriers faced by qualified women, to analyze the different views that qualified men and women have regarding these barriers, and to find the underlying factors that group these barriers and their degrees of importance. In the context of this research, “qualified” men and women are those who hold a university degree (in construction-related areas). Initially, 20 barriers were identified analyzing previous contributions. These barriers composed the statements of the questionnaire survey; data were obtained from 429 professionals in the Peruvian construction industry. It was found that women face invisible barriers throughout their careers and have fewer professional opportunities than men. The main perceptual dissimilarities between men and women indicate that men interpret womanhood as a form of positive discrimination, which, far from being a professional barrier, is considered an advantage by them. Likewise, women agree that if they take maternity leave, they will suffer a loss in the hierarchical order; furthermore, the industry does not have flexible work schedules, childcare programs, or provisions for career breaks. Five underlying factors were extracted from the analysis: “male oriented labor market,” “detrimental issues for being a woman,” “harsh working conditions in the construction industry,” “unfavorable perception of the construction industry,” and “high competitiveness of the construction industry.”

Experiential learning opportunities in construction management courses allow students to explore principles and theories through direct, lived experiences that help them develop understandings of professional concepts foundational to their future work. This article examines the results of a multiple-case study that examines a simulation called marshmallow dodgeball conducted in an undergraduate project management course, designed to help students consider ethical and professional dilemmas that parallel those in the field. A thematic analysis of student reflections on the simulation shows students learned about dealing with ethical issues in the field, the role of teamwork, the importance of job skills and specialization, and communication on the job site.

The scheduling of college courses within a given semester plays a crucial role in a student’s daily life, educational and professional pursuits, and future successes. Inadequate class scheduling has the potential to delay student graduation. There is no standardized system for scheduling classes for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Hawaii (UH) at Manoa, which generates numerous class conflicts every semester. This article proposes an optimization model combining visual modeling and linear programming software that can be used to identify and eliminate conflicts when scheduling both undergraduate-level and graduate-level courses within an individual department. Constraints for this model were created to ensure that prerequisites are enforced, overlapping classes are minimized or eliminated, and maximum numbers of classes are available to the students every semester. Schedules for eight semesters were tested by the model, and then compared to the newly optimized version to determine if class conflicts could be reduced. Results showed that the proposed modeling methodology improved every semester’s schedule by an average of 83.46%, with a minimum confidence of 95.14%, thereby attesting to the validity of this model, allowing students more class options and the ability to graduate sooner.

In higher education, progression should be conceptualized in multiple dimensions, rather than just the institutional statistical view. The objectives of this research are to identify the multiple domains of progression and examine the effects of variables influencing progression. To achieve these objectives, a questionnaire survey was performed with 218 students in built environment and engineering programs at Central Queensland University. The majority of these students use distance learning. This research proposes a concept of progression with four domains: subject, qualification, career, and professional progression. Also, 17 variables that influence progression were identified and categorized into three factors: information technology (IT) adoption, interaction, and personal pressure. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data, and the results indicated that personal pressure negatively influenced progression, while interaction contributed to progression. Although IT adoption did not directly influence progression, it positively influenced interaction and thus indirectly influenced progression. Finally, a framework was developed to describe interrelationships among the influential variables and progression. The implications drawn from the analysis results allow academic staff and university management to take actions to enhance student progression, which contribute to the practice. In addition, the method adopted in this research can be employed in other research of a similar nature. This study can significantly contribute to the literature relating to progression in higher education by proposing a more holistic concept of progression and identifying the interrelationship among the variables influencing progression.