INTEGRATION OF BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING INTO CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT CURRICULUM: LESSONS LEARNT FROM DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Abstract

Didactical methods are changing in construction education in contemporary times: the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and modern tools are influencing this otherwise traditional field. It is very important for the engineering universities to introduce new ICT tools in the Construction Engineering and Management (CE&M) education. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a promising tool for this purpose. Recent results show that construction industry around the world demands engineers with BIM skills and many universities around the world now consider or have started to integrate BIM into their academic programs. Currently several universities worldwide offer BIM courses in CE&M programs and many are under the process of integrating BIM in their curricula. In fact most of the universities have yet to completely understand the BIM application, functions, strategy of teaching and its barriers faced during the integration process. The aims and objectives of this research are to capture the current state of CE&M curriculum with regard to BIM in Pakistani engineering universities and the industry expectations from the CE&M students. It further aims at providing a framework and postgraduate level BIM course outline for step towards the integration of construction industry and academia. To achieve the objectives, a better understanding regarding BIM was required. It is accomplished through study of different articles, journal papers, websites, conference papers and BIM curriculum of different US universities. On the basis of literature review, the role of BIM in construction industry and academia is identified. Preliminary questionnaires vi were developed and were evaluated through the pilot survey. In the light of recommendations received from the pilot survey, the final questionnaires were developed for the execution of detailed survey. Detailed survey was conducted for collecting the data from construction industry and academia. The data obtained from questionnaires were analyzed through SPSS & MS-Excel software. For the analysis, two analysis techniques were used (1) descriptive analysis was done by frequency distribution technique (2) inferential analysis was carried out by hypothesis ttesting. Results obtained from the local construction industry and academia indicate that majority of the professionals are in favor for implementing BIM on construction projects and AEC education but the most significant barrier is the lack of BIM trained professionals. On the basis of these results, a framework and postgraduate level BIM course are developed for CE&M students. After development of BIM course it is more improved by taking feedback from the US universities BIM experts. The output of this research will strengthen the engineering universities’ CE&M programs with current ICT based knowledge, because apparently most of them have little knowledge of the content, principles, and methods of education in these ICT tools that include BIM. The output of this research will also provide educators with guidelines to implement BIM content in their CE&M programs so that postgraduate engineers can polish their skills up to current BIM industry requirements.