Incorporating BIM into the upper-division curriculum of construction engineering and management

This pedagogical study aimed to demonstrate a newly updated Building Information Modelling (BIM) educational activity in CEM (i.e., construction engineering and management) students’ final semester project at a case study university located in south-eastern China. The study also investigated students’ perceptions of BIM and the BIM-related project. Student feedback provided insights for linking education to practice, for example, what caused differences between manual estimates and BIM-generated quantity take-off. Four different project deliverable options demonstrated how educational theories and practical guides could be embedded in BIM education. Further findings were provided. For instance, the full BIM application led to the most positive perceptions of students on how their previous CEM courses were linked to the final project. The novelty of this study lies in two aspects: firstly, this pedagogical research views the CEM education at the curriculum level by linking earlier years’ core CEM courses into the final stage of real-world project work; secondly, by designing four different options of BIM-related deliverables, subgroup analyses test how different factors, such as teamwork verse individual work, and BIM application level, could affect students’ learning outcomes. The outcomes implied that BIM could not replace other key skills or experience but provided assistance to practice. The deliverables of student works reflected the collaborative nature of BIM-based teamwork, which did require not only individual contributions such as quantity take-off or scheduling, but also coordination and communication in delivering the joint outputs. The current study also led to more future explorations in research-informed teaching in the CEM curriculum.