Experimentation of collaborative learning for construction estimating

The success of project documentation and implementation depend on an effective collaboration within project teams. However, fragmentation has been a major concern in the industry for many centuries. Evidence suggests that this phenomena challenge weakens value integration among project teams; and regrettably, most academic programs are still tailored to service this limitation. As BIM is driven by integrative skills, this paper describes the formulation of an academic course for a multidisciplinary and integrative study of an estimating course. Specifically, it is targeted at a class of undergraduate students with backgrounds in project team disciplines – architecture, quantity surveying, structural engineering and services engineering. The focus is to engage students in collaborative learning such that they are able to develop technical briefs, design tender programmes, estimate and analyze tenders. A model for formulating groups and group assignments is proposed. At the end of the experimentation, study outcomes reveals that students are multi-skilled and are better team players than those under fragmented learning environment. Conclusions are drawn on curriculum development for integrative innovations such as BIM and virtual project management.

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