Development and Delivery of a First-Year "Construction Management Experience" Course

All academic programs at NDSU have a first-year (freshman) course. However, many of these courses are not “hands-on” in the sense of providing students with actual work related experiences that can be seamlessly transferred to subsequent coursework or summer internship experiences. The Department of Construction Management and Engineering has a first-year course, CM&E 111 – Introduction to Construction Management and Engineering. This course introduces students to the construction industry primarily through the use of guest speakers. However, there was a need to restructure this course to provide a hands-on “construction management experience” that mimics actual construction management job functions and responsibilities in order to prepare students for subsequent coursework and eventual employment. The basic methodology for this “revised” course used the Tektōn Hotel Plaza Set 6 which is a girder and panel building kit. This kit was used in innovative ways to introduce students to the entire array of construction management functions and responsibilities that are required for a typical construction project, i.e., construction documents and codes, material estimating, project scheduling, procurement and delivery, actual construction, inspections, change orders, project delivery, demolition, and a final project report. The “revised” course was delivered during the 2012 Fall Semester to sixty-five (65) students. Student feedback was extremely positive.