Integrating BIM into construction management education

Abstract

Construction education needs to embrace the opportunities and overcome the challenges pre- sented by Building Information Modeling (BIM) to remain current and relevant. Although a growing number of university architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) programs have begun to offer courses that include BIM content, few programs have strategies in place to fully integrate BIM across curriculum. This paper presents Colorado State University’s (CSU) Construction Management Department’s approach to promote BIM-enabled learning. Fundamental to this effort is balancing student and industry desires and faculty domain ex- pertise, while leveraging industry support and guidance. This paper presents the authors’ de- velopment of exploratory teaching modules and preliminary research findings to better un- derstand and evaluate the contribution of BIM to students’ educational experiences. The role of BIM as both a tool and method in education and industry is not yet fully unders- tood. Industry leaders understand that BIM requires new working processes and are eager to leverage BIM in the education of their future employees. The Construction Management De- partment’s pilot program plans to include a course that focuses on the modeling aspects of BIM as a software tool, and currently focuses on the development of “BIM teaching modules” to demonstrate the power of BIM processes across construction management practices. These modules, being developed in collaboration with industry, highlight how BIM impacts best practices and core competencies in a range of applications, while not changing the underly- ing principles of construction. Through on-going investigation and pilot implementation, the authors seek to understand and accommodate the imminent transformational shift in con- struction management education and evolve curriculum to facilitate better learning and un- derstanding through the use of BIM.