The role of virtual reality in built environment education

This study builds upon previous research on the integration of Virtual Reality (VR) within the built environment curriculum and aims to investigate the role of VR and three-dimensional (3D) computer modelling on learning and teaching in a school of the built environment. In order to achieve this aim, a number of academic experiences were analysed to explore the applicability and viability of 3D computer modelling and VR into built environment subject areas. Although two-dimensional (2D) representations have been greatly accepted by built environment professions and education, 3D computer representations and VR applications, offering interactivity and immersiveness, are not yet widely accepted. The study attempts to understand the values and challenges of integrating visualisation technologies into built environment teaching and investigates tutors’ perceptions, opinions and concerns with respect to these technologies. The study reports on the integration process and considers how 3D computer modelling and VR technologies can combine with, and extend, the existing range of learning and teaching methods appropriate to different disciplines and programme areas

Knowledge and technology transfer from universities to industries: A case study approach from the built environment field

Enabling kowledge societies and knowledge based economies is a key policy in the UK. KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) scheme initiated by the Technology Strategy Board is a pathway for collaboration and partnerships between Higher Education institutions and companies to transfer innovative knowledge based solutions from universities to businesses in order to equip them with the leading edge knowledge and technology infrastructure for sustainable long term competitive advantages in both national and international market. The paper explains a KTP project between the University of Salford and John McCall Architects (JMA) in Liverpool in the UK that aimed to identify, map and re-engineer JMA’s strategic and operational change processes through Lean thinking and the implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM), which is a foundational tool for implementing an efficient process and invariably leads to lean-orientated, team based approach to design and construction by enabling the intelligent interrogation of designs; provide a quicker and cheaper design production; better co-ordination of documentation; more effective change control; less repetition of processes; a better quality constructed product; and improved communication both for JMA and across the supply chain whereas it provided opportunity to increase business relevance of knowledge based research and teaching for the Higher Education. Case Study approach is employed in the paper and the KTP project is assessed for i) how it helped in improving JMA’s knowledge and technology capacity in conducting their practice, and, ii) how it helped the university in improving its knowledge based research and teaching

Business Domain Modelling using an Integrated Framework

This paper presents an application of a “Systematic Soft Domain Driven Design Framework” as a soft systems approach to domain-driven design of information systems development. The framework combining techniques from Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), the Unified Modelling Language (UML), and an implementation pattern known as “Naked Objects”. This framework have been used in action research projects that have involved the investigation and modelling of business processes using object-oriented domain models and the implementation of software systems based on those domain models. Within this framework, Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is used as a guiding methodology to explore the problem situation and to develop the domain model using UML for the given business domain. The framework is proposed and evaluated in our previous works, and a real case study “Information Retrieval System for academic research” is used, in this paper, to show further practice and evaluation of the framework in different business domain. We argue that there are advantages from combining and using techniques from different methodologies in this way for business domain modelling. The framework is overviewed and justified as multimethodology using Mingers multimethodology ideas

Emerging cad and bim trends in the aec education: An analysis from students\u27 perspective

As the construction industry is moving towards collaborative design and construction practices globally, training the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) students professionally related to CAD and BIM became a necessity rather than an option. The advancement in the industry has led to collaborative modelling environments, such as building information modelling (BIM), as an alternative to computer-aided design (CAD) drafting. Educators have shown interest in integrating BIM into the AEC curriculum, where teaching CAD and BIM simultaneously became a challenge due to the differences of two systems. One of the major challenges was to find the appropriate teaching techniques, as educators were unaware of the AEC students’ learning path in CAD and BIM. In order to make sure students learn and benefit from both CAD and BIM, the learning path should be revealed from students’ perspective. This paper summarizes the background and differences of CAD and BIM education, and how the transition from CAD to BIM can be achieved for collaborative working practices. The analysis was performed on freshman and junior level courses to learn the perception of students about CAD and BIM education. A dual-track survey was used to collect responses from AEC students in four consecutive years. The results showed that students prefer BIM to CAD in terms of the friendliness of the user-interface, help functions, and self-detection of mistakes. The survey also revealed that most of the students believed in the need for a BIM specialty course with Construction Management (CM), Structure, and Mechanical-Electrical-Plumbing (MEP) areas. The benefits and challenges of both CAD and BIM-based software from students’ perspectives helps to improve the learning outcomes of CAD/BIM courses to better help students in their learning process, and works as a guideline for educators on how to design and teach CAD/BIM courses simultaneously by considering the learning process and perspectives of students. © 2018 The autho

Managing evolution and change in web-based teaching and learning environments

The state of the art in information technology and educational technologies is evolving constantly. Courses taught are subject to constant change from organisational and subject-specific reasons. Evolution and change affect educators and developers of computer-based teaching and learning environments alike – both often being unprepared to respond effectively. A large number of educational systems are designed and developed without change and evolution in mind. We will present our approach to the design and maintenance of these systems in rapidly evolving environments and illustrate the consequences of evolution and change for these systems and for the educators and developers responsible for their implementation and deployment. We discuss various factors of change, illustrated by a Web-based virtual course, with the objective of raising an awareness of this issue of evolution and change in computer-supported teaching and learning environments. This discussion leads towards the establishment of a development and management framework for teaching and learning systems

Extending the palette: an analysis of the heterogeneity of techniques for communicating space

This study offers an analysis of the increasing range of communication methods required by the emerging profession of the architectural technologist. It reviews the process of introducing methods of communication into the academic curriculum of undergraduate architectural technology students who have a need to select appropriate techniques in order to communicate to various stakeholders, design teams and clients. The paper reviews the integration of three-dimensional computer modelling technologies for the analysis and communication of proposed designs and considers the knowledge and skills which will be required to enable effective representation of increasingly complex buildings

To what extent could Business Process Management Suite (BPMS) contribute positively to e-learning?

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of Business Process Management Suite (BPMS) as a teaching-learning technology with the lens of the conversational framework (Laurillard 2002). The paper hopes to link commercial technological development with research in teaching-learning technologies and bring about better collaboration between the two. This theoretical evaluation aims to address the preliminary question - could educational communities adopt BPMS, a tool that has evolved from the commercial world to further enhance teaching-learning process? The scope of this paper and its evaluative study will be limited to using the conversational framework. The paper will briefly discuss BPMS and its relation to business process and business process management to provide a brief introduction. The main section of this paper will be a detailed analysis of key BPMS components against the conversational framework. The conclusion will provide a summary of the effectiveness of BPMS as a teaching-learning tool based on the requirements set out by the conversational framework. The results of the conclusion could lead to further empirical research on BPMS as a teaching-learning technology tool and may be the opportunity to request funding to carry out a proof of concept

Educational process modelling with workflow and time Petri nets : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The research presented in this thesis describes how to use workflow management technology to model educational processes with a time axis. As workflow management technology has been widely used in modelling business processes, it has the potential to model educational processes. Based upon the components of workflow, educational processes and business processes have many common features such that educational processes can be modelled with workflow management technology. In addition, owing to the importance of the time component in processes, time Petri nets have been chosen as the design language for the modelling of the educational processes. The notation of time Petri nets has been illustrated in this thesis for the educational process. In this thesis, three different educational processes have been presented and modelled with workflow management technology as well as with time Petri nets individually. Furthermore, the architecture of the educational process management system has been constructed by adopting the reference model from the Workflow Management Coalition. To show the validity of using workflow management technology in the education domain, a sub-process of an educational process has been modelled and developed with certain developing techniques. It provides the potential research direction for further research on the modelling of educational process with workflow technology associated with a time component

Supporting active database learning and training through interactive multimedia

The learning objectives of a database course include aspects from conceptual and theoretical knowledge to practical development and implementation skills. We present an interactive educational multimedia system based on the virtual apprenticeship model for the knowledge- and skills-oriented Web-based education of database course students. Combining knowledge learning and skills training in an integrated environment is a central aspect of our system. We show that tool-mediated independent learning and training in an authentic setting is an alternative to traditional classroom-based approaches