A novel real-time detailed feedback collection and interaction tool for large classes

CONTEXT The existing approaches towards interactive student feedback and question collection have two major drawbacks. First, instructors are only provided with generic feedback, typically at the end of a teaching period. Second, students are not provided with opportunity to give content-specific feedback or raise questions on specific sections of content during the lecture. The latter is especially important in large classes with students from non-English speaking background who are generally less likely to actively participate in discussions. PURPOSE This paper aims to develop and test a user-friendly and automated platform, with efficient data management structure, which facilitates real-time collection and addressing of students’ feedback on a specific part of topics discussed during the class. APPROACH A web-based software has been developed using annotation technologies which assists students in providing anonymous and content-specific comments on lecture materials. The software equips lecturers with a real-time platform for retrieval of comments classified based on their area, type and frequency. The platform contains features that enable users, teachers, for analytical assessment of both teaching and learning performance. RESULTS The trial use of the designed platform has primarily increased engagement of students in the class discussions. This trend is specifically observed amongst international students who have gained confidence to raise more questions, compared to the traditional teaching methods. Concurrently, the lecturer has dramatically decreased his response period to students’ queries to nearly real-time through receiving classified comments adhered to a particular part of the lecture. CONCLUSIONS The software allows for structured analysis of course materials and students’ feedback which can be further used to update teaching standards. Moreover, it improves teacher-student relationships through timely and purposeful addressing of instructional issues

Optimization of job allocation in construction organizations to maximize workers' career development opportunities

© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers. Workforce planning in the construction industry too often ignores the symbiotic relationship between employee and employer objectives by overly concentrating on corporate objectives such as maximizing productivity at the expense of construction workers' career development needs. Overall, the consequence of this approach is suboptimal performance. To address this problem, this paper presents an innovative multiobjective model that enables managers to optimize the relationship between these interdependent corporate priorities. The proposed model was implemented and solved using mixed-integer nonlinear programming on a case study involving the allocation of tasks to employees with different skill levels in a multidisciplinary engineering consulting company. While leading to a small loss of productivity, the results show a significant improvement in the career development of workers compared to conventional productivity-oriented workforce planning models, with on average 8.6% improvement in employees' closeness to their ideal skill set. Furthermore, the model produced Pareto-optimal points and a Pareto curve that enabled client-model users to select optimum job allocation based on their preferences. This research represents a paradigm shift toward a new class of socially responsible workforce planning models in which the objectives of both employees and employers are optimized

Sonochemical Preparation of Magnesium Hydroxide and Aluminum Hydroxide Nanoparticles for Flame Retardancy and Thermal Stability of Cellulose Acetate and Wood

In this work firstly magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) and aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3) were prepared using sono-chemical reaction at solvent of water without applying any surface active agent. Effect of various sono-chemistry parameters such as power, cycles, time and volume on the size and shape of nanostructures were investigated. Secondly nanoparticles were modified and coated by ethyl cellulose capping agent. Modified nanoparticles were added to cellulose acetate and surface of wood for investigation of flame retardancy. Thermal stability were characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Flame retardancy were examined by UL-94 and heat release tests

Sustainable Procurement and Transport of Construction Materials

Construction industry is the largest global consumer of materials. This huge share comes with the huge responsibility to account for economic, environmental, and social impacts associated with the materials through adoption of sustainable procurement strategies. Sustainable material procurement requires reconciliation among economic, environmental and social impacts of procurement decisions throughout the life cycle of materials. However, this is challenging mainly due to the broad range of economic, environmental and social impacts associated with different stages of material’s life cycle as well as the overlapping impacts that various supply decisions may have on multiple performance areas. Current practices of material procurement are, on the other hand, predominantly influenced by economy of construction stage and little attention is paid to environmental and social considerations over a long-term horizon. Moreover, material supply decisions made currently in practice are commonly traditional and tend to largely overlook the opportunities made available by advances in material science, computing, and decision-making areas. This chapter starts by presenting an overview of sustainability challenges associated with current material procurement practices to highlight the need for adoption of new sustainable approaches and technologies. It then continues by highlighting the challenges associated with adoption of new approaches and the important sustainability criteria to be considered in selection of new sustainable materials, technologies, and procurement strategies. A comprehensive decision-making framework for identifying the most sustainable procurement options in a construction project among various procurement options available is then presented. The framework is founded on the concepts of life cycle thinking and supply chain structure which are incorporated in to a computational module to compare the life cycle impacts of various supply decision based on the selection criteria determined collaboratively by different project stakeholders. The results of such comparative analysis leads to a ranking of various procurement decision alternatives comprised of different combinations of supply decision including material type, material supply structure, location of supplier, and mode of transport

Quantifying demolition fitout waste from Australian office buildings

© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The short life cycle replacement of fitout in modern high-rise office buildings represents an under-researched waste problem. This paper aims to quantify the amount of demolition waste from office strip-out including attention to waste streams going to landfill, reuse and recycling. Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative waste data (by weight) were measured from 23 office fitout projects situated in “A” grade office building stock from the Sydney CBD. Waste streams were measured separately for landfill, reuse and recycled materials. Descriptive and clustering statistics are presented and analysed. Findings: From a total of 9,167 tonnes office fitouts demolished, 5,042 tonnes are going to landfill. The main contributor to landfill stream is the mixed waste generated in a fast-track demolition process. This approach partly resulted from the office interiors lacking regularity and easy disassembly. Moreover, considerable variability is observed in the waste per area, the waste streams and the waste compositions. Also, it is noteworthy that the recycled waste stream considerably increases when there exist economically viable conversion facilities, as for metals, hard fills and plasterboards. Research limitations/implications: The research is focused upon work practices that take place in Australia; therefore, generalisability is limited to situations that have similar characteristics. Future studies are needed to verify and extend the findings of this research. Practical implications: A key area arising from the research findings is the need to design fitout with recycling and reuse in mind to divert more from landfill. This must explore and incorporate onsite demolition processes to ensure the design is well suited to commercially dominant processes in the overall demolition process, as well as attention to developing economies of scale and viability in re-sale markets for reused items. Originality/value: Little empirical or quantitative research exists in the area of office fitout waste. This research provides entry to this area via quantifiable data that enables comparison, benchmarking and diagnostic ability that can be used to underpin strategic solutions and measurement of improvements

Mass-customisation of cross-laminated timber wall systems at early design stages

Low profitability of the building industry has driven the adoption of industrialised production methods in this sector. In an industrialised context, mass-customisation (MC) is a set of strategies aimed to offer tailored products at prices close to those of mass-production. MC can be achieved through integrating market knowledge and supply-chain processes into the building design. Nonetheless, the MC-related literature is slim in optimising designs for such an integration. The goal is to find optimal design configurations for the load-bearing spanning systems that incur minimum product waste and manufacturing process waste. The paper uses Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) buildings as cases of highly prefabricated systems. The preliminary layout of a building is first mathematically modelled. Then, genetic algorithms are adapted to optimise wall dimensions and billet cutting plan. The example case demonstrated significant waste reduction compared to the building industry benchmarks. This highlights the practical benefits of the systematical implementation of MC from the early design stages. The present study contributes to the body of knowledge by introducing a novel design support tool that facilitates the adoption of MC in the building industry