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Investigation of Developing and Delivering On-Line Courses in Construction Management

Abstract

While the Internet classes can open up an opportunity for faculty to use a new medium for delivery of education, the benefits are primarily for the students. It allows non-traditional students to take classes at their convenience. It not only allows them to retain their full-time jobs but also gives them the flexibility to maintain their commitments to family and community. In a time when many of the students are not able to attend classes physically, they have the opportunity to take the on-line courses from anywhere in the world. In the area of construction management the faculty should re-evaluate how they teach and present class materials and how they incorporate on-line teaching methodologies in their coursework to enhance student learning. This paper reports the results of an investigation of offering an on-line construction management course. The major components of this paper include courses that are suitable to be offered on- line, the computer hardware and software programs required to develop an on-line course, the method of delivery, course content, and communications between the instructor and students. A sample of the on-line construction management course homepage is also included in the paper.

Introduction

In the recent years, three interesting things have been observed in the area of construction education: first, more college students have full/part time jobs; second, more technology innovations have been introduced in the classroom to improve teaching and learning; and third, the pedagogy in college level education has gradually shifted from teacher-centered to student- centered. While some faculty members choose to stay with their old ways and refuse to make changes in their teaching pedagogy, many faculty members have been including these new trends in their teaching. Web-based on-line teaching is one of the most valuable teaching methods that is growing rapidly.1, 2, 3

Starting in Fall 2002, , a faculty member in the area of construction engineering technology at Missouri Western State university (Missouri Western) adopted web-enhanced teaching methodology in teaching of the course on construction management, and concluded: “It is important to realize that the old forms of teaching and learning must give way to newer forms of teaching and learning. In that regard, integration of technology in classroom setting can not be avoided. The electronic plan rooms, the electronic databases, and the electronic help desks require that our students be job ready, and be ready to hit the ground running on graduation. To reduce the time of on-the-job training by employers, it is important that schools of construction, and especially the construction faculty incorporate web-enhanced teaching methodologies in their coursework to enhance student learning in a way that students are extremely comfortable in utilizing computer technology in their day-to-day work.”4

While the Internet classes can open up an opportunity for faculty to use a new medium for delivery of education, the benefits are primarily for the students. It allows non-traditional students to take classes at their convenience. It not only allows them to retain their full-time jobs

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Gao, Z. J., & Varma, V., & Houck, C. (2006, June), Investigation Of Developing And Delivering On Line Courses In Construction Management Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--1406