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Session 1421

A Graduate Seminar In Construction

Neil Opfer, Jaeho Son University of Nevada, Las Vegas

John Gambatese Oregon State University

Abstract At our University, with our graduate program in construction, we looked for a vehicle to accomplish certain goals. Our construction program is in a major metropolitan area with an extremely active construction market. We wanted to expose graduate students to the broad spectrum of this market ranging from residential and commercial through to heavy construction. In addition, we wanted students to gain insight into construction problems faced by firms in these markets. These insights might help students to focus on areas of exploration in completing thesis or project requirements for their particular degree study plan. Also, we wanted to expose students to research that involved our construction faculty members. A further goal was to encourage student presentations on their selected topics.

In order to address these above concerns, it was decided to implement a graduate seminar in construction. This is a two-course one-credit (two total credits) sequence spread over two consecutive semesters. Currently, we are in the second year of offering this graduate seminar.

The subject paper explores the relevant issues and problems in successfully conducting this seminar program. One advantage we had as a graduate program is that we could add the two credit requirement on top of the existing program without having to reduce credit numbers devoted to other topics. Hopefully the lessons learned from our experience will prove useful for other university programs in construction.

Introduction Construction programs whether at the graduate or undergraduate level are always faced with coursework constraints when considering additional degree requirements. Most programs have system-imposed constraints on hours required for a degree.

At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, when initially developing the M.S. in Construction Management and M.S. in Engineering (Construction Specialization), we were faced with a credit limit constraint of 30 semester credit hours for the M.S. thesis option program and 33 semester credit hours for the M.S. project option program. These credit-hour limits were considered as hard caps beyond which additional coursework could not be mandated of students. We had developed a core of 30 hours that we thought were essential for a student’s graduate

“Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Opfer, N., & Son, J., & Gambatese, J. (2001, June), A Graduate Seminar In Construction Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9314