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Incorporating BIM in the Final Semester Undergraduate Project of Construction

Management-A Case Study in Fuzhou University

Article in KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering · June 2020

DOI: 10.1007/s12205-020-1971-4

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 1 To cite this article:

2 Wang L., Yan X., Fan B., Jin R.*, Yang T., and Kapogiannis G. (2020). “Incorporating BIM in the Final Semester
3 Undergraduate Project of Construction Management-A Case Study in Fuzhou University.” KSCE Journal of Civil
4 Engineering, In Press, Accepted for publication on 6 Apr 2020.
5

6 Incorporating BIM in the Final Semester Undergraduate Project of Construction

7 Management-A Case Study in Fuzhou University

8 Liyuan Wang1, Xueyuan Yan2, Binghui Fan3, Ruoyu Jin4,*, Tong Yang5, Georgios Kapogiannis6

9 1
Lecturer, College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, 2 Xue Yuan Road University Town, Fuzhou, China,
10 350116, Email:[email protected]
11 2
Professor, College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, 2Xueyuan Road, Fuzhou, Fujian, China 350116.
12 Phone: +86 15280425642, Email: [email protected]
13 3
Lecturer,College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, 2Xueyuan Road, Fuzhou, Fujian, China 350116. Phone:
14 +86 18906901982 , Email: [email protected]
15 4
Senior Lecturer, School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Cockcroft Building 616, Brighton,
16 UK. BN2 4GJ. Phone: +44(0)7729 813 629, Email: [email protected]
17 5
Senior Lecturer, Department of Design Engineering and Mathematics, Faculty of Science and Technology,
18 Middlesex University, UK, Email:[email protected]
19 6
Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Nottingham Ningbo China,
20 199 Taikang East Rd., Ningbo China. Email: [email protected]
21
22 *: Corresponding author
23
24 Abstract

25 This pedagogical study presents Building Information modeling (BIM) education in the final

26 semester construction management (CM) program. The case study conducted in Fuzhou

27 University extends BIM education from a single BIM course in earlier undergraduate years to the

28 senior year’s final semester project, which was designed to enable BIM utilization in multiple

29 construction tasks (e.g., 3D site planning). This study consists of two major parts. The first part

30 starts with the newly designed course of the final semester project of CM students. Students’

31 final semester project work is demonstrated depending on their selected deliverable type, which

32 includes full BIM application group work, two partial BIM application types (i.e., construction

33 planning/scheduling, and take-off estimate), and a research dissertation. The second part starts

34 from the research hypothesis of whether the different deliverable type selected by students would

1
35 affect their perceptions towards the final project and their professional career. Based on a follow-

36 up questionnaire survey to the whole CM student sample aiming to test the hypotheses with

37 statistical analyses (e.g., Analysis of Variance and the post-hoc analysis), it was indicated that all

38 the four different deliverable types (i.e., subgroups) could lead to consistent perceptions of the

39 final semester project towards their career development. However, subgroup differences were

40 found. For example, students from the subgroup of full BIM application perceived that they had

41 the highest level of hands-on skill enhancement throughout the project, possibly due to the fact

42 that they linked BIM software tools to Virtual Reality (VR) hardware. Suggestions were

43 provided to update the future BIM pedagogy in the final semester project, such as proper guide

44 of CM students to opt their project deliverable type depending on their career interests,

45 motivations in BIM utilization, and skill development needs. This current study provides insights

46 in BIM education in terms that: (1) BIM education could be enhanced from a single course level

47 to the senior year project in the CM program level; (2) different options offered in the final stage

48 project within the CM curriculum might affect students’ perceptions towards BIM or their career

49 development; and (3) the experience learned from this case study could be shared in the global

50 community of construction education to update the curriculum incorporating information and

51 communication technologies (e.g., BIM and VR). Future educational work in BIM could

52 continue adopting existing educational theories (e.g., Bloom’s Taxonomy) by addressing the

53 various levels of student learning, and viewing BIM in the bigger picture of digital construction.

54 Keywords: Building Information Modeling (BIM); BIM education; virtual reality; construction

55 education; construction management curriculum

56 1. Introduction

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57 Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been gaining its momentum in the curriculum

58 update of construction management (CM) and civil engineering (Chen et al., 2019; Zheng et al.,

59 2019). BIM has been confirmed by both academia and industry as important (Solnoskyand

60 Parfitt, 2015), especially in meeting the industry needs (Sacks and Pikas, 2013). The update of

61 courses or curriculum to incorporate BIM in AEC (i.e., architecture, engineering, and

62 construction) disciplines has been ongoing and led to more BIM education-based research (e.g.,

63 Bouska and Heralova, 2019; Zhang et al., 2019). There have also been some existing studies

64 (e.g., Zhao et al., 2015; Shelbourn et al., 2017) targeting on students’ perceptions towards BIM-

65 related courses or curriculum. However, insufficient research has focused on applying the BIM-

66 oriented digital platform in the CM program level as an extension from the BIM course level.

67 For example, BIM adoption in the senior year or final semester project could integrate BIM with

68 other CM core courses (e.g., scheduling and cost estimate). The reason to implement BIM in CM

69 students’ final stage of study is that it is students’ transition period from college to the

70 professional field, or in another word, pre-career training. There is a need to study how BIM

71 could be integrated into the CM curriculum to enhance the connection among courses (e.g., BIM

72 and cost estimate), as well as the effects of the integration. The benefits of the integration of BIM

73 with other AEC courses could be foreseen in several BIM education-based studies, including

74 Sharag-Eldin and Nawari (2010), and Solnosky and Parfitt (2015). To investigate the effects of

75 BIM integration into the traditional CM curriculum (e.g., final stage capstone project),

76 researchers in this study believe that a comparative subgroup analysis would allow a better

77 understanding of BIM impact on CM students’ learning curve in their capstone project. Students’

78 subgroups are defined when they opt for full BIM, partial-BIM, or non-BIM approach to

79 complete their project. How the different approaches affect students’ perceptions could be

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80 studied upon the project completion. So far, this subgroup comparative method has not been

81 widely adopted in investigating the effects of BIM integration into the CM curriculum.

82 Nevertheless, the subgroup comparison approach could be adapted from another prior study in

83 civil engineering education (i.e., Li et al. 2018).

84 As a step forward from integrating BIM into the traditional CM curriculum, Fuzhou

85 University has been extending the BIM education in its CM curriculum by incorporating BIM in

86 students’ final semester project. BIM is utilized as the digital platform to assist a variety of

87 construction tasks, for instance, 3D site planning, scheduling, take-off estimate, and integration

88 with virtual reality (VR). Walker et al. (2019) proved the added value of using VR in order to

89 improve Civil Engineering studies. On the other hand, although highlighting BIM in the final

90 semester project is one of the major changes in the recently updated CM curriculum at Fuzhou

91 University, curriculum leaders and other construction educators fully respect students’

92 preferences in their project deliverable types. Before BIM was adopted in the CM curriculum,

93 students were required either to complete the traditional research dissertation or to perform

94 manual work in combination with CAD (i.e., Computer-Aided Design) to complete given

95 construction tasks (e.g., scheduling). Before the commencement of the final semester in spring

96 2019, students were asked to select their own deliverable type for the last semester, namely full

97 adoption of BIM through team project, partial BIM adoption through either teamwork or

98 individual work, and the traditional research dissertation.

99 This BIM education-based study addresses the limitation of prior research by focusing on

100 BIM adoption in CM students’ final semester project, which required senior year students to

101 apply their knowledge and skills developed from prior years’ study in a real-world high-rise

102 building project. The objectives of this study include: firstly, demonstrating how BIM has been

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103 utilized as the digital platform to assist the traditional construction tasks (e.g., cost estimate);

104 secondly, capturing students’ perceptions of BIM’s impacts on their project, and their overall

105 perceptions on the final semester project. The second objective is achieved through comparative

106 subgroup analysis by dividing students into different project deliverable types, the namely full

107 application of BIM, partial BIM application, and a research dissertation. This study provides

108 insights into how BIM, either through full adoption or partial utilization, would impact students’

109 perceptions towards BIM and their project. The current study contributes to the body of

110 knowledge in BIM education both theoretically and practically. Theoretically, this research

111 extends the undergraduate education practices (Chickering and Gamson, 1987) and Bloom’s

112 Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956) in the BIM-embedded CM curriculum. Practically, the detailed

113 arrangement (e.g., timetable) and display of student project deliverables offer useful information

114 to other peer educators on BIM curriculum update. Students’ feedback following up their project

115 completion also provide hints for both researchers in this study and peer BIM educators

116 worldwide to continue enhancing CM education for college graduates to be better prepared in

117 their professional career. Based on current work, more research-informed teaching (Healey, 2005)

118 could be adopted in future BIM education, such as BIM linked to virtual reality and other digital

119 technologies.

120 2. Literature Review

121 2.1. BIM practice and research

122 BIM has been gaining the growing use and rapid development in the AEC field’s emerging

123 practice and research (Zou et al., 2019b), for example, BIM integrated to Geographic

124 Information System in construction engineering practice (Kim et al., 2016a), BIM applied in the

125 integrated project delivery process to reduce change orders (Ma et al., 2017), BIM for historic

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126 building maintenance (Lee et al., 2019), and the cost-plus estimating framework integrating BIM

127 (Koo et al., 2017). The increased and diversified BIM implementation in the global AEC

128 industry has resulted in higher demand for college graduates with BIM skills (Suwal et al., 2014).

129 It is indicated that BIM acceptance readiness (Lee and Yu, 2017) does not depend on current

130 industry practitioners, but also university graduates (Zou et al., 2019a) who are the future AEC

131 professionals. The assessment of BIM acceptance degree studied by Kim et al. (2016b) revealed

132 that although the Korean AEC professionals generally held positive attitudes towards the

133 necessity of BIM, they did not have strong intentions to accept BIM. Underwood and Ayoade

134 (2015) stressed the challenges of BIM inclusion in the UK higher education, highlighting the

135 disconnection between disciplines, lack of software tools’ connections, and the insufficient

136 understanding of BIM maturity levels. These findings spark the further research needs of

137 extending BIM-related emerging research and practice into university education, as an approach

138 to change the BIM acceptance level, as well as to enhance the integration of BIM in AEC

139 disciplines including construction project management.

140 2.2. BIM education

141 Institutional education is important in the uptake of BIM (Suwal et al., 2014). A BIM-based

142 review conducted by Santos et al. (2017) showed that more BIM-related studies had emphasized

143 technical issues (e.g., interoperability), but BIM education-related research had been under-

144 represented. BIM education is important because it works as a pre-career training to reduce the

145 industry investment for employee training once college graduates enter the job market (Tang et

146 al., 2015). Several existing BIM education-based studies (e.g., Kim, 2011; Nawari, 2015) had

147 been focusing more on BIM utilization in a single discipline such as structural engineering.

148 Nawari (2015) utilized BIM as the tool to teach the essential parts of structural design and to

6
149 assist students’ understanding of building systems and structural patterns. It was suggested that

150 BIM teaching was not similar to the traditional Computer-Aided Design (CAD), but was more

151 collaborative to enhance the learning of structural engineering. Kim (2011) applied BIM in

152 construction education and found that BIM assisted students in a more effective learning of

153 construction details and quantity take-off. A variety of BIM pedagogical strategies could be

154 found in some existing BIM educational activities, such as collaborative teamwork (Mathews,

155 2013), interdisciplinary group work (Jin et al., 2018), and integrating VR into BIM education

156 (Bouska and Heralova, 2019). Although these studies have addressed the collaborative or

157 interdisciplinary nature of BIM through pedagogical activities, Pikas et al. (2013) suggested that

158 BIM education could be upgraded from a single course to the program level. The inter-

159 connectedness between courses within the same educational program, as suggested by Li et al.

160 (2018), is yet to be adopted in the construction education with BIM as the vehicle. More recently,

161 another study conducted at The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (Walker et. al., 2020)

162 showed the significant impact of VR and BIM in the civil engineering program. In particular, it

163 was identified the significance between VR/BIM in Civil Engineering as part of their studies to

164 understand what a construction site looked like and moreover to run a number of different

165 scenarios in a safe, integrated and comprehensive environment. This environment ensured

166 successful completion of their studies incorporating a unique pedagogical approach that is linked

167 to what is proposed in this study from a different angle, which focuses on the final stage capstone

168 project in CM.

169 2.3. Individual perceptions towards BIM practice

170 Students’ perceptions of BIM should be considered part of BIM education (Zou et al., 2019a).

171 They would establish their perceptions of BIM course or project as part of their learning curve

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172 (Jin et al., 2019; Zou et al., 2019a). Perceptions have a significant effect on human behavior

173 (Dijksterhuis and Bargh 2001). Human behavior is one of the key issues in adopting information

174 and communication technologies (Lu et al., 2015). These perceptions and follow-up behavior

175 would form the learning and practice cycle in college graduates’ professional career (Zou et al.,

176 2019a). The individual perceptions towards BIM practice had been more widely studied among

177 industry professionals (e.g., Sacks and Pikas, 2013; Lucas, 2017). Studying the perceptions of

178 college students or BIM learners is also necessary (Jin et al., 2019). It is indicated from existing

179 BIM-based studies (Eadie et al., 2013; Yalcinkaya and Singh, 2015; Oraee et al., 2017) that

180 perceptions towards BIM should not only include technical aspects (e.g., interoperability), but

181 also the managerial part of BIM. Managerial aspect shall be another core part of BIM (He et al.,

182 2017), and could be incorporated in BIM education, for example, the collaborative group

183 building design (Jin et al., 2018).

184 3. Research design

185 3.1. Options for students’ final semester project

186 Students in their last semester of undergraduate CM study were asked to select one of the four

187 options for their final project delivery, namely full BIM application in teamwork, group work

188 focusing on construction planning/scheduling, individual work in take-off estimate, and an

189 individual research dissertation. The group work in the former two options generally consisted of

190 four or five members. Each group member had to demonstrate their fair individual contribution

191 to the team project in their final presentation and project report. For example, in a five-person

192 full BIM application group, the tasks were divided as (1) formwork and scaffolding construction

193 plan assisted by BIM; (2) 3D modeling and virtual simulation of construction activities; (3)

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194 scheduling and resource allocation in 5D BIM; (4) video/walkthrough/rendering and model

195 checking in a cloud platform; and (5) 3D site planning and BIM implementation plan.

196 Construction planning/scheduling and take-off estimate were designed by the pedagogical

197 staff as two options of partial BIM application. Regardless of the deliverable option, each

198 individual was expected to spend around 320 hours on the final semester project. Using the

199 subgroup of full BIM application as the example, this 320 hours excluded the one-week time for

200 BIM software training and tutorial, and two-week field study as shown in Table 1. No other

201 courses were assigned to students in the last semester. Students were expected to work on the

202 project for four days and a half each week. The subgroup of full BIM application was expected

203 to achieve the highest potential of the BIM, including 5D BIM for scheduling and quantity take-

204 off, site planning, and linking BIM into other digital technologies (e.g., VR). Compared to the

205 full BIM application subgroup, students choosing partial BIM applications might not achieve

206 that high application level of BIM, but they were asked to perform certain hands-on work to

207 compare the outcomes between manual and BIM-generated outputs. For example, students

208 working on the take-off estimate were guided to perform their manual estimate and compared

209 their manual outcome to what was generated from their BIM work.

210 Different from students working in a full or partial BIM application subgroup, those who

211 chose the research dissertation might not utilize any BIM authoring tools, but perform a standard

212 research methodology to address research questions in the CM domain. Students could choose

213 their own research topics, either related to BIM or not. An example of the research dissertation

214 leading to a journal article publication could be seen in Wu et al. (2019).

215 3.2. Questionnaire survey and statistical analyses

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216 Following the completion of the final semester project in early June 2019, a follow-up

217 questionnaire survey was designed to collect the feedback of CM students’ perceptions of their

218 project. The questionnaire survey was adopted to test the main research hypotheses:

219  Students opting for different final project deliverable type would have consistent

220 perceptions towards the effects of the project on their professional career;

221  Students choosing different deliverable types could have consistent views on their BIM

222 utilization in their final project;

223  Students selecting different deliverable types could have consistent views on how their final

224 semester project has enhanced their personal or professional skills.

225 The questionnaire was initiated by the course leader in the CM program at Fuzhou University,

226 and peer-reviewed by other CM educators in other China and UK-based institutions. The

227 questionnaire survey approach has been commonly adopted in the CM education-based research,

228 especially following the end of pedagogical work. Examples of the questionnaire survey

229 approach can be found in Han et al. (2019b), Zhou et al. (2019), and Jin et al. (2019). Before the

230 formal questionnaire survey was sent to all senior year CM students, a pilot study was sent to

231 other five students in early June. The feedback of students’ in the pilot study was collected,

232 leading to the finalized questionnaire to ensure that all questions asked were without vagueness.

233 The questionnaire is attached in the Appendix. The questions covered students’ background

234 information, and their perceptions of BIM and their final semester project. The first two

235 questions, as seen in the Appendix, asked their options from one of the four available deliverable

236 types, and also their career decision right after completing their undergraduate study. The

237 remaining four questions were based on the five-point Likert-scale format asking students to

238 select a numerical score to describe their perceptions of BIM utilization on their project. For

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239 example, in Question 4, students were required to respond with a Likert score, from 1 being “The

240 final year project that I completed is with little value to my career” to 5 meaning “The final year

241 project that I completed is with great value to my career”. The last two questions include

242 multiple items related to BIM utilization and how the final semester project had enhanced

243 different skills. Students’ responses to these Likert-scale questions were analyzed in a variety of

244 statistical methods.

245 Besides the descriptive statistical measurements (i.e., mean and standard deviation) of Likert-

246 scale items, Cronbach’s Alpha value (Cronbach, 1951), a commonly adopted measurement of

247 internal consistency for multiple items in the same Likert-scale question, was utilized in this

248 study. As recommended by DeVellis (2003), the overall Cronbach’s Alpha value should be

249 between 0.75 and 0.95 for Question 5 and Question 6 shown in the Appendix. An acceptable

250 Cronbach’s Alpha value means that a student who selects one numerical score to one item in the

251 same question is likely to assign a similar score to others. Each item in Question 5 or Question 6

252 has an individual Cronbach’s Alpha value, which is expected to be lower than the overall value.

253 An individual value higher than the overall one would mean that the internal consistency

254 increases if the given individual item is removed from Question 5 or 6. This would suggest that

255 students had significantly different perception towards this given item as they would perceive

256 other items.

257 Other statistical tests adopted in this study included Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the

258 follow-up post-hoc analysis. These two tests were considered suitable for conducting subgroup

259 analysis, i.e., subgroups of students opting for full BIM application, construction

260 planning/scheduling, take-off estimate, or research dissertation. The subgroup analysis aimed to

261 test whether there was a significant difference among subgroups of students in their perceptions

11
262 towards each Likert-scale item or question. For each item or question, the null hypothesis was

263 that the subgroups of students held consistent perception towards it. Based on a 5% level of

264 significance, an F value and corresponding p value would be computed using the statistical tool

265 Minitab (2019). A p value lower than 0.05 would reject the null hypothesis and suggest the

266 alternative hypothesis that subgroups had significantly different perceptions towards the given

267 item. The procedure of conducting a parametric test (e.g., ANOVA) in the CM field can be found

268 in some previous research (e.g., Tam, 2009; Wu et al., 2019). Accompanying ANOVA, the post-

269 hoc test was implemented to identify where the significant differences occur among subgroups.

270 The Fisher Individual, as suggested by Han et al. (2019a) and Wu et al. (2019), was adopted in

271 this study to explore the potentially different perceptions between each pair of subgroups. The

272 statistical software Minitab (2019) was used to define each subgroup with a “class” represented

273 by an alphabet letter (e.g., A, B, C, etc.). For example, a subgroup tagged with “Class” A was

274 suggested with more positive perception on the given item compared to the subgroup tagged by

275 B and followed by C. These different “classes” were determined based on the subgroup’s

276 descriptive statistics, e.g., the mean value of the subgroup in perceiving the given Likert-scale

277 item.

278 4. Display of deliverables of final semester undergraduate project

279 4.1. Timetable and deliverables for the BIM group

280 Typical deliverables of students’ final semester project are displayed, depending on students’

281 selection of deliverable type (i.e., full BIM application in a group project, construction

282 planning/scheduling, take-off estimate, or research dissertation. The project lasts for 15 weeks in

283 the spring semester of 2019. For the full BIM application group, the detailed timetable is

12
284 displayed in Table 1. The typical network and workflow of a full BIM application team are

285 illustrated in Fig.1.

286 <Insert Table 1 here>

287 The tasks and deliverable for other deliverable types might be different from Table 1. For

288 example, students who chose a research dissertation as the deliverable would spend more effort

289 on developing their research objectives, methodology, and implementing their research methods.

290 They might not undergo the same process as the students involved in BIM-based projects. For

291 those working on construction planning/scheduling or cost estimate, a similar workflow as

292 shown in Table 1 was also applicable, for example, collecting and studying project drawings,

293 BIM software tool tutorial, and modeling, etc. There were some differences for those focusing on

294 construction planning/scheduling or cost estimate, for instance, manual calculation of formwork

295 quantity, and other take-off estimates. Each team in the full BIM application and construction

296 planning/scheduling was assigned a different project, with 2D CAD drawings and other

297 documents provided. These projects were all high-rise buildings newly built or under

298 construction in the metropolitan city of Fuzhou, China.

299 <Insert Fig.1 here>

300 As shown in Fig.1, the group work with full BIM application started from the 2D CAD

301 drawings of the studied high-rise building project, 3D modelling in BIM, to 5D BIM for

302 construction planning, cost control, and other site planning work. The 3D modeling process

303 involved more than just “translation” from 2D CAD to 3D BIM, but also the interoperability of

304 digital file format (e.g., IFC or Industry Foundation Class) among various digital tools. For

305 example, the initial model in Autodesk Revit was also saved in different file formats (e.g., GTJ

306 and GCL as shown in Fig.2).

13
307 <Insert Fig.2 here>

308 As shown in Fig.2., students on the same BIM project were guided to create digital models in

309 different data formats. As reflected in their final project report, they did not only strengthen their

310 modeling skill in a BIM environment with different digital formats but also gain the experience

311 of how different data formats work in an interoperable way with follow-up tasks described in

312 Fig.1, such as scheduling and site planning. The full BIM application team also created multiple

313 families and uploaded into their models to develop the level of details as seen in Fig.3. One of

314 the barriers encountered during BIM pedagogical work, as reflected by Jin et al. (2018), is the

315 lack of families in the existing BIM library. Therefore, students had to create families to meet the

316 project design or construction needs. On the other hand, researchers in this study believe that

317 family creation to enrich the existing BIM library is an important part to train students with the

318 technical BIM skills, which would be useful for their future work in the industry.

319 <Insert Fig.3 here>

320 Multiple family members in the BIM library were created in the digital platform. For example,

321 the elevation shown in Fig.3-a) consists of a total of 26 different types of self-created window

322 families, 15 different types of irregular-shaped windows, seven types of curtain wall families,

323 and four types of integrated door-and-window components. All details of these building

324 components were available in the group submission. Multiple other family members were

325 created by the BIM group, such as the screw piling components as part of the foundation pit

326 support system as shown in Fig.3-b).

327 The BIM group also further created the digital platform utilizing BIM and VR. As partially

328 captured in Fig.4, the digital model of the project in various formats (e.g., GCL, GTJ) and 5D

329 BIM platform were utilized to create six separate scenes in VR using the interactive and

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330 immersing features. Each scene was divided into dozens of observation points to enable users to

331 observe various site details, e.g., tower cranes, elevators for construction, and heavy equipment,

332 etc.

333 <Insert Fig.4 here>

334 Based on the original digital models in different formats, scheduling, site planning, 5D BIM,

335 simulation, and walkthrough, the scenes were set up with the interface shown in Fig.4-a).

336 Clicking the menu shown in the interface allowed users to perform different tasks, including

337 model checking, queries of scheduling, and project-based construction education.

338 4.2. Groups or individuals working on other types of deliverables

339 For those working on construction scheduling/planning or take-off estimate, BIM might not

340 be fully applied in their project work. For example, the digital platform integrated with BIM and

341 VR as displayed in Fig.4 would not be generated. But they also started from transforming the

342 given 2D CAD drawings into 3D digital models as described in Fig.1 and Fig.2. Similar to the

343 full BIM application team, BIM was also applied in simulating construction activities, site

344 planning, scheduling, and 5D BIM. Similar deliverables were visualized in the groups focusing

345 on construction scheduling/planning as shown in Fig.5.

346 <Insert Fig.5 here>

347 However, differing from the subgroup of full BIM application, the subgroup of

348 scheduling/planning had to perform the manual calculation and planning for scaffolding and

349 formwork as shown in Fig.6-a). The manual calculation was later compared to the outcomes in

350 BIM.

351 <Insert Fig.6 here>

15
352 Somehow similar to peers working on construction scheduling/planning, students working on

353 take-off estimate also started from modeling in BIM, and compared their manual calculation of

354 material take-off with the quantity generated from BIM. Their work also involved linking

355 information between BIM authoring tool (e.g., Revit) and estimate software. Their manual

356 calculation and modeling work included site work, concrete, masonry, reinforcement, and

357 interior finish. Fig.7 displays examples of details of reinforcement together with the studied

358 project.

359 <Insert Fig.7 here>

360 Table 2 demonstrates an example of comparing the quantity generated from the manual

361 estimate and that from the BIM platform. It is seen that students focusing on take-off estimate

362 also trained their modeling skill in BIM. More importantly, the explorative comparison of

363 quantity take-off between manual work and BIM work provided in-depth experiential learning

364 for students.

365 <Insert Table 2 here>

366 5. Follow-up questionnaire survey

367 By the end of June 2019, all 65 students responded to the questionnaire survey. After

368 screening the raw survey data, one respondent’s data was excluded due to the fact that the same

369 scores were assigned to items under the same Likert-scale questions. Other three respondents’

370 data were also excluded because they were incomplete. This screening process followed the

371 procedure described in the study of Smits et al. (2017). The detailed subgroup distribution and

372 the career options in the overall student sample is illustrated in Fig.8.

373 <Insert Fig.8 here>

16
374 The two different distributions shown in Fig.8 could be interlinked in the way that students

375 who opted for research dissertation were more likely to pursue graduate study. Five out of the 13

376 students who decided to pursue graduate study were from the subgroup of a research dissertation,

377 indicating that research dissertation should still be an option even without BIM involvement,

378 especially for those interested in furthering their academic career. In comparison, those who

379 opted for three other non-dissertation deliverable types were more likely to practice in the

380 professional field right after finishing their undergraduate study.

381 5.1. Students’ perceptions of BIM and final semester project

382 Students were asked of their perceptions towards BIM impacts on their final semester

383 project, as well as their expectation of the final semester project’s effect on their professional

384 career. Based on the two five-point Likert scale questions, the ANOVA test results are presented

385 in Table 3.

386 <Insert Table 3 here>

387 Significant differences were found in subgroups’ perception of BIM. The subgroup of full

388 BIM application held the most positive view of BIM’s assistance to their projects, followed by

389 the other two partial BIM application subgroups. It is understandable that the subgroup of

390 research dissertation held significantly lower perceptions of BIM on their work, because they

391 mostly did not apply the technical BIM skills. However, no significant difference was found in

392 the expectation of their selected project deliverable type. All subgroups held positive

393 expectations of their final semester project. It was inferred that the variety of project deliverable

394 types should be maintained to allow students to select their own options at the last stage of their

395 undergraduate study.

396 5.2. Students’ perceptions of BIM utilization in their final semester project

17
397 Students were asked of their perceptions on how BIM had been utilized in different tasks

398 within their final semester project. These BIM utilization are presented in the Appendix and

399 Table 4. These tasks were corresponding to students’ work in their deliverables. This Likert-

400 scale question was designed to seek students’ reflective thinking on the application level (i.e.,

401 from little application to a very high degree of implementation) of each BIM utilization in their

402 project deliverable.

403 <Insert Table 4 here>

404 The Overall Cronbach’s Alpha at 0.9573 indicated the high internal consistency of the ten

405 BIM utilization related items. The overall value generally met the statistical requirement as

406 suggested by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994). The ranking according to the mean values of each

407 item in Table 4 showed that 3D modeling was the top-ranked utilization of BIM in project

408 deliverables. This was consistent with other industry investigations in China’s construction field

409 (Jin et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2019) that the 3D modeling for visualization was the most widely

410 adopted BIM feature. Similar to the findings released by Liu et al. (2019), other tasks (e.g., cost

411 estimate and site management) had not been widely involved with BIM. Clash detection,

412 although being considered a fundamental feature in BIM, had not been sufficiently involved in

413 project deliverables. Clash detection, which was ranked bottom in Table 4, was also the only

414 item with higher individual Cronbach’s Alpha value than the overall value. It was inferred that

415 students tended to have differed perception of clash detection as they would perceive other BIM

416 utilization. Correspondingly, it is seen that the item of clash detection also had the lowest Item-

417 total Correlation value, meaning that the item of clash detection has the lowest correlation with

418 the remaining items in Table 4. The relatively high standard deviation of all items (i.e., higher

419 than 1.000) was due to the fact that students working on a research dissertation had a

18
420 significantly lower chance of applying BIM. The subgroup analysis of students’ perceptions is

421 presented in Table 5.

422 <Insert Table 5 here>

423 It is seen in Table 5 that the full BIM application subgroup generally had the highest

424 utilization level of BIM in their projects. In contrast, students working on a research dissertation

425 had low or little BIM integration in their deliverable. Besides the p values to determine the

426 significant differences among subgroups (especially the research dissertation subgroup with three

427 other subgroups), the post-hoc analysis for each item in Table 5was also performed to further

428 quantify the significance of the difference between each pair of subgroups. The post-hoc analysis

429 in terms of Fisher pairwise comparisons defined each subgroup within an alphabet letter (e.g., A,

430 B, and C). As seen in Table 5, post-hoc group tagged with A means that the corresponding

431 subgroup had the highest level of BIM utilization in the given item, followed by B and C. For

432 example, it is found that the full BIM application subgroup had the highest level of using BIM

433 for 3D modeling. The other two partial BIM application subgroups had a similar utilization level

434 for 3D modeling, falling into the post-hoc group B. In comparison, the subgroup of a research

435 dissertation, tagged with C, had the lowest utilization of 3D modeling. Subgroups tagged with

436 different alphabet letters indicate that they had a significantly different utilization level of BIM.

437 However, sometimes a subgroup might be in a “fuzzy zone” in-between two post-hoc groups.

438 For instance, the subgroup of take-off estimate was tagged by two post-hoc groups (i.e., A&B).

439 In this case, students who selected take-off estimate had lower utilization of clash detection

440 compared to their peers in the full BIM subgroup, but higher utilization compared to their peers

441 in construction scheduling/planning. Nevertheless, these differences were less significant as the

442 take-off estimate subgroup fell into the “fuzzy zone”. By tagging each subgroup with a post-hoc

19
443 group letter, it was found that the two partial BIM application subgroups might also have

444 significantly different utilization levels of certain BIM items, including model checking,

445 formwork & scaffolding planning, scheduling, site planning, and construction work breakdown.

446 5.3. Students’ perceptions of the effects of the final year project

447 The same statistical procedure was adopted to analyze the data for the Likert-scale question

448 regarding students’ perceptions of how their final semester project enhanced their various skills.

449 Students were made clear of the definition of each skill listed in the Appendix and Table 6. For

450 example, teamwork did not necessarily only occur in the subgroups of full BIM application or

451 construction planning/scheduling where students worked in a group, but also two other

452 subgroups working on individual deliverables. For example, students might work on different

453 parts of take-off estimate for the same highly-complex project. The BIM operation skill mostly

454 referred to students’ capability in adopting BIM software package; the hands-on skill referred

455 more to hardware, e.g., setting up BIM platform integrating VR devices in the digital lab of

456 Fuzhou University. Besides these main skills listed in Table 6, students were also asked to list

457 any other skills that had been enhanced according to their own reflection. A few students

458 mentioned that the last semester project also significantly enhanced their critical thinking or

459 independent thinking.

460 <Insert Table 6 here>

461 Generally, students held positive perceptions of their final semester project in enhancing

462 their multiple skills, especially their self-learning skill, professional knowledge, hands-on skill,

463 and BIM operation skill, whose mean scores were all over 4.000. The overall Cronbach’s Alpha

464 at 0.8119 met the internal consistency requirement, meaning that a student chose a numerical

465 score to one item would be likely to assign a similar score to other items in Table 6, except the

20
466 item of BIM operational skill. The individual Cronbach’s Alpha of that item at 0.8160 higher

467 than the overall value and the lowest Item-total Correlation indicates that students had more

468 varied perceptions towards their BIM operation skill. That could be explained that the subgroup

469 of the research dissertation did not have much practice in operating BIM. The detailed subgroup

470 analysis is presented in Table 7.

471 <Insert Table 7 here>

472 Extending from Table 6 regarding BIM operation skill, the high F value and p value lower

473 than 0.05 in Table 7 suggest the significant differences among subgroups’ perceptions. The post-

474 hoc analysis identifies that the difference came from the subgroup of the research dissertation.

475 Instead, the other three subgroups involving either full or partial BIM application held consistent

476 views on how their BIM operation skills had been enhanced through the final semester project.

477 The high mean scores from these three subgroups (i.e., all above 4.000) show students’ highly

478 positive view on their BIM operation skill. Other two skills were also perceived by students with

479 significant differences: teamwork skill and hands-on skill. As evidenced by the post-hoc analysis,

480 the subgroups of full BIM application and construction planning/scheduling, who worked in a

481 group project environment, perceived that they had more enhancement in teamwork skill. The

482 significantly differed views on the enhancement of hands-on skill could also be found among the

483 four subgroups. It is seen that students from the full BIM application subgroup perceived

484 themselves with the most enhancement of hands-on skill, possibly because they had more

485 opportunities of setting up hardware devices (e.g., VR headset) and linking them to BIM

486 software tools. The subgroups of construction planning/scheduling and research dissertation

487 perceived significantly lower enhancement, probably because that their work was more on digital

21
488 modeling, manual calculation, site investigation, data collection and analysis, and academic

489 writing.

490 6. Discussion

491 Findings from this study mainly come from two parts, namely the showcase of students’

492 BIM work and the follow-up questionnaire survey. Students from subgroups of full BIM

493 application or partial BIM usage (i.e., construction planning/scheduling and take-off estimate)

494 delivered their final semester project in a variety of digital files (e.g., videos, digital files in

495 different BIM authoring tools, and project report). Their project reports generally contained

496 reflective thinking linked to their end-of-project oral presentation. For example, one team from

497 the construction planning/scheduling subgroup reflected that although lots of manual modeling

498 work was required to add details from 2D CAD into 3D models in Revit, this time-consuming

499 process trained their modeling skills. This process also enhanced their skills when transforming

500 building information into other data formats (e.g., GCL). They reported that this modeling

501 process improved their appraisal of information interoperability and the need for better

502 integration among different digital tools. In the case of the take-off estimate work, a student

503 might find a significant difference (e.g., over 10% difference) between their manual estimate and

504 the quantity generated from BIM. He or she had to review both parts of the estimate to explore

505 causes of the differences, and also to minimize the differences. Some typical causes identified

506 included: errors of omitting some quantities of building components (e.g., concrete beams), and

507 the information gap between the original 2D CAD drawing and the 3D BIM. These self-checking

508 and critical thinking during the 15-week project were believed to have enhanced their multiple

509 skills (e.g., self-learning) as described in their reflective reports.

22
510 Various options of final year project deliverables should be provided for students to select,

511 depending on their own interests and career plan. For example, students more interested in

512 developing their research career might be prone to select the research dissertation type. Overall,

513 all different deliverable types could lead to students’ consistently positive perceptions or

514 expectations towards their project and their professional career.

515 The current study followed the recommendation of Pikas et al. (2013) by extending the

516 BIM-embedded construction education from the earlier single course to the final stage capstone

517 project. The design of the BIM-driven capstone project incorporated the undergraduate

518 educational guide proposed by Chickering and Gamson (1987), specifically, the collaborative

519 learning enhanced by BIM as the digital platform, and timely feedback from the academic staff

520 to student groups. Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956) was further extended by addressing

521 students’ different levels of learning. Students applied their previous knowledge and

522 understanding of BIM into the real-world project practice, and further developed their reflective

523 thinking in their project report and the follow-up questionnaire survey.

524 The questionnaire survey capturing students’ perceptions of BIM utilization within their

525 own project might seem rhetorical. For example, it might be argued that apparently the full BIM

526 application subgroup would have the highest utilization of BIM and the research dissertation

527 subgroup was expected to have the lowest utilization. However, the questionnaire survey served

528 as the feedback tool to capture students’ reflective thinking on BIM, and to confirm the pre-

529 assumptions regarding BIM application in different subgroups. Besides the confirmative

530 investigation through the questionnaire survey, the explorative study was also involved,

531 including the ranking of different BIM utilization. The further post-hoc analysis revealed the

23
532 significance level of differences between each pair of subgroups, e.g., between the two different

533 partial BIM application subgroups.

534 Student feedback on BIM utilization and skill enhancement could be used to update the

535 future final semester pedagogical delivery. Specifically, depending on their skill development

536 needs, career needs, and personal interests in different BIM utilization, students could be guided

537 with the deliverable option that best fit their needs at the last stage of their CM undergraduate

538 study. Since these various options for CM students just started in the recent two years, the

539 current study only targeted students newly finishing their final semester project. As indicated by

540 Li et al. (2018) who suggested to also study the longer-term effects of a newly created course on

541 college graduates’ engineering career, the final semester projects’ effects on CM graduates’

542 career development could be tracked by targeting the alumni who have already been working in

543 the industry.

544 The current pedagogical study would lead to more integration of BIM and other digital

545 technologies (e.g., Augmented Reality or AR) for continuing the update of educational activities.

546 More research-informed teaching could be adopted in the future BIM education crossing

547 different years of the CM undergraduate curriculum, for example, BIM integrated with AR to

548 capture construction site progress (Kim et al., 2018), BIM and Geographic Information Systems

549 for increasing the automation level (Kang and Hong, 2018), and sensor deployment in BIM (Cho,

550 et al., 2018), etc. The current study motivates more future educational activities addressing BIM

551 maturity levels (The UK Government Construction Strategy Board, 2011), especially the

552 transition from BIM Level 2 to Level 3 following the guide of the UK Government’s

553 Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2016). More research-informed teaching

554 (Healey, 2005) can be performed in BIM-embedded construction programs, for example, BIM

24
555 should be considered in the bigger picture of digitalization by being linked to a variety of digital

556 technologies such as AR or drone. The information exchange between BIM and other digital

557 technologies (e.g., VR in this study) can motivate students to investigate the interoperability

558 issue when transforming information from one digital tool to another.

559 7. Conclusion
560 This BIM pedagogical study can be divided into two parts, namely demonstration of student

561 project deliverable incorporating BIM, and the follow-up questionnaire survey to investigate

562 students’ perceptions on the effects of BIM adoption and their final year project. Students were

563 given four different options in their last semester project, namely the subgroup of full BIM

564 application, two subgroups of partial BIM usage (i.e., construction planning/scheduling or take-

565 off estimate), and a research dissertation. Examples of student deliverables from different

566 subgroups were demonstrated to show how BIM had been adopted as the digital platform to

567 assist a variety of construction tasks (e.g., 3D site planning). The full BIM application teamwork

568 was demonstrated with their 15-week timetable and collaborative working. Various data files

569 (e.g., IFC) were displayed to showcase the issue of information interoperability. The partial BIM

570 application subgroup demonstrated their explorative comparison between the manual work and

571 BIM-generated work, e.g., the difference of quantity take-off between manual estimate and BIM-

572 generated output. Students also demonstrated their critical thinking of difficulties and gaps

573 identified through their end-of-semester oral presentation and project reports.

574 Research hypotheses were initiated to test whether the different deliverable options would

575 affect students’ perceptions of the final semester project and their future career. The

576 questionnaire survey revealed that significant differences of subgroup perceptions did not only

577 occur between the subgroup of research dissertation and other subgroups, but also among the

578 BIM application subgroups. The two partial BIM application subgroups also had significant

25
579 differences in BIM utilization, including model checking, formwork & scaffolding planning,

580 scheduling, site planning, and construction work breakdown. For instance, the full BIM

581 application subgroup had the similar utilization level as the construction scheduling/planning

582 subgroup did in 3D site planning, but with a significantly higher level of BIM utilization

583 compared to the subgroup of take-off estimate. The questionnaire survey also inferred that not all

584 BIM features were consistently applied to support tasks in students’ project deliverables.

585 Specifically, clash detection, as one of the commonly utilized BIM features, had not been

586 sufficiently used in their final semester project. Future pedagogical work in adopting BIM for

587 student capstone project could consider how to better achieve comprehensive coverage of

588 different BIM utilization, especially for the full BIM application group. Regardless of the project

589 deliverable types, the final semester project was perceived consistently positive in enhancing

590 their self-directed learning skills. Other skills including professional knowledge, research skill,

591 and innovation skill were also consistently perceived by students as been enhanced throughout

592 the semester-long project. However, significant differences in perceptions were found on how

593 the project has enhanced their BIM operation skill, teamwork skill, and hands-on skill. It was

594 found that students from the three BIM-related subgroups had a consistent view of their BIM

595 operation skill enhancement. But the full BIM application subgroup had significantly more

596 positive perception on the hands-on skill enhancement, possibly due to the fact they had more

597 practice in linking software and hardware devices (e.g., BIM and VR).

598 The current study contributed to the body of knowledge in BIM education both theoretically

599 and practically. Theoretical guides in the higher education was incorporated in this study to

600 demonstrate that BIM education could address different levels of students’ learning by linking

601 prior single courses into the final stage project. Latest industry guides such as BIM maturity level

26
602 and information exchange were considered in student deliverables assisted by BIM. Based on

603 these theoretical and industry guides, more future education work could emphasize research-

604 informed teaching, for instance, BIM integrated with other digital technologies (e.g., augmented

605 reality) in the bigger picture of digitalization. Practically, insights for the last stage CM student

606 project (e.g., last semester project in this case study) can be provided, including the variety of

607 deliverable types as options for students by considering their interests and career development

608 needs. For example, final year undergraduate students who decide to pursue graduate study

609 might select a research dissertation, and students planning to work in the practical field might

610 choose other project-based types. Students could also be given the option of working in a

611 collaborative team approach or focusing more as an individual. Different deliverable types or

612 options could meet students’ individual needs and lead to consistently positive feedback on the

613 effects of the last stage project. Some suggestions could be provided to update the future

614 pedagogical activities, for example, clash detection, as a basic BIM feature, could be better

615 utilized in assisting the design and pre-construction management.

616 The current study is limited to investigate students’ self-perception of the effects of BIM-

617 related deliverable type, without reaching further their future career development. Future

618 research work could collect students’ feedback after they have been working in the industry for a

619 certain period of time. As the continued learning and practice curve, students’ career growth

620 could be tracked by evaluating their future employers’ perceptions of students’ adoption of

621 information and communication technologies.

622 Acknowledgement

623 This paper was supported by Science and Technology Development Program on Traffic and

624 Transportation in Fujian Province [Grant No.: 201415], Educational Commission of Fujian

27
625 Province, China [Grant No.: JT180046]. The authors would also like to acknowledge the

626 financial support from the 2018 First-class Undergraduate Teaching Reformation and Innovation

627 Program at Fuzhou University.

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756 DOI: 10.1061/9780784479070.057

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757 Suwal, S., P. Jäväjä, and J. Salin. 2014. “BIM education: Implementing and reviewing
758 “OpeBIM”—BIM for teachers.” In Proc., Computing in Civil and Building Engineering,
759 2151–2158. Reston, VA: ASCE. DOI: 10.1061/9780784413616.267.
760 Tam, V.W.Y. (2009). “Comparing the implementation of concrete recycling in the Australian
761 and Japanese construction industries.” J. Clean. Prod., 17(7), 688-702.
762 DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2008.11.015.
763 Tang, L., Jin, R., and Fang, K. (2015). “Launching the innovative BIM module for the
764 architecture and built environment programme in China.” WIT Transactions on The Built
765 Environment. 149, 145-156. DOI: 10.2495/bim150131.
766 Underwood, J. and Ayoade, O. (2015). “Current Position and Associated Challenges of BIM
767 Education in UK Higher Education.” BIM Academic Forum, Manchester.
768 UK Government Construction Strategy Board (2011), “A report for the Government
769 Construction Client Group”, London: BIM Task Group.
770 UK Government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2016), “Launch of Digital
771 Built Britain”, Available via <https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/innovate-uk>,
772 accessed on Apr 29th, 2019.
773 Walker J., Towey, D., Pike, M., Wei, S., Kapogiannis G., and Elamin, A.(2019).“Incorporating
774 Pedagogical Theory into VR to Teach Civil Engineering.” International Conference on Open
775 and Innovative Education, Hong Kong, China. http://icoie2019.ouhk.edu.hk/.
776 Walker, J., Towey, D., Wei, S., Pike, M., Kapogiannis, G., and Elamin, H. (2020) Developing a
777 Pedagogical Photoreal Virtual Environment to Teach Civil Engineering. Journal of
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780 Risks involved in off-site construction in the integrated design & construction project
781 delivery.” J. Clean. Prod. 213, 899-914. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.226
782 Yalcinkaya, M., and Singh, V. (2015). “Patterns and trends in building information modeling
783 (BIM) research: a latent semantic analysis.” Autom. Constr., 59, 68–80. DOI:
784 10.1016/j.autcon.2015.07.012
785 Zhang, J., Xie, H., and Li, H. (2019). “Improvement of students problem-solving skills through
786 project execution planning in civil engineering and construction management education.”
787 Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management. In Press. DOI: 10.1108/ecam-08-
788 2018-0321.
789 Zhao, D., McCoy, A. P., Bulbul, T., Fiori, C., and Nikkhoo, P. (2015). “Building collaborative
790 construction skills through BIM-integrated learning environment.” International Journal of
791 Construction Education and Research, 11(2), 97-120.
792 DOI: 10.1080/15578771.2014.986251
793 Zheng, L., Chen, K., and Lu, W. (2019). “Bibliometric Analysis of Construction Education
794 Research from 1982 to 2017.”J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 145(3), 04019005. DOI:
795 10.1061/(ASCE)EI.1943-5541.0000412.
796 Zhou, Q., Deng, X., Jin, R., and Chang, T. (2019). "Analyzing the Key Drivers of Contractors’
797 Temporary Competitive Advantage in the Competition of International High-speed Rail
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802 Zou, Y., Kiviniemi, A., Jones, S. W., and Walsh, J. (2019b). "Risk Information Management for
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804 467-480. DOI: 10.1007/s12205-018-1924-3.
805

806
807
808
809 Appendix: Questionnaire survey to students following their final semester project
810
811 1. Please select your final semester project deliverable type. (Single choice)
812 A. Full BIM application; B. Construction planning/scheduling; C. Take-off estimate; D. Research dissertation
813 2. Which of the following options best describes your job after finishing your undergraduate study?
814 A. Real estate; B. Contractor; C. Construction authority; D. Consultancy; E. Design firm; F. Pursuing graduate
815 study; G. Undecided yet; H. Others__________
816 3. How would you perceive the impact of BIM on your final semester project? Please choose one of the five
817 numerical scores given below.
818 (1) Little impact; (2) A little help by adopting BIM; (3) Neutral; (4) BIM is helpful on my final year project; (5)
819 BIM is very useful on my project
820 4. Which of the following statements best described your expectation of the final year project on your future
821 professional career?
822 (1) The final year project that I completed is with little value to my career;
823 (2) The final year project that I completed is with limited value to my career;
824 (3) The final year project that I completed is with some value to my career;
825 (4) The final year project that I completed is valuable to my career;
826 (5) The final year project that I completed is with great value to my career
827 5. Please select one of the five numerical values to rank how BIM has been utilized in each of the following
828 activities in your final semester project. (1: Little or no application; 2: Limited application;3. Some application;
829 4. High degree of implementation; 5. Very high degree of implementation)
Activity BIM utilization level (please select a number
from 1 to 5)
3D modeling
Automatic generation of quantities
Information exchange in an interoperable manner
Model checking in the cloud platform
Clash detection
Planning of formwork and scaffolding
Assisting manual calculation
Scheduling of construction activities
3D site planning
Construction work breakdown and resource allocation
830
831 6. Please select one of the five numerical values to rank how each of the following personal skills has been
832 enhanced throughout the final semester project. (1: Little or no enhancement; 2: Limited enhancement;3. Some
833 enhancement; 4. Significant enhancement; 5. Very significant enhancement)
Activity Level of enhancement (please select a
number from 1 to 5)
Professional knowledge in the CM discipline
BIM operation skill
Self-learning and teaching skill
Teamwork skill
Research skill
Innovation skill

32
 Hands-on skill
Others, please specify____________________
834
835
836
837
838
839
840 Table 1. Timetable of the 15-week final semester undergraduate project
Week Content/tasks Deliverable(s)
1 Induction of the final semester project; collecting project drawings
in 2D CAD format and other project documents; studying the
collected drawings and documents in order to become familiar of
theproject; starting proposing construction plan, schedule, or other
construction issues
2 BIM software tool training and tutorial (e.g., China’s domestic
GCL developed by Glondon); starting creating the digital model
for the studied project; BIM adoption in formwork and scaffolding
design; BIM assistance in calculating slope reinforcement,
scaffolding and formwork
3-4 Field trip and study on project site
5-7* Construction planning by defining work breakdown structures; Submission of site
adopting BIM to conduct take-off estimate; utilizing digital tools to study report from the
assist scheduling; completing the thesis opening report field trip; submission of
thesis opening report
7-8* Determining the durations of each construction activity; Submission of the mid-
establishing the scheduling network (e.g., Gantt Chart); term progress report;
9-10 Establishing the resource allocation plan, e.g., equipment use,
labor, materials, etc; establishing the detailed work breakdown
plan; adopting BIM authoring tools (e.g., Autodesk Revit) to
complete construction simulation and walkthrough
11-12 Completing 4D construction simulation, including the simulation
video corresponding to construction scheduling
13 Establishing construction quality assurance and quality control
plan; establishing construction safety and site housekeeping plan;
designing and visualizing the 3D site planning; establishing the
project organization network and subcontracting contracts; writing
up the construction manual and checking the prior work
14 Initially completed work being checked and commented by the
academic supervisor; oral presentation and defence of the final
semester project
15 Submission of project portfolio, including report/essay/dissertation, digital files (e.g., video,
BIM files), and other documents.
841 Note: the week periods of 5-7 and 7-8 have some overlapping because the tasks of Week 5-7 were expected to be
842 completed before the middle of Week 7.
843

844

845

846

847

33
848

849

850

851

852 Table 2. An example of comparison between manual quantity estimate and BIM-generated
853 estimate
Manual calculation BIM-generated estimate Difference
3 3
/m /m
Shear wall 1455.48 1533.48 5.1%
Masonry wall 1202.30 1246.04 3.5%
Beams and slabs 1368.15 1478.33 7.4%
Foundation 589.30 616.35 4.4%
854

855

856

857

858

859

860

861

862

863

864

865

866

867

868

869

870

871

872

34
873

874

875

876

877 Table 3. ANOVA results for student subgroups in their perception/expectation of BIM and
878 final year project
Subgroup Statistics of Statistical Statistics of Statistical
perception of BIM comparison expectation of comparison
impact on the final the final
semester project semester project
Mean Std.1 F value p value Mean Std.* F value p value
Full BIM application 4.579 0.769 25.54 0.000* 4.105 0.875 1.10 0.356
Construction 4.000 1.155 3.600 0.843
scheduling/planning
Take-off estimate 3.600 0.995 4.150 0.813
Research dissertation 1.667 0.778 3.833 1.030
879 Note: 1.Std. stands for standard deviation; 2. The p value lower than 0.05 suggested that there is a significant
880 difference among the subgroups’ perceptions
881

882

883

884

885

886

887

888

889

890

891

892

893

894

895

896

897

35
898

899

900

901

902 Table 4. Overall sample analysis in the question of BIM utilization in their final semester project
903 (Overall Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.9573)
BIM utilization Mean Std. Ranking Item-total Cronbach’s
Correlation Alpha
3D modeling 4.017 1.295 1 0.7991 0.9535
Automatic generation of quantities 3.717 1.342 2 0.7010 0.9570
Information exchange in an interoperable manner 3.700 1.357 3 0.8901 0.9499
Model checking in the cloud platform 3.350 1.482 9 0.7663 0.9547
Clash detection 2.700 1.555 10 0.6681 0.9590*
Planning of formwork and scaffolding 3.550 1.556 5 0.8588 0.9508
Assisting manual calculation 3.583 1.357 4 0.8092 0.9530
Scheduling of construction activities 3.450 1.545 7 0.8888 0.9495
3D site planning 3.500 1.578 6 0.8879 0.9496
Construction work breakdown and resource 3.383 1.552 8 0.8719 0.9503
allocation
904 *: An individual Cronbach’s Alpha value higher than the overall value suggests that survey participants

905

906

907

908

909

910

911

912

913

914

915

916

917

918

919

36
920

921

922

923

924 Table 5. Statistical results for subgroup analysis of students to the question of BIM utilization in
925 their final semester project
Subgroup Full BIM Construction Take-off Research Statistical
application planning/ estimate dissertation comparison
scheduling
Mean Post- Mean Post- Mean Post- Mean Post- F value p value
hoc hoc hoc hoc
BIM utilization group group group group
3D modeling 4.889 A 4.100 B 4.300 B 2.167 C 24.76 0.000*
Automatic 4.222 A 3.500 A 4.250 A 2.250 B 9.81 0.000*
generation of
quantities
Information 4.526 A 4.100 A&B 3.550 B 2.333 C 9.98 0.000*
exchange in an
interoperable
manner
Model checking in 4.316 A 2.600 B 3.600 A 2.083 B 9.66 0.000*
the cloud platform
Clash detection 3.421 A 2.100 B 2.600 A&B 2.083 B 2.72 0.053

Smart planning of 4.667 A 4.100 A 3.050 B 2.250 B 10.29 0.000*

formwork and
scaffolding
Assisting manual 4.263 A 3.600 A 3.750 A 2.250 B 7.46 0.000*
calculation
Scheduling of 4.722 A 4.000 A 2.800 B 2.167 B 14.00 0.000*
construction
activities
3D site planning 4.833 A 4.100 A 2.700 B 2.333 B 14.69 0.000*

Construction work 4.737 A 3.700 B 2.700 C 2.167 C 15.01 0.000*

breakdown and
resource
allocation
926 * A p value lower than 0.05 indicates significant differences of perceptions of students from different subgroups
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936

37
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944 Table 6. Overall sample analysis of students’ perceptions of their final semester project’s effects
945 (Overall Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.8119)
Effect Mean Std. Ranking Item-total Cronbach’s
Correlation Alpha
Professional knowledge in the CM discipline 4.344 0.680 2 0.5712 0.7895
BIM operation skill 4.115 1.185 4 0.4275 0.8160*
Self-directed learning skill 4.459 0.673 1 0.6114 0.7850
Teamwork skill 4.066 1.031 5 0.6344 0.7711
Research skill 3.787 1.127 6 0.4825 0.8024
Innovation skill 3.770 1.055 7 0.6199 0.7739
Hands-on skill 4.230 0.864 3 0.6500 0.7717
946 *: An individual Cronbach’s Alpha value higher than the overall value suggests that survey participants
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975

38
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983 Table 7. Statistical results for subgroup analysis of students’ perceptions of their final semester
984 project’s effects
Subgroup Full BIM Construction Take-off Research Statistical
application planning/ estimate dissertation comparison
scheduling
Mean Post- Mean Post- Mean Post- Mean Post- F value p value
hoc hoc hoc hoc
BIM utilization group group group group
Professional 4.316 A 4.200 A 4.400 A 4.417 A 0.24 0.867
knowledge in the
CM discipline
BIM operation 4.737 A 4.300 A 4.450 A 2.417 B 21.35 0.000*
skill
Self-directed 4.632 A 4.100 B 4.450 A&B 4.500 A&B 1.41 0.249
learning skill
Teamwork skill 4.790 A 4.300 A 3.600 B 3.500 B 7.88 0.000*
Research skill 3.684 A 3.700 A 3.600 A 4.333 A 1.21 0.315
Innovation skill 3.684 A 3.900 A 3.700 A 3.917 A 0.19 0.902
Hands-on skill 4.684 A 4.000 B&C 4.400 A&B 3.417 C 7.74 0.000*
985 * A p value lower than 0.05 indicates significant differences of perceptions of students from different subgroups
986

987

988

989

990

991

992

39
 993

994 Fig.1. Illustration of the workflow of a typical full BIM application team

995

996

997

998

999

1000

40
 a) Model saved in GTJ file b)Model saved in Autodesk c) Model saved in GCL file
Revit
1001 Fig.2.Digital models of the studied high-rise building project
1002
1003
1004

1005

1006

1007

1008

1009

1010

1011

1012

1013

1014

1015

41
 a) Building elevation shown in the digital b) Level of detail for foundation pit support
model
1016
1017 Fig.3. Digital visualization of building family members created in the digital platform
1018

1019

1020

1021

1022

1023

1024

1025

1026

1027

1028

1029

1030

42
 a) The interface of BIM-to-VR

b) Immersing walkthrough in one of the captured scenarios

1031 Note: the text window in the center of Fig.4-b) shows the none-geometric information of the selected building
1032 component (i.e., reinforced concrete slab). For example, clicking any building component in the digital model, the
1033 corresponding information (e.g., concrete strength) will be displayed in a window similar to what is shown in Fig.4-
1034 b).
1035
1036 Fig.4. Digital platform linking BIM to VR in the BIM group
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042

43
 a) 3D model in Autodesk Revit

b) 3D site planning at the foundation construction stage

1043 Fig.5. BIM application at different construction stages in the group work of construction
1044 planning/scheduling
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060

44
 a) An example of visualized scaffolding in the b) An example of wood formwork for reinforced
studied project concrete construction
1061
1062 Fig.6. Demonstration of the work in construction planning/scheduling
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069
1070
1071
1072
1073
1074
1075
1076
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1087
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096

45
1097
1098
1099

a) 3D visualization of the studied b) Column c) Reinforcement detals for shear walls

project reinforcement
1100 Fig.7. Examples of reinforcement details for a case study project
1101
1102
1103
1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110
1111
1112
1113
1114
1115
1116
1117
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1119

46
 a) Distribution of students opting different b) Distribution of students choosing different career options
project deliverables Note: Others included project owner representative, and
unspecified options
1120 Fig.8.Background information of student survey sample (N=61)
1121
1122

1123

47

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