A Systematic Course Design Approach to Guide the Development of a Construction Engineering and Management Capstone Course

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A Senior Capstone course is a hallmark of most undergraduate construction engineering and management (CEM) programs. Many undergraduate CEM programs implement their own capstone course within their curricula to emphasize preparing students for the realities of the construction industry. As in many other professional domains, CEM programs in the United States have demonstrated limited success producing graduates who possess the requisite problem-solving and critical thinking skills. To address this shortcoming, the authors propose developing a new Senior Capstone course using the project-based learning approach. The Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) Construction Management (CM) program is in the process of developing a Senior Capstone course, following the ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) approach which is one of the proven instructional design approaches. One of the main objectives of this study is to demonstrate the use of a systematic approach to develop a Senior Capstone course, which is designed for construction engineering and management programs. However, since this course is still in development, this paper only presents the extent of what the authors have completed for a Senior Capstone course development. The authors believe that this course, after being fully developed, will not only provide students with the opportunity to build and demonstrate problem-solving and critical thinking skills but also help them transition from the classroom to the workforce.