Abstract
Site visits to construction projects are considered essential to help engineering students understand many of the topics included in the study courses. Site visits are also important in helping engineering students gain more knowledge about common procedures and materials used during the life-cycle of construction projects, and thus better prepare the undergraduate students for the real work after graduation. However, site visits for undergraduate student groups may include safety risks, in addition to the fact that trainees need to spend a considerably extended period of time for learning during the long life-cycle of construction projects. The aim of this study is to propose a project of a learning centre for engineering students that provides a safe and easy-to-reach site while allowing faster learning of engineering practices. The proposed project is its planning phase and is named Infrastructure Learning Hub (ILH). A questionnaire survey was conducted with 108 under-graduate students from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology at Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan (ZUJ). The questionnaire aims at revealing the evaluation of the engineering students about the training and site visits system currently applied in the University. Also, the questionnaire seeks the engineering students’ opinions about the importance of the proposed ILH and their preferable type for the project. The results of the questionnaires showed high importance for the implementation of the ILH project, and to have better coordination and scheduling for site visits with construction projects and organizations. This study intends to pinpoint the courses which require more practical emphasis in order to improve learning outcomes. The results can be very important for other engineering faculties to enhance the learning process and gain competitive advantages.
Highlights
Site visits to construction projects are essential for undergraduate engineering students to help them to become more familiar with the work environment, and to make them more ready for real work after graduation
A trainee needs to wait a full life-cycle of a construction project to go through all the different stages of a project, which is not possible during the limited time period specified for engineering training
The results showed that 98% of the respondents agree and strongly agree that site visits during the enrollment in engineering courses are needed and important for the effective learning and understanding of engineering courses
Summary
Site visits to construction projects are essential for undergraduate engineering students to help them to become more familiar with the work environment, and to make them more ready for real work after graduation. Training on construction projects is important on the final stages of the engineering study, but it is important from the early stages to improve students’ learning and understanding of the different engineering courses and subjects. Some projects, especially lab-scale and computerized models, were designed and implemented for the teaching and training of students in specific engineering topics. Some studies have developed models to test the behaviour of different materials when subjected to forces, such as earthquake and wind effects. Other studies have used software programs to build virtual models for teaching students such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Revit software [1]
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