Teaching of emerging technology in construction education

Abstract

As technology becomes ubiquitous in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, there is a need to evaluate how construction education is incorporating technology in the undergraduate curriculum. Given recent trends, we are especially interested in emerging technologies that facilitate AEC integration. In the first phase of the study, a scoping review of literature was used to identify publications related to eight emerging construction-related technology types. Following, the second phase focused on how these emerging technologies were taught in construction education. Of the 58 papers identified in the second phase, the overwhelming majoring discussed technology as pedagogical aid to improve visualization, while only 10 focused on instruction about the technology itself. Some technology types did not have any education specific publications identified by the researchers. Emerging themes from the data also suggest alignments between drones and surveying, and robotics and programming and computational thinking. A majority of the papers mention several technology types and Building Information Modelling (BIM), suggesting an integrated view of emerging construction technology. We conclude the review by suggesting the need for more publications related to teaching of new technology, so that instructors can share best practices in integrating them into the construction curriculum.