Global Multidisciplinary Learning in Construction Education: Lessons from Virtual Collaboration of Building Design Teams
Abstract: Construction is a
multidisciplinary activity in which effective communication between parties is
essential for successful construction projects. However, the construction
industry has been characterised by fragmentation, which prevents seamless
communication. This problem has been further exacerbated by the need to
communicate over distance within a time constraint in an increasingly
interconnected and globalised construction sector. This has brought a
particular challenge to the education sector in preparing the future graduates
to work in this context. The paper reports on an on-going Hewlett
Packard-sponsored project to implement an innovative learning approach which
consists of distanced collaboration between students from different disciplines
from two Universities in the UK and Canada. The empirical work involved
interviews and questionnaire survey at different stages of the project. The
preliminary findings reveal the impact of disciplinary training on the
development of effective virtual collaboration, although this has been
moderated, to some extent, by their earlier (not so positive) experience during
the course of the project. The research provides a material for further
reflection and may serve as a useful consideration for future development of a
guiding framework for effective training of built environment professionals.
Author: Soetanto, R., Childs,
M., Poh, P., Austin, S., Hao, J
Journal Code: jptsipilgg120036
