BIM-Enabled Pedagogy Approach: Using BIM as an Instructional Tool in Technology Courses

Abstract

Educators and practitioners have come to the consensus that building information modeling (BIM) has radically transformed how the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry practices and operates. The move from using traditional drafting-based modeling (DM) to BIM constitutes a new methodology rather than the simple introduction of a new tool. BIM has already become mainstream in practice. But there is limited number of publications that address how this critical development can be used effectively in higher education. The critical research goal of this study is to document a method of using BIM as an effective pedagogy to teach a large, mixed-level technology course. A BIM-enabled pedagogy (BEP) was developed and tested in a Building Materials and Construction Methods (BMCM) class to compare with traditional drafting-based modeling pedagogy (DMP). The preliminary results demonstrated that BEP is more effective than DMP for teaching technology courses in an architecture curriculum. The aims of this research are as follows: (1) introduce an integrated, BIM-enabled pedagogy in the BMCM course; (2) identify applicable BIM-based techniques useful in architectural education; and (3) present some interesting findings regarding the effectiveness of this pedagogy for students at different levels. The pedagogical approach is discussed, and further research tasks are identified.