Abstract:

This paper presents a methodological framework of a teaching innovation project carried out jointly by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL) and the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia (UPV) in the context of Civil Engineering and describes some of its results. The Project implements two methodological approaches in a coordinated manner: Project Based Learning (PBL) and Building Information Modeling (BIM). The main objective of the experience is to develop both the knowledge and skills of students of Civil Engineering at UNAL in two areas simultaneously: project management and BIM. PBL implies the collaborative development of professional content knowledge and skills within the context of a real engineering project and/or problem around which the whole learning process is structured. It is an active teaching methodology that is particularly relevant in the teaching of Engineering at higher education levels, since it is underpinned by two key aspects of Engineering training: task-based learning and teamwork. PBL is also an adequate pedagogical approach to train Civil Engineering students in the professional methodology known as BIM, which shares a series of fundamental components and characteristics with PBL. Therefore, the aim of this research work is, firstly, to propose a methodological framework to integrate PBL and BIM in the teaching of Civil Engineering, secondly, to ascertain the attitudes and feelings of students towards the integration of these two approaches, as well as their degree of motivation, and, finally, to present a case study where PBL and BIM were integrated in a Civil Engineering course at the UNAL. The hypothesis is that students’ positive attitudes and high levels of motivation will yield positive academic results in terms of the improvement of the students’ knowledge and skills. In order to meet this threefold objective, this work, first, discusses the pedagogical rationale of the project and the main components of PBL and BIM to propose a methodological framework that can serve to assist the integration of these methodologies in other similar Engineering education environments. Then, the results of a study are presented which show a satisfactory level of students’ motivational and attitudinal factors that justifies the integration of the methodologies and are assumed to be beneficial in terms of the improvement of some fundamental BIM-related knowledge and skills of a group of students of Civil Engineering at UNAL. The research design of this study comprises a questionnaire which was conducted before the integration of PBL and BIM was applied in the real teaching practice of a Civil Engineering course. Finally, the study presents a case study of PBL-BIM integration at the Colombian institution, which also includes a questionnaire where students reflect on the teaching and learning experience and give their opinion about the implementation of this teaching innovation project. Both questionnaires provide evidence about the potential benefits of the integrative teaching approach. The positive results of this study suggest the pedagogical relevance and suitability of implementing PBL and BIM in an integrated and coordinated way in university Engineering programs. Nevertheless, due to the limitations of this study as regards the number of students, further research would be required to propose the best methodological framework to integrate these two teaching and working approaches efficiently.

Keywords:

Project-based Learning (PBL), Building Information Modelling (BIM), Engineering education, motivation, students’ attitudes.