Abstract:

How to convey a complex message in terms readily understandable by people with different backgrounds? An experienced trainer should understand the type of audience in front of her; in class, students are usually the same age, but in cases of courses dedicated to acquiring specific knowledge, the chance is to face people of different ages, different ambitions, passionate or not and with different skills. How to better manage and enhance their differences? Thinking that they can all learn from each other, the best option is to open discussion with them in order to stimulate their curiosity.

Within the present article, a feedback on an educational course related to Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology is given. In that case the audience included a mixed bunch of young students having several backgrounds, some of them were University students, some others just finished the surveyor school. The challenge here was finding a good mean of communication to meet the needs of both kind of audience.

First of all, when approaching lessons, a clear statement of who and what is going to be presented is paramount; in order to be listened when explaining something, it is important to establish a connection, a relationship with the audience to reach the point they trust you and are willing to believe in what you are saying. For this reason, the first part of the course consisted of a presentation of the team staff working at the University laboratory with the speakers. The aim was to highlight the organization of research projects, the relationship with students, the innovative technologies for Virtual and Augmented Reality (VAR) purchased and currently available at the lab. This communication used several forms of support, mainly multimedia, in order to be more effective in conveying the message: “everything which is made in this lab is very cool!”. It actually worked well, so the attempt of attracting attention was successful.

Another key point in order to arise the interest around the topics presented within the lessons involved operational activities, in which participants were asked to perform exercises to apply and try out what they listened to. Again, this presentation support tool has proved to be very effective because, firstly, the idea of applying theoretical concepts into practice forced students to remain focused during the whole lesson. Furthermore, the fact of reviewing and reflecting on some topics previously presented strengthened their knowledge on those concepts, because there is no better way of understanding than doing.

The last part of the presentation involved the direct interaction with the audience during the presentation itself; at first the whole topic was explained, then students were asked to give answers on the basis of their own interpretation of the topic. This step was fundamental in understanding the level of knowledge acquired by the audience.

To conclude, the experience introduced in this text showed the relevance of methods and support tools in conveying a message to a specific target audience. It is not just a question of preparing and creating relevant contents, other aspects must also be taken into account. Adapting ways of communicating with the audience trying to inspire young participants even using non-conventional materials seems an efficient channel to stimulate their curiosity and establish a connection with their interests.

Keywords:

Education, BIM, Support tools, VAR, Communication, Awareness, Creating interests.