Del E. Webb School of Construction

Arizona State University

The course Microcomputer Applications in Construction (CON 25 1) was originally developed to teach computer literacy to undergraduate students. Basic computer skills were taught, which included certain functions in spreadsheets, word processors, and databases. Beginning in the Fall of 1995, a section on multimedia application development was added. Based on the experience gained through teaching CON 25 1, as well as on the results of surveys of industry needs and student opinions, a new syllabus was devised for the course. The methodology used to create the new syllabus, results of the research, and recommendations for continuous monitoring of the course and adaptation to change are presented in this paper.

Key Words: Computer Education, Multimedia, Computing in Construction, Undergraduate Education.

The course Microcomputer Applications in Construction (CON 251) was originally developed to teach computer literacy to undergraduate students. Basic computer skills were taught, which included certain functions in spreadsheets, word processors, and databases. The competency of the students entering this course has increased during the years due to modifications of the perquisite engineering core class, Introduction to Engineering (ECE 100), wider spread of ownership of personal computers among the incoming students, and increases in preparation in grades K- 12.

During the 1994 academic year, the skill level of students at the beginning of the class was checked through a series of interviews and a survey that asked the students to self-select their competency level in a number of software applications. This evaluation indicated that the student entering CON 251 in 1994 was relatively capable in word processing and spreadsheets but not as capable in database management and graphics (Walsh and Breha, 1996). Newer ways of information storage and manipulation, such as multimedia or hypertext, were found to be practically beyond the limits of construction students.

Beginning in the Fall semester of 1995 the CON 251 course was changed to incorporate the use of World Wide Web (WWW) and multimedia programming (Walsh and Brefla, 1996). This change was undertaken to maintain a cutting edge position in the course and to expose students to many advanced topics in order to reduce computer anxiety. Additionally, the instructors believed that in the relatively near future construction companies would be requiring an even more advanced knowledge of computer applications from their new employees. It is anticipated that the use of multimedia and intranets as a means of information management will increase (Aminmansour, 1994).

After three semesters of teaching according to the modified syllabus, an analysis was performed to evaluate the performance of the course (how well it serves the students and the construction industry). A broader analysis was also performed to establish the optimal balance between the different components of the course. This paper presents the methodology applied for the analysis and the results obtained.

Background

One of the major changes to CON 251 in the Fall of 1995 was the introduction of a final project. The project consisted of the development of a multimedia application that would illustrate a construction related topic. This project was to be developed in teams of three to four students. The time spent by each of the teams to prepare their presentation varied significantly, from a couple of days up to several weeks.

The presentations proved to be very interesting. Some teams made their presentations unidirectional, just as they would create a slide show with presentation software. Other teams made their presentations similar to the World Wide Web with hypertext links. One team linked its presentation to an external spreadsheet, where the main part of the application was located. Another team linked their application to a spreadsheet that created a database, keeping records of the users.

After the course was concluded in the Fall of 1996, each team was asked, "What did your team get out of the creation of this application?" The following list shows a summary of the responses.

Although the answers were interesting and proved again that there is some use in every learning experience, the most important question generated was for the instructor: "What should an introductory computer course for constructors include?"

Methodology

A literature review was conducted to answer the above question and to learn from the experience of other universities. At the same time, a survey was conducted among the CON 251 students and representatives of construction companies. The purpose of the survey was to perceive the current expectations from the graduating students and to assess the expected computer application skills in 10 to 15 years. Once this information was compiled, recommendations for a revised syllabus were made, based on an analysis of the available time and required effort.

Figure 1 outlines the process that was followed to accomplish the objectives of this research.

The individual steps included:

1. The initial status of the course. A description of the topics taught currently in the course and the time spent on each one of them is shown in Table 2.
2. The second step was divided into three different parts:
   1. The development of a questionnaire to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of the course in particular topics, and the students' perception of the importance of those topics.
   2. Archival research to evaluate the degree to which some other universities are incorporating multimedia.
   3. Interviews with representatives from construction companies to determine the computer tools they expect their future employees to know.
3. The creation of an outline that combines industry expectation and curricula from other universities.
4. Student questionnaires were evaluated. Depending on the apparent effectiveness of each topic and the results of step 3, the time spent on each topic was modified.
5. A proposed syllabus was created to be taught in the course CON 25 1. The syllabus was based on a duration of 28 classes (75 minutes/class) during a semester.

The remainder of this paper describes the major steps and the results of the research.

Student Opinion

The modified course CON 251 was delivered during three consecutive semesters to approximately thirty-five students and had a very ambitious syllabus covering the following areas (in chronological order):

1. Microcomputers and Information: terminology, hardware, software.
2. Internet: surfing, searching, style, HTML.
3. Presentation software: advanced techniques, presentation style, and timing.
4. Word processing: advanced features, office automation.
5. Multimedia applications (team project): editing of photographic images, recording of sounds, multimedia programming. Students were asked to develop a multimedia application that described a construction-related topic. Each team selected a topic approved by the professor.
6. Spreadsheets (individual and team assignments): creating a macro-driven spreadsheet. Advanced topics were built around the crane selection problem presented by Paulson (1995).
7. Databases: creation of relational databases, queries, input forms and reports, choosing between databases and spreadsheets.

At the end of the Fall of 1996, an extensive questionnaire was administered to the students to measure the knowledge gained in all the areas taught during the course. The questionnaire was designed to allow the researchers to evaluate if the time spent in the different areas was appropriate. It was divided into several sections for each of the topics, as shown in Table 1. Each section was further divided into detailed questions regarding specific skills. The participation of the students was voluntary and anonymous. Of the thirty-five students in the course, 18 answered the questionnaire.

Table 1.

For each concept or skill, the students were given three options regarding their knowledge:

1. Concept was known before entering the course.
2. Concept was learned during the course.
3. The concept is unknown and the student did not learn it during the course.

The results for each subject were counted. When the results indicated that more than 50% of the students already knew a concept that was taught in the course, we concluded that it was of general knowledge and the time spent in teaching that concept could be reallocated. The following topics fell into this category:

1. The general use of the Internet (Surfing). More than 50% of the students believed themselves highly competent in all skills except assessing the value of a Web page.
2. The basic skills of Microsoft PowerPoint, except how to add sound to a slide.
3. In Microsoft Word, the basic skills of formatting, page setup, graphics, editing, and revisions. The use of graphics and images was less clear.
4. In Microsoft Excel, the basic skills, including the use of cells and ranges. The use of functions and charts was less clear.

When the results indicated that more than 50% of the students learned the concept during the course, we concluded that the time spent for that concept was appropriate and it should be taught using the same method used during the semester. This category included the following topics:

1. Assessing the value of a Web page. The concepts also related to the creation of a Web page, except for the part that related to Java scripts.
2. Microsoft PowerPoint slide layout, effects, and animation.
3. Microsoft Excel functions, macros, dialog boxes, program documentation and data organization.
4. Multimedia programming skills and component (sound, images, etc.) input.
5. Microsoft Access, essentially all skills.

When the results indicated that more than 50% of the students did not know the concept before, nor did they learn the concept during the course, we concluded that the concept required more time and should be approached on a more basic level. The following concepts were included in this category:

1. The use of Java for the Internet.
2. The use of indexes and tables in Microsoft Word.
3. Some concepts in Microsoft Access.

The final part of the questionnaire gave the students the opportunity to evaluate the importance of the course content by ranking each concept and each subject area on a scale of 1-5 (least important to most important). This evaluation gave us a way to consider the students' perspective on the importance of course topics. Figure 2 shows the results of the subject area evaluations.

Literature Review

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Last updated: September 09, 2004.