An Experience of a Multidisciplinary Project Involving Architectural Design, Quantity Takeoff and Virtual Reality Framed Within TAC-ABET Accreditation Criteria

Introduction

The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (A/E/C) industry relies on well-trained professionals that share a collective objective of completing a construction project. The professionals bring their expertise in their corresponding fields and collaborate with other professionals to accomplish a common project. As stated by Septelka, the A/E/C industry requires teamwork among its professions; therefore universities need to review their current academic model and look for ways to increase collaboration between design and construction programs (Septelka, 2002).  This collaboration in the A/E/C industry is not a new concept and neither is the concept of multidisciplinary collaboration in an academic setting (Davis   et al., 1996, Wyrick et al., 1996, Robson et al., 1997, Septelka, 2000 as cited by Septelka 2002). Thus, the work presented in this paper is an academic setting implementation of a multidisciplinary project aiming to enhance the learning experience of the students (through multidisciplinary collaboration) and to support the TAC-ABET accreditation process (through enhancing students outcomes).

Method

The Participants

Any time we can simulate an industry condition in the classroom, the students get a better sense of what they will encounter following graduation (Considine 2001) Thus, in an effort to provide a more enriching learning experience to students in the Architecture (ACT), Construction Management (BCT) and Software Engineering (SET) programs at an University in Mississippi, this project involved student participating in three courses (one course from each discipline). These courses were: Architectural Senior Project II (ACT 401), Construction Estimating I (BCT 454) and Virtual Reality I (SET 425).

This multidisciplinary project took place during Spring 2002 with eighty-five (85) students participating. There were ten (10) ACT students, thirty (30) BCT students and forty-five (45) SET students, most of these students had junior or senior standing.

The Project

The project was designed to encourage collaboration (through the different expertise of the participants) and to foster students’ capacity to demonstrate their abilities in their corresponding field as outlined by Criterion 1 of TAC-ABET (through the work of the participants on their corresponding field). The students from ACT prepared the set of plans for the project. The students from BCT estimated the quantities of the project.  And the students from SET created the Virtual Reality models.

 Each ACT student prepared a set of drawings for a commercial building. Thus, there were ten (10) different commercial construction projects. Each project was assigned to three (3) BCT students that did not formally interact among themselves. The formal interaction took place between students of different disciplines. Likewise, four (4) SET students were assigned to each set of drawings (each student also worked individually).  This diversity on the set of drawings was done to reduce the temptation to unethical behavior among the participants.

The interaction among the students of the different disciplines was mainly through electronic media (e-mail and drawing files). The ACT students provided the set of plans to the SET and BCT students in an electronic format through placing the drawing files in a web site. The format used to place the set of drawings on the web was .dxf. Dxf are read-only files. Therefore, these type of files prevented students from other disciplines to intentionally or unintentionally modifying the original drawing files. As stated by Miller, in a professional environment this should reduce the potential for claims being made based upon document alterations (Miller 2002). In addition of placing the files on a web site, the student formally communicated through e-mail.

Following the placement of the set of drawing files in the web site, the ACT students helped the BCT and SET students to plot and read the set of plans.  While the BCT students were doing the quantity take-off, they provided feedback to the ACT students regarding missing information in the set of plans.  ACT students provided feedback to the BCT students regarding inaccurate estimating. ACT students provided information to the SET students regarding the project design. SET students provided to both ACT and BCT students the Virtual Reality models of the projects.  The Virtual Realty models were introduced because; previous studies indicate that Virtual Reality fosters active learning with high level of engagement and acceptance (Sulbaran 2001). Additionally, Virtual Reality environments give the students the opportunity to experiment with their own ideas through a meaningful display (Sulbaran 2001)

Throughout the project, it was emphasized the importance of continuous communication among the ACT, BCT and SET students to successfully accomplish a common goal of delivering a project that can be built with the least amount of unforeseen problems and deficiencies.         

The Project Deliverables

Since the students brought their expertise in their corresponding field, the deliverable for each discipline student (although related to one of the ten commercial buildings) was different. The set of drawings to be delivered by the ACT students included: title sheet, site plan sheets, architectural sheets, structural sheets, mechanical sheets, plumbing sheets and electrical sheets. The deliverable of the BCT students included: description of the specific project, estimated and real date of completion, number of hours invested in each division and quantity takeoff. The quantity takeoff to be delivered by the BCT students (following the Construction Specifications Institute Divisions) included: division 2 (site work), division 3 (concrete), division 4 (masonry), division 5 (metals), division 6 (wood and plastics), division 7 (thermal and moisture protection), division 8 (doors and windows), division 9 (finishes) and division 16 (electrical).   The deliverable of the SET students was to produce a highly accurate Virtual Reality model of the project from the set of drawings produced by the ACT students.

The Survey

During the five and a half (5½) weeks multidisciplinary project, the students were encouraged to give their perspective to the faculties in a free flow format regarding the development of the project.  Additionally, at the end of the project a survey was given to each participant in all disciplines (ACT, BCT & SET). This survey was developed to assess the students’ perspective of the multidisciplinary project framed within Criterion 1 of the TAC-ABET accreditation. Criterion 1 of the TAC-ABET accreditation states that the institutions are responsible to demonstrate that the graduates have (TAC-ABET 2000):

a.        an appropriate mastery of the knowledge, techniques, skills, and modern tools of their disciplines,

b.       an ability to apply current knowledge and adapt to emerging applications of mathematics, science, engineering, and technology,

c.        an ability to conduct, analyze, and interpret experiments and apply results to improve processes,

d.       an ability to apply creativity in the design of systems, components, or processes appropriate to program objectives,

e.        an ability to function effectively on teams,

f.         an ability to identify, analyze, and solve technical problems,

g.       an ability to communicate effectively,

h.       a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in lifelong learning,

i.         an ability to understand professional, ethical, and social responsibilities,

j.         respect for diversity and a knowledge of contemporary professional, societal, and global issues, and

k.        a commitment to quality, timelines and continuous improvement.

In addition to frame the survey within the Criterion 1 of the TAC-ABET accreditation, parameters for the development of a scholarly survey were considered. There are a variety of good references for scholarly survey and assessment. The reference that most influenced the survey used in this work was “Designing and Conducting Survey Research, by Rea, L., Parker, R. Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997” (Rea 1997). Following are the main parameters considered for the survey: 

a.        Length of the survey: The survey was limited to 10 minutes. This time was selected, because the longer the survey, the less willing is the participant to provide information or even worse, the information could be adversely affected.

b.       Number of pages: The survey was limited to 2 pages. This number of pages was selected, because it plays an important psychological effect on the participants. Participants tend to think that fewer pages require less time to complete. This was achieved by reducing the text size and listing the options across rather than vertical.

c.        Minimum demographic questions: The survey had a minimum number of demographic questions.  Standard questions such as marital status and salary were considered not relevant. Therefore, they were not included. This allows the survey to focus more on the multidisciplinary learning experience of the students.

d.       Use of categories: The survey used categories for questions related to grades (Overall Grade Average, Class Grades, and Anticipated Project Grade). This was done because some students might be reluctant to provide their grades, however they will be willing to provide the range of their grade. Additionally, the use of categories also facilitated the analysis of the data.

e.        Use of scales: The survey used Likert scale. This was used to attempt to measure students’ perspective on the multidisciplinary project framed within the Criterion 1 of TAC-ABET.

f.         Pre-testing: The survey was pre-tested with 5 people. This was done to screen the survey before the data-collection.

g.       Simple wording: The survey used simple, clear, straightforward and brief wording. Additionally, the wording was carefully selected within the framework of criterion 1 of TAC-ABET.

h.       Close and open-ended questions: The survey was mainly composed of close-ended questions (questions that provide a fixed number of alternative responses). This was done because this type of questions allows easier comparison and analysis of the responses. The survey also included some open-ended questions. These questions were included to overcome the constraints of fixed alternative responses in the close-ended questions. 

i.         Questions sequencing:  The survey was carefully prepared to place questions in a logical sequence. The questions were also grouped to facilitate the answers without distorting the data.

j.         Reliability: The survey had split-half for internal consistency.  This was used, because, as stated by Gay, it is a commonly used internal consistency procedure that requires only one administration of the survey. This one time administration eliminates certain sources of error, such as difference in survey conditions, which can occur in a test-retest situation (Gay 1996)

Results and Discussion

At the end of the project, the survey was administered to the three disciplines (ACT, BCT and SET). Nine out of the 10 ACT participating students filled out the survey, 25 out of the 30 BCT participating students filled out the survey and 25 out of the 45 SET participating students filled out the survey. The participants’ demographic information is presented in Table 1 discriminated by discipline.  It can be observed in Table 1 that most of the participants were senior, Caucasian students in their early 20s.  

Table 1

Demographic Information of the Multidisciplinary Project Participants

To check for the survey reliability, the twenty (20) questions framed within TAC-ABET were divided in two equivalents halves. A correlation coefficient of both halves was calculated using Pearson for each discipline, excluding SET because not TAC-ABET related questions were included in the survey for this discipline. After calculating the coefficient for each discipline, they were corrected using the Spearman-Brown prophecy formula to consider the reliability of the complete survey and not only half of it. The final correlation coefficient obtained for the ACT survey was 0.91 and for the BCT survey was 0.89. Considering that for a positive correlation the coefficient could range from 0 (no correlation) to 1 (exact correlation), the correlation coefficients obtained for this survey indicate that there is a very high level of consistency within the survey.  Meaning that the survey gathered the students’ perspective consistently.

The students’ perspective regarding the opportunity given by the project to foster their competences within the Criterion 1 of the TAC-ABET are presented in table 2. Table 2 presents in the first column the sub-criteria within criterion 1 of the TAC-ABET considered on this work. The second and third columns show the distribution of students’ answers for each sub-criteria. And the last column, presents the total number of answers obtained for each sub-criteria.

 In Table 2, it can be observed that most of the students strongly agreed or agreed that the multidisciplinary project gave them the opportunity to enhance their learning experience. This learning experience directly correlates with the TAC-ABET accreditation criterion 1. It can be also observed that in all sub-criteria the ACT participants had a higher percentage of strongly agreed answers. This might be due to the tremendous amount of feedback given by the BCT students to the ACT students regarding the set of drawing. This feedback significantly supported the ACT students’ effort to improve their set of drawings that could be built with the least amount of unforeseen problems and deficiencies.

Table 2. 

Students’ Level of opinion of the opportunity given by the multidisciplinary project as they pertain to the TAC-ABET Criterion 1.

Additionally, it is interesting to notice that regarding sub-criteria ‘e’ (an ability to function effectively on teams), 9% of the BCT students strongly disagree or disagree that the project gave them the opportunity to effectively function on a team. One possible reason for this opinion, could be that most of the communication for this project was done electronically, limiting the students view of the other students’ effort towards their common goal. Additionally, there was not “Team-Grade” and each discipline was responsible for working in their corresponding field of expertise, thus it is possible that this hampered the BCT students’ vision of their underlining teamwork. Furthermore, regarding sub-criteria ‘j’, it is observable that BCT students had lower level of agreement on the respect for diversity than the ACT. It is possible that this was due to the fact that most of the set of drawings produced by the ACT students were missing information required by the BCT students to perform their quantity takeoff.

When the students were asked the question “How beneficial was this project for you?”  72% of the BCT students answered either “Extremely Beneficial” or “Very Beneficial”, only 28% of the BCT students answered “Somewhat” and none answered “Not Very or Not at all”.  To the same question, 44% of the ACT students answered either “Extremely Beneficial” or “Very Beneficial”, 44% of the ACT students answered “Somewhat”, 12% of the ACT students answered “Not Very” and none answered “Not at all”. 68% of the SET students answered either “Extremely Beneficial” or “Very Beneficial”, 23% of the SET students answered “Somewhat” and 10% of the SET students answered either “Not Very or Not at all”. This diversity on the disciplines perspective of the project benefits, could be due to the difference in the deliverables for each discipline.

The Virtual Reality models created by the SET students were presented to the BCT students one week before the completion of the quantity takeoff. The BCT students were able to identify the building, but the Virtual Reality models were not completed. Thus, although experiments involving Virtual Reality Environments have suggested an enhancement on the learning experience (Sulbaran 2000), the only potential benefit provided by the Virtual Reality Models to the BCT students during this project was to corroborate their mental model of the building. They had created a mental model of the building based on the set of drawings and the Virtual Reality Model provided a visual representation of such pre-conceived model. It is planned that in future deployment of this multidisciplinary project, the SET participants will begin the creation of the Virtual Reality earlier during the semester to support better the quantity takeoff done by the BCT students and the design done by the ACT students.

Ninety six percent of the BCT students, 89% of the ACT students, and 71% of the SET students thought that this project should be given to upcoming students. The students’ most common suggestions were: have a kick-off meeting, ensure higher level of completeness in the set of drawings and either provide the printed set of drawings or provide formal training for printing the drawings to the BCT students. The BCT students suggested increasing the time of the project from five and a half (5 ½) weeks to seven (7) weeks.

Summary

This first attempt at a University in Mississippi to involve students from different disciplines to achieve a common A/E/C project proved to be an excellent learning experience for the students and for the faculty participating.  The students had the opportunity to collaborate with students in other disciplines.  This multidisciplinary collaboration enhanced the students learning experience by fostering participants’ capability in their corresponding field while gaining some understanding of the work of other disciplines. Additionally, the students (with some level of frustration) realized the importance of somebody else work on their own work. This experience gave the students the opportunity to increase their understanding of the multidisciplinary requirement of a project. Additionally, this type of project can be used to support the TAC-
ABET accreditation process by addressing Criterion 1. Finally, the wealth of feedback given by the participants will help improve this project for future deployment.

Future Work

The lessons learned with this multidisciplinary project will be the foundation to continue deploying projects that foster interdisciplinary collaboration. The authors will continue deploying projects as the one presented here to enlarge the sample size. Additionally, the author is planning the increase the role of Virtual Realty models in this type of project. The project described in this paper can be found at: http://www.set.usm.edu/tsulbaran

Acknowledgement

The author would like to acknowledge Prof. William Crosby and Prof. Desmond Fletcher for actively participating in the deployment of this multidisciplinary project.  The author would also like to acknowledge Prof. Robert Newsome, Prof. David Marchman, Dr. Ali Adel and Dr. Shelton Houston for their valuable input during the development and assessment of this project. Finally, the author would like to recognize the valuable feedback given by the students.

Reference

Considine, C. (2001). Improving a Student’s Understanding of the Competitive Bid: A Mock Bid Exercise Used in the Traditional and Distance Education Classroom. ASC Proceeding of the 37^th Annual Conference, 49-58.

Gay, L.R. (1996) Educational Research Competencies for Analysis and Application (5^th Ed.). New Jersey: Merril

Miller, K., Mills, T. (2002). Teaching Paperless Detailed Quantity Take-off and Estimating. ASC Proceeding of the 38^th Annual Conference, 33-40.

Rea, L.,& Paker., (1997).  Designing and Conducting Survey Research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers

Septelka, D.(2002). The Design-Build Charrette – An Educational Model for Teaching Multidiscipline Team Collaboration. ASC Proceedings of the 38^th Annual Conference. Pp 85-96

Sulbaran, T. Baker, N. (2000) Enhancing Engineering Education through Distributed Virtual Reality.   Frontier in Education Proceeding ASEE/IEEE, S1D-13.

Sulbaran, T. & Baker, N.  (2001). A Study of Engineering Students Interaction with Distributed Virtual Reality in the Classroom, ASEE_SE Proceeding Conference.

TAC-ABET (2000). Criteria For Accrediting Engineering Technology Programs. Baltimore: ABET.