Incorporation of classroom tasks that improve the abilities of students to manage the complex dynamics, pressures, and demands of construction sites is becoming critical to meet the demands of the construction industry. These goals are, however, difficult to incorporate using traditional educational tools. This paper describes the work being performed as part of a three-year project that has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The goal of the project is to enhance the undergraduate construction engineering and management education by incorporating practical content into the construction engineering and management curricula, thus bridging the gap between the classroom and the construction site. These enhancements are accomplished by developing: 1) an Internet-based Interactive Construction Management Learning System (ICMLS) and 2) an advising and mentorship program that enhances practitioner-involvement. ICMLS uses Internet-based interactive and adaptive learning environments to train students in the areas of construction methods, equipment and processes. This system is being developed using multimedia, Internet-based computing, databases, discrete-event simulation, and Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML).

In the field of civil/geotechnical engineering, students conduct a variety of soil tests to fulfill undergraduate soil mechanics course requirement. There is a range of problems in soil laboratory instruction, such as, some students not getting hands on experience of conducting tests because of inadequate number of apparatus, time constraints and inability in exciting students to seriously conduct the experiments. However when these laboratory soil tests are simulated with multimedia interaction and visualization techniques, the student's conceptual understanding of soil mechanics is enhanced. The methodology presented in this paper is based on presenting students with simulation of laboratory soil tests, which creates an individualized, interactive and guided learning environment. The main elements of this approach are: a means of assimilating the students' interactive learning knowledge and behavior (user model), representation of the instructor's guidance and assessment knowledge (tutor model), utilization of motivational techniques such as multimedia, animation (visual model) and simulated laboratory test model (simulation model). As an example, the presented paper provides the learning environment to understand soil characteristics such as grain size distribution. The approach adopted in this research is that of intelligent interactive learning environment, which is developed, using Java simulation. This contains basic interrelated definitions (concepts), various graphic presentation of soil characteristics, test procedures and Java simulation of dynamic laboratory testing. Although the presented approach is being applied to understand basic soil mechanics, it employs a generic architecture, which is discipline independent and can be adapted to any other similar domain which will certainly promote and enhance students' understanding.

The teaching of reinforced concrete design for undergraduate students presents a major challenge to the civil engineering instructors because of the need to instill creative and innovative attitudes within a discipline of physical behavior. Conventional instructor-based approaches to teaching do not lend themselves to open-ended problem solving in reinforced concrete design due to some identifiable difficulties. The main difficulties are lack of teaching aid to clearly explain the complexities of the various structural design principles, inability of individualized tutoring and inadequate or non-existent of visual learning environment, and inability to inspire students to interactively study structural design concepts. The teaching methodology presented in this paper is based on presenting students with an individualized, interactive and guided learning environment. The main elements of this approach are: a means of assimilating the students interactive learning knowledge and behavior (user model), representation of the instructor's guidance and assessment knowledge (tutor model), utilization of motivational techniques such as multimedia, animation (visual model) and navigation of designed model (VRML model). Several principles are taken into consideration when designing such learning environment. These include the structuring of the courseware material with respect to the content, presentation, modularity, identifying and utilizing the teaching strategies involved in the learning process. The approach adopted in this research is that of intelligent interactive learning environment, which is developed, using VRML and Java programming languages. This contains basic interrelated definitions (concepts), various diagrams of structural behaviors such as stress and strain diagrams, procedures and VRML using Java applets for dynamic structural design. Although the presented approach is being applied to reinforced concrete design, it employs a generic architecture, which is discipline independent and may be adapted to any other similar domain which will certainly promote and enhance students' understanding.

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