Peer and Student Review of an Online Construction Management Sustainability Course

Abstract

This paper presents the delivery system for an online construction management course in sustainability and the built environment at a major university. Information about the course layout, assignments, discussions, and assessments are provided in this paper. The course provides a systems approach to green building science that includes sustainable site development, water use efficiency, renewable energy, improving material use, indoor environmental quality, and design innovation. The authors conducted surveys to obtain the students' perspectives about the course. This study compared students' perspectives about the online course using a Likert-type survey from two different quarters and a peer review of a sustainability and the built environment course at a four-year university. The paper presents and discusses the results of these student surveys. A quality online learning and teaching peer assessment was also performed. Results provided insight on areas to improve the online course for future users. Preliminary findings suggest the primary area for improvement centered on the ways in which to improve the discussion forums and to enhance the course delivery. This paper aims to provide information and guidance to assist educators in enhancing online education in the area of sustainability and the built environment.

Construction Education Delivery Method Changes During COVID-19: Student Perspectives

“…Researchers have also identified best practices/procedures implemented in construction-specific courses to enhance student learning [18,19]. Researchers have also depicted how new content areas (such as Sustainability, Building Performance, and Building Information Modeling) can be implemented using the OLE [20][21][22]. Thus, one can argue that educators in the construction programs across the US were familiar with the OLE to a certain degree.…”

COVID-19 Impacts on AEC Educators

“…Numerous benefits, such as the convenience to the learner and educator (Arbaugh, 2000;NEA, 2001;Shea et al, 2005), economics and scalability (Deming et al, 2015), increased higher education access (NEA, 2001), and higher levels of student learning (NEA, 2000, Shea et al, 2001, and others could be attributed to the success of online education. Even within the AEC education, numerous researchers have depicted how online education can be delivered effectively (Gao et al, 2009;May and Brady, 2003;Ahmed et al, 2016;Kelting et al, 2016;Xie et al, 2006). At the same time, online content development and delivery can prove to be challenging for instructors, especially with the pandemic.…”

Covid-19 Impact on Faculty Research Productivity

“…In the US, this transition occurred in March or April 2020 (Langar et al, 2022a). Pre-pandemic researchers described how online construction education can be delivered effectively and successfully (Ahmed et al, 2016;Kelting et al, 2016). Some construction programs were already delivering construction courses via OLE.…”