Implementing Collaborative Learning Platforms in Construction Management Education

Over the last few decades, the investments in more complicated construction projects, involving multiple disciplines and different teams, have increased the need for more complex communication means. The purpose of communication methods is to ensure higher levels of coordination between project participants (owners, architects, engineers, contractors, suppliers, etc.). Adequate communication brings many benefits to a project, such as improved team performance due to information exchange, increased knowledge of other participants’ skills or their availability. Building Information Modelling (BIM) has the ability to aggregate information on construction projects and facilitate the design, construction, and facility management processes. Therefore, including BIM classes in construction management education is of utmost importance for the success of students. Moreover, introducing cloud collaboration to these classes helps students better understand the collaborative aspect of the construction industry. The purpose of this paper is to study the benefits of Autodesk Next Gen BIM 360 brought to a graduate BIM class. Students of this class were divided into groups and asked to model the different disciplines of a project using Autodesk Revit© while collaborating the project on Next Gen BIM 360. At the end of the semester, students reported the benefits and drawbacks of Next Gen BIM 360. The benefits included the ease of use of the platform, better communication of ideas and concerns using Next Gen BIM 360 cloud services, real-time collaboration opportunities, and model coordination on the cloud.