What is it about?

this chapter first emphasizes the significance of VR integration in the Construction Engineering Education and Training (CEET) process. Then, it introduces the outcomes of a funded research project about investigating the potentials and challenges that would face the integration of VR, as a student’s learning and self-assessment tool, in Building Construction (BC) education at the Architectural Engineering (AE) Program offered at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). It concludes with a proposed transformation process based on the utilization of VR in delivering BC courses and it also specifies the suggested actors, activities, tools, and expected outcomes of this process.

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Why is it important?

As for the future trends in virtual learning tools in the field of building construction, both “Collaborative VR” and the Augmented Reality (AR) technology seem promising. First, the need for Collaborative VR has resulted from the high demand for transforming VR classroom-based teaching into online multi-user collaborative simulation that avails real-time teaching and better achieve the educational objectives of the Building Construction curricula. Known also as “Social VR”, Collaborative VR has the potential to positively affect the student’s accessibility to updated knowledge through distance learning that remotely connects the student with wide audience independently from the constraints of place and time and with significantly lower cost if compared with classroom-based VR techniques. This will also increase the student’s collaborative and knowledge sharing skills that would enormously help them in their professional life. The call for adopting Collaborative VR is supported by an increasing number of dedicated digital platforms that are showing a strong potential in supporting experiential learning as a pedagogical tool in the field of building construction and construction project management. The idea is to provide a virtual place for many users to interact, explore various experiences and share knowledge among each other through using enactive role-play avatars. Through role-playing the instructors and the learners can synchronously and asynchronously collaborate via the avatars within an immersive VR environment in a way that improves the attainment of the learning outcomes especially those related to the real-life experiences

Perspectives

It is envisaged that through applying this proposed process the gap between what the construction industry expects from architectural engineering graduates on the one hand, and what academia is producing on the other hand, will be bridged to a large extent. This will also contribute to the enhancement of the connections between construction industry and both the faculty and the students, especially with the fact that the building construction industry is rapidly moving towards full digitized immersive building construction techniques. Still, more effort is needed for the real improvement of architectural engineering curricula and especially in building construction to meet future workforce needs. The output of this research project also contributes to the active effort in producing research related to exploring the applicability of VR systems in university classrooms. Still, it is noteworthily mentioning that VR utilization was associated with some problems, as discussed in this research. Some students found wearing the HMD not comfortable, while others experienced some physiological problems such as headache and dizziness. But it is hoped that with more near future advancement in VR technologies these and other similar problems associated with the current use of VR systems will disappear.

Dr Khaled Galal Ahmed
UAEU

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This page is a summary of: Virtual Reality as a Student's Learning and Self-Assessment Tool in Building Construction Education A Proposed Process, March 2022, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1201/9781003051381-8.
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