Building information modeling education for construction engineering and management II: Procedures and implementation case study

The construction industry needs graduate engineers with knowledge and skills in building information modeling (BIM). A detailed set of 39 topics required for BIM competence in construction management, together with specific targets for competency in each topic, was recently compiled on the basis of research into the needs of industry. However, only a handful of universities have introduced BIM topics into their curricula for construction engineering and management (CEM) students. A set of guidelines for the integration of BIM topics into CEM curricula has been developed and tested at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The BIM education interventions in four out of seven courses were planned, implemented, and evaluated over three semesters. The experiments showed that BIM should be introduced not only as a topic in its own right, but more importantly, also as a tool for performing the engineering tasks taught within design, analysis, and management courses. Further, knowledge of the soft skills of information sharing and knowledge management, professional roles, commercial context, etc. are as important as the technology aspects. The work contributes a set of procedures that educators can use to identify their local requirements and build comprehensive BIM education into their CEM degree programs.