Arain, F M (2009) Leveraging on information technology to teach construction law to built environment students: A knowledge-based system approach. Journal of Construction in Developing Countries, 14(2), pp. 77-102. ISSN 1823-6499
Abstract
Construction law is a vital component of the body of knowledge that is needed by construction professionals in order to successfully operate in the commercial world of construction. Construction law plays an important role in shaping building projects. Construction projects are complex because they involve many human and non-human factors and variables. Teaching construction law is therefore a complex issue with several dimensions. In recent years, Information Technology (IT) has become strongly established as a supporting tool for many professions, including teachers. If faculty members have a knowledge base established on similar past projects, it would assist the faculty members to present case studies and contractually based scenarios to students. This paper proposes potential utilisation of a Knowledge-based System (KBS) for teaching construction law to built environment students. The KBS is primarily designed for building professionals to learn from similar past projects. The KBS is able to assist professionals by providing accurate and timely information for decision making and a user-friendly tool for analysing and selecting the suggested controls for variations in educational buildings. It is recommended that the wealth of knowledge available in the KBS can be very helpful in teaching construction law to built environment students. The system presents real case studies and scenarios to students to allow them to analyse and learn construction law. The KBS could be useful to students as a general research tool because the students could populate it with their own data and use it with the reported educational projects. With further generic modifications, the KBS will also be useful for built environment students to learn about project management of building projects; thus, it will raise the overall level of professional understanding, and eventually productivity, in the construction industry.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | case study; construction; knowledge-based system; law; teaching |
| Index terms: | productivity, knowledge-based system, construction law, case study, dimension, construction industry, project management, profession, building professional, construction professional, educational project, built environment, knowledge base, educational building, body of knowledge, human factor, information technology, construction project, decision-making, variation |
| Subjects: | institututions, computing systems, data collection methods, profession, construction type, artificial intelligence, curriculum development, knowledge management, health monitoring assessment and metrics, production management, contractual condition, professional development, project management theory and practice, management, infrastructure and transport systems, construction law, industry analysis, information systems, occupational health and safety management, decision analysis |
| Topics: | Project Management, Research Practice, Information Management, Business Strategy, Health and Safety, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions, Risk Management, Legal Issues, Urban Studies, Digital Applications, Education, Contract Administration |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here