Benhart, B L and Shaurette, M (2014) Establishing new graduate competencies: Purdue University's construction management curriculum restructuring. International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 10(1), pp. 19-38. ISSN 1557-8771
Abstract
Since the establishment of Construction Management (CM) programs, curriculum has adapted to faculty visions of appropriate course content, construction industry expectations, accreditation requirements, as well as changing resources and constraints imposed by university administrations. Even CM programs that have had years of building solid foundations for successful careers in construction benefit from a periodic curriculum review. The CM program in the Purdue Department of Building Construction Management (BCM) began such a curriculum review in 2010. With an extensive list of influences to be incorporated while maintaining the same high level of success for the students and employers, the faculty decided to use the nominal group technique at a full day meeting to reach out to construction industry representatives for guidance in how best to invest the limited resources available for preparing undergraduates to meet the challenges they will face in their careers. This article discusses the process used to obtain industry input in establishing undergraduate educational competencies and how these competencies, along with American Council for Construction Education guidelines, were utilized to restructure the curriculum. The conclusion includes lessons learned in managing curriculum change that could prove beneficial for other CM programs evaluating their curriculum.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | accreditation: construction education: curriculum development: educational competencies: program management |
| Index terms: | foundations, construction industry, undergraduate, face, building construction, lessons learned, curriculum development, program, career, construction education |
| Subjects: | curriculum development, psychology, structural engineering, building construction, professional education, professional development, software systems, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Education, Engineering Principles, Organizational Design, Digital Applications, Construction Technology, Information Management, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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