Ogunseiju, Omobolanle Ruth (2022) Impact of interactive holographic learning environment for bridging technical skill gaps of future smart construction engineering and management students. PhD thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA.
Abstract
The growth in the adoption of sensing technologies in the construction industry has triggered the need for graduating construction engineering students equipped with the necessary skills for deploying the technologies. For construction engineering students to acquire technical skills for implementing sensing technologies, it is pertinent to engage them in hands-on learning with the technologies. However, limited opportunities for hands-on learning experiences on construction sites and, in some cases, high upfront costs of acquiring sensing technologies are encumbrances to equipping construction engineering students with the required technical skills. Inspired by opportunities offered by mixed reality, this study presents an interactive holographic learning environment that can afford learners an experiential opportunity to acquire competencies for implementing sensing systems on construction projects. Firstly, this study explores the required competencies for deploying sensing technologies on construction projects. The current state of sensing technologies in the industry and sensing technology education in construction engineering and management programs were investigated. The learning contents of the holographic learning environment were then driven by the identified competencies. Afterwards, a learnability study was conducted with industry practitioners already adopting sensing technologies to assess the learning environment. Feedback from the learnability study was implemented to further improve the learning environment, after which a usability evaluation was conducted. To investigate the pedagogical value of the learning environment in construction education, a summative evaluation was conducted with construction engineering students. This research contributes to the definition of the domain-specific skills required of the future workforce for implementing sensing technologies in the construction industry and how such skills can be developed and enhanced within a mixed reality learning environment. Through concise outline and sequential design of the user interface, this study further revealed that knowledge scaffolding can improve task performance in a holographic learning environment. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by advancing immersive experiential learning discourses previously confined by technology, opening a new avenue for both researchers and practitioners to further investigate the opportunities offered by mixed reality for future workforce development.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Akanmu, Abiola Abosede |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | sensing technologies; mixed reality; workforce development; experiential learning |
| Index terms: | construction engineering, construction industry, learning experience, required competency, practitioner, workforce development, construction education, construction project, program, body of knowledge, technical skill, experiential learning, scaffolding, usability, user interface, construction site |
| Subjects: | industry analysis, engineering methods, software systems, professional development, work location, user-centered design, learning methods, professional education, human-computer interaction, production management, operations management, knowledge management, practitioner |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Information Management, Research Practice, Site Management, Digital Applications, Design Practice, Engineering Principles, Project Management, Education |
| 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