Web Enhanced Teaching Of Construction Management Using Current Educational Technologies

The evolution of teaching in higher education has brought us from the old conventional blackboards to the most sophisticated forms of educational technologies using computers and electronic blackboards. Computer technology is now considered as the very basic, and fundamentally essential form of technology to enhance teaching and learning. With the explosion of internet and the world-wide web, and availability of a variety of software for course management, our methodology of teaching engineering courses has changed considerably. Use of Blackboard, WebCT, Front Page, and other software, has transformed teaching from a linear to a non-linear mode where students can jump, for example, from Chapter 3 to Chapter 8 and can bring in the required information as they need it to understand a topic. Teaching of construction management is no different than teaching a course in any other discipline. However, the use of Discussion Boards is of special significance in teaching of Construction Management course when many of the students have been exposed to the construction process either via a part-time job as a member of a construction team, or they are full-time construction workers, and are going through school as part-time students. In that sense, teaching of construction management goes beyond the limits of academic halls, and requires the use of all means available to make the class material relevant to the construction process. This paper also addresses some concerns of some faculty who are reluctant to integrating latest forms of educational technologies in the classroom because of their own personal biases, or their own personal fears.