Brad Benhart has been a mainstay in the construction industry for over 25 years. He has been involved in all aspects of construction including: healthcare, commercial, residential, international, and all related aspects of training and education. In 2009, Benhart furthered his commitment and passion to construction education by accepting a professorship at Purdue University in their School of Construction Management. Brad focuses on construction supervision, project management, strategic planning, preconstruction, and sustaining the built environment. At Purdue, Benhart also leads the Healthcare Construction Management program and works with the first ASHE (American Society of Healthcare Engineering) student chapter. His position allows him to further develop construction education in the built environment and be an industry advocate for the next generation of builders. He is also very involved in field supervision training programs, both at Purdue and on the national level. He focuses on the sustainability of our industry by mentoring the retiring baby boomers with new foremen and superintendents. Benhart also has an extensive resume in industry. His previous position was Vice President with Pepper Construction Company of Chicago, IL. While at Pepper, Brad managed multiple projects ranging from $100k to $250 million dollars. He continues to be an adjunct professor at Northwestern University in project management and has actively taught and trained many employees in the industry. When he is not in the classroom, Brad owns Integrated Construction Resources, a construction consulting company that focuses on strategic planning, training, expert witness analysis, and owners' representation. In his free time, he enjoys traveling with his family. Integrating Sustainability into Construction Education AbstractThe demand for sustainable development and construction has become increasingly popular over the years. New data is constantly emerging about the sources and effects to the built environment and society from construction related activities and the most cost effective manner in which to address them. A compounding issue related to sustainability is the fact there is no definitive right or wrong answer. Critical thinking, information analysis, and interdisciplinary collaboration are all vital to developing the best solution for sustainable development. Education is the cornerstone of this process. Continuing education will always be necessary; however, an initial fundamental understanding of sustainable concepts is needed in order to construct more knowledge. The most opportune time for future industry leaders to establish these concepts is in parallel of other construction fundamentals in higher education. While many construction education programs have successful history with construction fundamentals, they have not yet fully integrated sustainable education. This paper addresses sustainable construction student objectives, strategies for implementing sustainable education, and challenges and successes other inst...
This paper contributes to the current discussions and research on the use of 3D digital technologies in teaching and learning. It specifically focuses on the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in construction management higher education. There were three objectives: (1) to check the impact of this approach on student learning (2) to determine which factors increased the perception of immersion (3) to assess whether this type of learning could affect cognitive change. A VLE of a construction site and related scenarios were used to develop a set of learning outcomes focused on soft-skills. Utilizing Virtual Reality (VR) to create an immersive environment, the VLE enables a student to work on a construction site, undertaking real life scenarios and interacting with people to enhance leadership, behavioural health, safety, quality, and productivity skills. A series of individual scenarios were developed to help contextualize the learning outcomes. These scenarios were based around a day managing a construction site. The immersive simulations were underpinned with pedagogical tools and structures, namely the Kolb Experiential learning Model and Gibbs Model of Reflection (Kolb, 1984; Gibbs, 1988). The experiential learning allows the student to make decisions and understand the consequences. The learning takes place in a safe environment which negates impact on a real job site and is reinforced through feedback, knowledge sharing, and mentoring. The assessment involved questionnaires designed to evaluate the impact of experiential learning, assess which aspects of the simulation had the greatest impact in relation to the feeling of immersion, and to assess whether this type of teaching could affect cognitive change. The results indicate that the students perceived the method to be effective and highlighted 3 key factors relating to immersion - the actors, the site office, and the site paperwork. The outcome of the third objective was not conclusive and further research on long term cognitive change is recommended.
This paper presents the results of a recent survey taken by construction management (CM) students at four U.S. Construction Management programs and the construction industry companies that recruit them. Respondents were asked to rate factors that affect the students’ employment decision. Survey results indicate that although industry has a grasp on the top-5 factors of importance there remains some misalignment of other factors of importance. Results indicate the five most important factors when considering employment with a company are: upward job movement, salary, company reputation, company culture, and company ethics. Comparisons between the two surveys are discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.