In recent years gaming products have increasingly been used to enhance learning and training development in academic and commercial sectors.  Games have become more pervasive; they have been adopted for use in many industries and sectors such as defence, medicine, architecture, education, and city planning and government as tools for workers development.  In Malaysia, it has been reported that the construction industry holds the third highest record of occurrences of accidents at work.  Therefore, safety training is inevitable to reduce the alarming rate of accidents on construction sites.  However, currently, available safety training approaches are still lacking in terms of delivering hands-on training and are more theoretical- instead of being more practical-based.  This is due to the nature of the construction environment itself in which safety training involving certain hazards that cannot be implemented hands-on as it may bring harm to trainers, trainees and the environment.  Gaming is an approach that applies technology to provide an almost real experience with interactive field training, and also supporting the theory of learning by doing with real case scenario.  The purpose of this paper is to seek and explore the differences in existing gamification genres such as simulation game, role-playing, action game, strategy game and etc.  Data were collected through available literature.  The findings of the study show that serious game is a suitable genre to be adopted as an approach in hazard identification training for the construction industry in Malaysia.

The volume of data generated by the construction industry has increased exponentially following an intense use of modern technologies. The data explosion thus lead towards the big data phenomenon which is envisioned to revolutionize the construction like never before. Like any other technologies, big data is a disruptive paradigm and inevitably will give impact to the construction industry. As the industry is refocusing towards an improved productivity, the appeal to embrace big data is certain given the value it offers. This certainly will benefit construction akin to the manufacturing and the retail industry alike. Nevertheless, a review of the literature suggested a limited coverage on the potential application of big data in construction as compared to other industries. This limits understanding of its potential, where the industry is seemingly unaware thus could not relate and extract its real value. Hence, this study aims to draw insights on the specific areas of construction big data research. The research objectives include: (1) to analyse the current extent of construction big data research; (2) to map out the orientation of the current construction big data research; and (3) to suggest the current directions of construction big data research. The qualitative method through a desk study approach has been carried out to attain the first two objectives. It involved a structured review process which covered articles from the online databases assisted by the Nvivo software. This resulted in the theoretical orientation which was conceptualized as: (1) project management; (2) safety (3) energy management; (4) decision making design framework and (5) resource management. The theoretical orientation discovered from the review process will form the basis to suggest the prospective directions of research on big data in construction. This exploration is substantial as a precursor to a much deeper study on big data. As big data is set to influence the industry, the finding made would be a catalyst for creating an awareness to support the development of big data for the construction industry.

Malaysia is making an aggressive effort of transformation to become a fully developed country.  As one of the pillars for transformation, the construction industry has been undergoing a major reform with regard to the traditional method of construction. In recent years, the Industrialised Building System (IBS) has been promoted extensively with the government taking a lead with the practice.  Studies showed that IBS has been able to expedite construction process, improve the time taken to accomplish a project, improve building quality, able to control cost and human resources, which in overall, raise occupational health and safety standard of construction.  Despite, as most IBS projects were carried out under the traditional procurement method, the full benefits of IBS are somehow obscured. Several issues such as work delay, lack of communication and integration, lack of knowledge and an increase in cost, which are synonymous to the traditional procurement method appear to outweigh the benefit of IBS. Hence, this research aims to suggest an alternative to the traditional procurement method with regard to IBS project implementation. The focus of this research has been on the challenges and innovative procurement methods most suited for IBS project. Two objectives were outlined: (1) to identify issues faced by the client on current procurement method in IBS project; and (2) to identify the client’s perspective on innovative procurement method most suited for IBS project. Data for this research was collected through semi-structured interviews with five respondents from five major developers having experience in IBS project implementation. The results from the thematic analysis revealed that apart from the common issues which ascend from the sequential nature of the traditional procurement method, design integration issue was opined to aggravate the situation. Unanimously, respondents agreed that partnering is the way forward for IBS project implementation in the Malaysian construction industry. This research contributes by providing important pointers for the local construction industry to move forward with IBS project implementation.

No abstract

Game has been proven an effective approach tool to improve learning and has become a new tool for training delivery.  The development of the gamification framework involves integrating design processes which are input, process, and output. The design phase is considered essential to guide the flow of the gamification framework. It offers a safer, interactive, and entertaining learning environment for construction-related workers.  This paper aims to report on the approach to design a gamification framework for hazard identification training in Construction using Garris's Input-Process-Outcome game model as the basis. It focuses on the three main design elements: instructional design, game characteristic, and user characteristic. The study outlines two objectives: (1) to identify the game's attributes and Gagne's Nine Events Instructional Methods Design which supports effective learning, and (2) to determine the user's characteristics of self-directed learning. This study focused on designing the Design phase, which consists of three main elements, i.e. instructional design, game characteristics and user characteristics. Mixed methods were used to extract the attributes and elements of the Design phase. Content analysis was carried out to determine the model of instructional design and game attributes.  The findings show 12 attributes of the game through content analysis methods. Gagne's Nine Events Instructional Methods Design can support effective learning. Meanwhile, a questionnaire survey was subsequently administered to determine the user's ability to self-directed learning and decision-making style, where 319 construction-related workers responded. Data were analysed using mean comparison. The results showed that construction-related workers belong to the independent learners' category and are inclined to 'vigilant' and 'brooding' types of decision-making style. Findings confirmed that construction-related workers belong to the independent learners' category and are inclined to 'vigilant' and 'brooding' types of decision-making style. Following the aim of this paper, these findings were incorporated into the design phase of the game framework.