Assessment of AEC Students’ Performance Using BIM-into-VR

Abstract

Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Virtual reality (VR) have attracted growing attention within the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry in recent years. Integration of BIM and VR technology can develop workflow efficiency through enhanced common understanding and prepare students in architecture and engineering programs to become leaders of the AEC industry. However, the current shortage of AEC professionals trained in BIM and VR is still a barrier to collaborative working practice in this industry. This paper reviews previous work on the BIM, VR, and BIM-into-VR in AEC education/training to bridge this gap. It also presents an advanced framework to clarify creating and using the BIM model into VR workflow in the AEC industry through the integrated definition function (IDEF0) model. The authors further evaluated the BIM-into-VR applications in literature and real-life by surveying students’ learning performance in terms of eight characteristics relevant to the VR environment and students’ performance within two projects, one involving the “NASA Mars Habitat Project” and the other involving the “Norris Center Project” at Northwestern University. The results confirmed that BIM-into-VR usability and efficiency in improving students’ main learning performance characteristics: Learnability, Interoperability, Visualization, Real-world, Interaction, Creativity, Motivation, and Comfort. This study addresses the advantages of using BIM-into-VR in AEC programs. It also offers suggestions to AEC educators and students in implementing BIM-into-VR in different courses and creating a roadmap for their future as professionals in the AEC industry.

Digital Technologies in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry—A Bibliometric—Qualitative Literature Review of Research Activities

“…However, there is a need to further integrate RFID with other emerging DTs in the AEC industry for better visualization in construction management activities. The key challenge of raising the productivity of RFID and its incorporation with other digital technologies (e.g., GIS and AR/VR) is the lack of interoperability [ 118 , 119 , 120 ] concerning data storage, storage, semantics and ontology [ 121 , 122 ]. For instance, Xie et al [ 123 ] defined one of the key semantic interoperability gaps between RFID and VR, needing further future work to improve the interoperable framework.…”

Building Information Modeling Learning Behavior of AEC Undergraduate Students in China

“…The overwhelming development trend of BIM technology makes colleges and universities pay more attention to cultivating BIM technical talents [ 25 ]. BIM-into-extended reality (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality) has laid an excellent theoretical foundation for building a complete BIM education system in colleges and universities [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. However, the training scale of BIM technical talents is far from meeting the needs of industrial development, and BIM education cannot completely support the development of AEC industry [ 7 , 31 ].…”

Ready Teacher One: Virtual and Augmented Reality Online Professional Development for K-12 School Teachers

“…Viewing 360, spherical immersive VR videos can increase attention and teachers' professional noticing capabilities [18]. Teachers applying VR for teaching can focus on essential factors to assess student performance in education such as learnability, motivation, creativity, and interaction [26].…”