Utilizing a Collaborative Virtual Reality Environment as a Training Tool for Construction Students

Abstract

Tulio Sulbaran received his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology with a concentration in construction management and with a minor in computer engineering and strong statistical background. He has more than eight years of work experience in the A/E/C (architecture, engineering, and construction) industry with office and field experience in scheduling, estimating, and project management in the United States and several international locations, including Venezuela, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, and Thailand. Sulbaran is an accomplished teacher and has taught a variety of construction courses, including Construction Planning and Scheduling, Construction Project Management, Cost Estimating I, Project Control, Proposal Preparation, and Project Implementation, among others. Sulbaran received the prestigious John Trimmer Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2010. Sulbaran engages students in learning activities inside and outside the classroom continuously advocating hands-on experience and collaborative learning. He has been in the forefront of online teaching, and he was one of the pioneers in delivering online courses in the School of Construction. He established the Study Abroad program in Panama at the University of Southern Mississippi. Sulbaran led the effort to establish the newly created master's of science in logistics, trade, and transportation (MSLTT), and he is currently leading the effort to put the MSLTT fully online to further the educational reach of the university. Sulbaran has the best externally funded projects track record of the School of Construction. He has submitted as PI/Co-PI more than 100 proposals and has been awarded more than 40 externally funded projects, totaling more than $10 million. Additionally, he has been collaborator in multi-million, multi-institution proposals with institutions in the United States and abroad. Sulbaran has received funding from several organizations, such as the National Science Foundation, Mississippi Department of Transportation, Transportation Research Board, Northrop Grumman, Mississippi Development Authority, Army Corp of Engineers, and Department of Health and Human Services among others. Sulbaran founded the Center for Logistics, Trade, and Transportation, and all of his projects have supported and benefit from talented graduate and/or undergraduate students from a variety of academic units in the university. Sulbaran has been very prolific in the area of scholarship and research. He has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed national/international publications, written several books, and made more than 100 professional presentations nationally and internationally. Sulbaran's manuscripts have been published in the

Virtual reality and collaborative learning: a systematic literature review

“…Girvan argues that some use terms synonymously with VR and/or VEs, while others use these same terms to classify different types of VEs, thus creating a fragmented understanding of what these are (and what they are not). Girvan's point is reflected in the reviewed literature of this paper: while some studies identify Second Life as a "virtual environment" or "virtual world" (e.g., Terzidou et al, 2012), others refer to it as "virtual reality" (e.g., Sulbaran and Jones, 2012). To prevent further confusion with technologies with similar technical features, Girvan suggests to conceptualize VEs as 'shared, simulated spaces which are inhabited and shaped by their inhabitants, who are represented as avatars [that] mediate our experience of this space as (.…”

Identificiranje prilika za inoviranje upravljanja projektima u obrazovanju u digitalnom dobu

“…The first was by Maratou et al (2016), who tested the use of a virtual world role-playing game to teach PM software and confirmed its positive effect on learning. The use of VR for construction management students was discussed by Sulbaran & Jones (2012), who found that students do not gain real-world experience during their studies and, therefore, end up unprepared for realistic situations. The study aimed to use VR to simulate a construction project with game elements for teaching purposes.…”

Implementation of virtual reality in construction education: a content-analysis based literature review

“…Most of the implementation papers (i.e., 19) focus on the impact of VR on learning. In some cases, this interest is made explicit in the goal to analyze the impact of VR in spatial visualisation (Ceylan, 2020;Bartosh and Anzalone, 2019), tacit knowledge acquisition (Wu et al, 2019a), knowledge transfer, knowledge retention (Eiris et al, 2021;Beh et al, 2021) as well as in allowing students to live a realistic experience (Sulbaran and Jones, 2012).…”

“…Between 2011 and 2015, some courses also adopted virtual worlds such as Second Life (e.g., Ku and Mahabaleshwarkar, 2011) to simulate, through an avatar, an experience in the construction sector. Study by Sulbaran and Jones (2012), for example, adopted Second Life as a virtual platform to create a socially interactive role-play experience for students to learn about construction site safety, construction sequences and resource management. Recently, since 2019, content such as 360-degree images or time lapse videos have been used to reconstruct and allow students to visit a construction site, albeit in a virtual environment.…”