OER project

Construction planning: Customisation and teaching notes

It is expected that learners on this course will already have an understanding of construction methods, site quality assurance and health and safety issues.

Therefore it is expected that they will understand the basic ideas here and be able to apply what they have learned before.

There is a case study that ‘flows’ through the course with the premise being that the learner has been asked to take over the construction planning in their company called Triple A Design.

While participants on this course may not be learning synchronously there is an opportunity to share via discussion fora.

The learners can also add definitions to the construction glossary which adds another sharing dimension.

The course is designed on the premises of meaningful learning which according to Jonassen et al (1999) is active, constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative. The main focus is on the first two aspects. 

Active: the learner participates in two discussions about making decisions and management. The learner also works through a simulation that provides opportunities to make the kinds of decisions they would be expected to make in the construction planning process. The template provides a guide for developing the construction plan.

Constructive: Learners construct their own knowledge and apply it through writing a construction plan. Because construction planning is about coordination the learner has the opportunity to match what they know with new learning. The focus is on problem solving. There are opportunities once the simulation has been done to reflect on what has been learned.

Authenticity is assured because the learner can use a real life construction plan in order to complete the construction planning template. 

The course tells the story of someone who works for Triple A Design and is expected to take over the construction planning role. A friend gives advice which is a summary of the construction planning process. A predecessor’s notebook provides more information and a short quiz allows the learner to test their  knowledge before going onto a tutor led discussion forum with activities that prepare them for the simulation exercise.

The simulation exercise sets a series of decisions the learner would make in a construction process and gives them feedback via progress graphs. The choices the learners make have an impact on time, cost and future maintenance of the project. 

The learners are able to copy the results of their choices and use these to complete a pre-tender construction planning template which they upload for the tutor. They then take some time to learn about management of the process. 

Once the tutor has returned the pre-tender plan with feedback the learner writes the final post contract plan, taking into account any changes that may have occurred in the interim (in this instance the weather has been bad and the lifts cannot be delivered on time).

Tutor customisation

The assessments are suggested only. Tutors can upload their own template. The templates are currently stored as rtf files.

The suggested activities have been loaded into Moodle but they could be class discussions or the reflective pieces. It’s important that the learners have an opportunity to consider management issues and reflect on their own style. It is also suggested that tutors assign 10% of the marking to participation in at least one forum.

The quiz can also be customised and loaded into any learning management system
Currently the questions allow for formative testing on information gained in the overview section.

Technical customization
The simulation can be customised via xml pages. 

The two files that change the simulation are called ‘briefs.xml’ and ‘scenario3.xml’

The ‘briefs.xml’ file is used to customize the text and images of the brief shown in the simulation under the ‘Briefing documents’ button.

You can also customize the following tags in the briefs.xml document:
<targetTimeFrame> (target time frame)
<targetCost> (target cost)
<targetFutMain> (target future maintenance)
<acceptTimeFrame> (acceptable time frame)
<acceptCost> (acceptable cost)	
<acceptFutMain> (acceptable future maintenance)

These tags refer to the time, cost and future maintenance specifics of the project. They are related to percentages in the ‘scenario3.xml’ file.
For example, the cost of installing lifts in a building is expressed as a percentage of the target cost.
In the scenario.xml file the code for the two choices- Hydraulic or Geared lifts, reads:

<choices>
	<choice time="6" cost="9.179" futMain="12.6">Hydraulic lift</choice>
	<choice time="6" cost="12.621" futMain="9.1">Geared lift</choice>
</choices>

..where the cost of Hydraulic lifts for a building is 9.179% of the total target cost of the building.

Be careful of what percentages you enter into the simulation as they should be representative of real life values, and should relate to the target values shown above. 

The ‘scenario.xml’ file is used to customize the text and images of the simulation itself. For example, you can change the images that appear on the right of the screen, the text that you read, or the names and details of the choices you wish to present to the user of the simulation. 

You can also change the number of screens by adding or deleting more item tags.
Beware not to change the structure of the code, and always keep a backup of the original for you to go back and reference, should you delete something critical by accident. You will get a warning dialogue in the simulation if you have unclosed or incomplete xml tags.

References

Jonassen, D.H., Peck, K.L., & Wilson, B.G. (1999) Learning with technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Publishing.