Building Information Modeling Education for Construction Engineering and Management. I: Industry Requirements, State of the Art, and Gap Analysis

TLDR

Building information modeling (BIM) is becoming standard in construction, prompting universities to integrate BIM concepts and skills into their curricula. This study aims to develop a BIM education framework that specifies required topics and competency levels for each stage of construction engineering and management degree programs. Industry requirements were gathered through surveys, workshops, job‑ad analyses, and interviews, leading to a 39‑topic outline across three categories, competency targets based on Bloom’s taxonomy, and a gap analysis that informed the framework. The resulting framework equips educators with the essential knowledge needed to design and implement BIM content in undergraduate and graduate programs.

Abstract

As building information modeling (BIM) becomes increasingly standard practice in the construction industry, universities providing construction engineering and management education seek to incorporate BIM concepts and skills in their degree programs. The goal of this research was to compile a framework for BIM education that lays out the necessary topics and the levels of achievement required at each stage of degree programs. Industry’s requirements for graduate engineers were elicited through surveys, workshops, analyses of job advertisements, and in-depth interviews. An outline of 39 topics in three broad classifications was established. Targets for competency in each topic were developed using the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy, which expresses the learning objectives on six levels (from understand to evaluate). Gap analysis, which compared the state of the art in leading universities to industry requirements, led to the compilation of a framework for the development of BIM content for undergraduate and graduate construction engineering and management degree programs. The requirements and framework are intended to provide educators with essential knowledge as they develop and implement BIM content in their programs.