A SIMULATION APPROACH TO CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

Construction management requires decision-making skills. Main approaches to training construction management students are: (1) analyzing sample situations involving decision-making; and (2) teaching logical decision-making procedures. The absence of 'pressure' factors in these approaches has significant impacts on the success of the training. The approaches also lack 'dynamic' effects that help create a spontaneous plan for construction projects where unforeseen changes and interruptions may occur. To minimize the adverse effects of the existing approaches, this paper proposes a framework for developing a web-based training system. The application is delivered as a game involving decision-making on the student's part in response to developments at the job-site, and where one student competes against another in an attempt to simulate a real-world scenario.