Advancing student engagement of buildings through virtual facility dissection

Critical to the education of engineers is the conceptual understanding of how discipline specific requirements integrate into the design of an engineered building. This conceptualization of systems and interdisciplinary interactions can be particularly challenging with buildings and infrastructure environments due to their size, complexity, and unique instances of systems. To enhance student engagement and comprehension of conceptual knowledge, a pilot study is currently underway looking at deploying Virtual Facility Dissection. The pilot study is currently implemented into an introductory (sophomore) building systems and materials course within the Architectural Engineering Department for a single topic, structural systems. Students enrolled here have not selected a discipline specific focus and are just starting to be exposed to building projects. The focus of this course is to introduce the students to different building materials and their function in typical systems in the built environment. In the delivery of the pilot, first the traditional method is taught, then three weeks later the same topic is re-visited but leveraging virtual dissection and interaction components. The results presented here are a summary of findings through two offerings of the pilot utilizing a steel superstructure case study of an ongoing construction project. Pre and post-test assessment were conducted. Here a comparison between the traditional method and the virtual facility dissection method can be examined. Student interest and efficacy in structural systems and construction of the structure were evaluated. Their efficacy increased regarding their ability to identify factors influencing structural design, to describe the schematic design process, and recognition of systems. Student interest in how systems were selected was also increased. Similarly, there was positive feedback about the scenario and strong interest from the students. The developed scenario had positive results in career interests, scenario engagement and their understanding of the design process.