Project-Based Simulation Game: an Effective Learning Toolfor Students with Limited Prior Education in Construction

Skyscraper Simulator is a virtual project-based simulation game, which puts the players in a virtual construction environment and directs them from the beginning to the end of building a skyscraper. This paper reports on the results of testing Skyscraper Simulator as an effective pedagogical tool in construction education when the target audience is undergraduate construction students who either passed or did not passed any course in construction management. 135 undergraduate construction students including 43 students who did not pass any course in construction management and 92 ones who passed the relevant courses partook in the test. After completing the game, a questionnaire was filled bythe participants in order to measure their pre- and post- construction content knowledge, ability and skills in six main construction areas, through self-assessment. Then, the responses were analyzed by a quantitative method. The results show there is a significant difference between the perception of participants in their pre and post playing learning gain for all the six areas each including 4 subareas. In addition, in 18 sunareas, the difference for participants who didn't passed any course in construction management is higher than those of their counterparts who passes such courses, however in 4 subareats it was lowere for the former group than the latter one. In the 2 remainig subareas, the difference was thesame for both groups. The results indicate that a virtual project-based simulation game can improve the construction knowledge, ability and skills of construction students at the undergraduate level, especially during passing the relevant courses. Accordingly, such games can be uses as effective tools in construction education.

کلیدواژه ها:

construction ، education ، game ، courses in construction ، project-based ، simulation