A virtual tour of a reinforced concrete building construction

Visits to construction sites are ideally complementing our classroom instruction for construction engineering and management students. However, various complicating issues, such as unavailability of construction projects during the academic semesters and impracticality due to construction site risk for a large group of students make it impossible to rely on site visits. Considerable pedagogical advantages can be achieved by the integration of the contemporary information technology (IT) and visualization tools in teaching engineering technology. Although the classroom environment in Engineering and Construction Science is highly structured by the instructor, teaching students to be critical thinkers is essential in the virtual classroom of the future. The objective of this research was to develop a virtual tour of a reinforced concrete building construction using 3D animation and walkthrough. All the techniques that were used in this research employed a generic programming architecture, which was discipline independent and could be adapted to any other similar domain. These visualization techniques can be valuable aids not only in teaching in the classroom but also an effective self-directed tool for open learning via the web.

A virtual tour of a reinforced concrete building construction Conference Paper