Integrating Research Findings into Sustainable Building Delivery Teaching

AbstractConstruction management is a practice oriented field and its course content needs to include many elements from practice. Many new developments take place, new technologies emerge and the necessity of redefining working dynamics among project stakeholders necessitates construction educators to constantly evaluate and reorganize the scope of courses. This situation justifies the necessity of bringing research findings into classroom. The paper exemplifies how research findings are brought into a major construction course. Project Management course at the University of Texas at San Antonio covers broad range of topics such as fundamental concepts of management and roles in the construction industry, project delivery and contract methods, detailed analysis and administration of different phases of a construction project.The demand for sustainable projects is growing. Its delivery method requires lots of input from wide range of experts. So far, there is no set or accepted method for sustainable building project delivery. During the coverage of project delivery methods, the instructor brings the characteristics of a sustainable projects. The comparative analysis is made between conventional and sustainable projects. The phases of sustainable projects include many additional elements and early involvement of defined tasks from phases of conventional projects. A recent research study accomplished by the author highlights the differentiating aspects of conventional projects from sustainable projects. The findings obtained from a research that is conducted with the major national firms will be incorporated to future lectures. The research has explored the sustainable delivery practices of the major national construction firms. They will be used as a case study to complement the theoretical part of the lecture. The impact on students’ learning will be identified. Students appreciate and value the knowledge brought outside the textbook especially if the research is original and accomplished by the course instructor. The approach can be taken as an example for various topics which are recent to AEC industry