Application of a Virtual Reality Educational Game to Improve Design Review Skills

Innovative software and technology solutions, such as building information modeling and virtual reality, are increasingly being adopted by the construction industry. One use of this technology is to utilize BIM models to perform design reviews in immersive virtual reality environments. Performing a design review, whether on paper drawings or in VR environments requires essential and strong problem-solving and evaluation skills. The objective of this paper is to support the development and education of such design review skills in undergraduate construction students using virtual reality simulation games. To achieve this objective, 32 undergraduate construction management students were asked to use the design review simulator, an educational virtual reality game designed with the learning objective of teaching design review skills. During the experiment the students were tasked with identifying noticeable design mistakes and writing down these mistakes as they were encountered. There were three basic research questions the authors were seeking to address in this experiment: 1) does playing the simulation game in VR encourage students to identify a higher number of design mistakes than evaluating the design on paper, 2) do design review skills gained from performing the design review in one mode transfer to the other alternate mode, 3) does the order in which the design review methods are implemented affect student improvements in design review skills? Based on the analysis of the results, the authors could conclude that the students gained design review skills. Through the use of the DRS the students found a significant higher number of design mistakes when performing design reviews in virtual reality, in comparison to performing design reviews using physical construction drawings. With study, the authors provide an example of how virtual reality simulation games can be leveraged in the classroom to gain design review skills. In future research, the authors will perform comparative experiments to test if the game supports higher gains in skills with knowledge tests.