Interactive Building Anatomy Modeling for Experiential Building Construction Education

Building construction education is crucial in ensuring university students are adequately knowledgeable and competent to meet industry demands. Attributable to the changeable and complex environment, traditional pedagogical methods in building construction courses cannot equip students with concrete experience and knowledge. Despite several studies, adapting information and communication technology (ICT) tools such as virtual reality (VR) to enhance construction education, limited interaction and low detail of virtual contents still remain an unsolved issue. To address this problem, this study proposes an interactive building anatomy modeling (IBAM) system, which allows students to conveniently interact with VR environment for experiential building construction education. The IBAM system is developed based on the medical anatomy concept, including intuitive features, which support detaching and attaching components; and dissecting which enhances student-model interaction. To identify the advantages and limitations of IBAM, a prototype was developed, and its applicability was verified through a case study. Interim results suggest that the system facilitates experiential learning and provides adequate levels of interaction to effectively transfer knowledge to learners.