Investigation of AEC Students’ Perceptions towards BIM Practice-a Case Study of Swinburne University of Technology

10 The growing BIM (i.e., Building Information Modeling) application in the 11 construction industry worldwide has driven the research in both technological and 12 managerial aspects. Existing managerial studies have not fully addressed individual 13 perceptions of BIM implementation, especially AEC (i.e., architecture, engineering 14 and construction) students’ opinions related to BIM implementation or industry 15 practice. As the future industry professionals, AEC students’ perceptions and 16 expectations have not been compared with that of industry professionals. Adopting 17 the student population from Swinburne University of Technology as the case study, 18 this research initiated a questionnaire-based approach followed by statistical analysis. 19 Totally 257 AEC students were collected of their responses to four major 20 Professor of Construction Engineering and Management, Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, ATC Building, Hawthorn Campus Hawthorn Vic 3122 Australia, Phone: +61(3)92143781, Email: pwzou@swin.edu.au Ph.D. candidate, Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn Campus Hawthorn Vic 3122 Australia, Email: xiaoxiaoxu@swin.edu.au Senior Lecturer, School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Cockcroft Building 616, Brighton, UK. BN24GJ. Phone: +44(0)7729 813 629, Email: R.Jin@brighton.ac.uk Senior Lecturer, School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Cockcroft Building 620, BN24GJ, Brighton, UK. Email:N.J.Painting@brighton.ac.uk 5 Associate Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Wenzhou University, No.5Bldg, North Campus, Zhejiang, China, 325000. Email: libo@wzu.edu.cn perception-based categories, namely BIM’s usefulness, students’ desired BIM-related 21 jobs, and challenges during BIM implementation. The overall sample analysis 22 revealed that students favored BIM-based jobs related to engineering design and 23 project management, and they perceived less usefulness of BIM in assisting facility 24 management and quantity survey. Subgroup analysis showed that certain perceptions 25 in BIM practice would be affected by students’ field of study, prior industry 26 experience, and gender. For example, male students generally held more positive 27 views on BIM’s applicability and its usefulness. AEC students in this study showed 28 certain discernment in identifying certain contemporary BIM-related practices. 29 However, they also had different views on challenges compared to industry 30 professionals due to AEC students’ less industry experience. In-depth discussions 31 were provided in how these subgroup factors affected students’ perceptions. This 32 empirical study of student perceptions in BIM practice provides insights to both BIM 33 educators and AEC employers, in terms of optimizing the BIM education resources 34 between industry practice and academic research, awareness of subgroup differences 35 in their perceptions and motivations, and similarities and differences between AEC 36 students and industry practitioners. Based on the current finding, future research could 37 focus on cross-institutional comparison of student BIM-based perceptions by 38 considering more subgroup factors. This study could also lead to future pedagogical 39 research in adopting BIM in different project sectors (e.g., building and 40 infrastructure). 41