Effectiveness of Virtual Project-Based Simulation Games at Different levels of Construction Education

Fatemeh Pariafsai¹

1) Young Researchers and Elite Club, Yadegar-e-Imam Khomeini (RAH) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Email:

IOI Code : XYGD-BCGBC
Publication : The 5th International conference of Sciences and Engineering(5icesconf.com)
Abstract :
    This paper reports on the results of testing Skyscraper Simulator, which is a virtual project-based simulation game, in order to find how effective it can be in construction education. A pilot test was performed with 135 undergraduate construction students including 61participants with an associate degree in construction and 74 ones without such a degree. The quantitative methods were used in order to measure the perception of construction learning gain in six main areas of construction through a questionnaire which asks about the retrospective pre and post playing perception of learning gain. In accordance with the results, there is a significant difference between the pre- and post- playing perception of the both groups for all of the six main areas. Furthermore, in 11 of 24 subareas, the difference between pre and post scores for students without an associate degree in construction is higher than those of their counterparts without such a degree, and in other 11 of 24 subareas, it was for the former group in comparison to the latter one. In addition, the difference was the same for both groups in the 2 remaining subareas. It indicates that a virtual project-based simulation game like Skyscraper simulator is an effective tool for construction education at the undergraduate level for both groups of students with or without an associate degree in construction.

Keywords : construction education associate degree project based simulation game