Abstract

This This topic is not sufficiently covered in engineering and construction curriculums causing a considerable amount of design/construction professionals to be inadequately prepared to deal with this most dangerous phase of the construction process. The CD-ROM approach is appropriate because the student audience will most likely have access to computer resources and the topic requires the use of different media forms. The student will work through the content by forcing a quiz/response requirement on them. To receive continuing education requirement an electronic submittal will be required.

Need

On April 15, 1982, 12 construction workers were killed, 15 workers were injured and one Indiana Department of Transportation inspector died when Ramp C of the Riley Road Interchange in East Chicago, Indiana collapsed. The worst construction accident in Indiana’s history was caused by a failure in the shoring tower foundation. On June 30, 1997 a construction accident at the West Lafayette High School renovation project, caused one worker to die from his injuries and another to be permanently disabled no longer able to work. Again, another tragedy the result of a temporary structure failure.

An unfortunate fact is that 80% of construction accidents occur during erection procedures and most are because of temporary structure failures. The results of these accidents are always bad; lost time, increased costs, worker injuries, and even deaths. The number and severity of accidents, according to the National Safety Council, is 2-4 times greater than other industries. But most of these accidents can be prevented through training and education.

Professional practicing engineers, of which there are approximately 14,000 in the State of Indiana, and construction professionals receive very little if any formal training on the subject of temporary structures. From both an economic and humanitarian standpoint, there is a significant need to be met by developing a training tool for professionals involved in the design and supervision of constructed facilities within the State of Indiana.

Approach

Since most construction and design professionals have adequate access to computer resources, and may find access to traditional course delivery methods difficult, a computer based training (CBT) tool is an appropriate delivery technology for a course on temporary structures. The subject matter requires extensive use of different media forms for explaining and describing the various concepts. Therefore, a multimedia CD-ROM based CBT tool is being proposed for the development and delivery of the course.

The investigators have significant experience in developing this type of tool. Several CD-ROM tools have been developed, distributed, and evaluated for plan reading, constructability analyses, and research dissemination. Because of these experiences it is felt that a CD-ROM is the correct option for this topic.

The topic of temporary structures is an area of technical expertise for the investigators. Through formal training, design and construction experience, a large knowledgebase exists in the form of considerable technical documentation, case studies, and "lessons learned". This grant would provide the opportunity to formally organize and covert this information into a training tool.

Temporary structures can be divided into three general areas: Vertical Above Ground Temporary work, Below Ground Temporary work, and Horizontal Above Ground Temporary work like that used in bridges. The Vertical Above Ground Temporary will be the topic area for this proposal. An overall plan is to produce modules for each of these areas with this being the first one.

The target audience for this CBT is design and construction professionals. The CBT will be designed as a continuing education course. Registered professional engineers in Indiana have a yearly continuing education requirement for licensure. This course will be submitted to Purdue’s Continuing Education office for credit approval and then made available as an option to satisfy this requirement. The Continuing Engineering Education office will be used to market and advertise the course offering.

Another reason for taking a modular approach is to use it in existing courses in the civil engineering, construction engineering, and building construction management curriculum. The module could be used by students to support existing courses. Also when all three modules have been completed a complete course on the subject of temporary structures can be offered in these curriculum.

Institutional Commitment

Please refer to the letter from Dr. Vincent Drnevich, Head, School of Civil Engineering, included in the appendix.

Instructional Design Plan

Topics that will be covered in the area of Vertical Above Ground Temporary are the following:

Legal Aspects
Codes and Design Standards
Construction Loads
Formwork Design
Shoring and Scaffolding Design

A brief content description helps to explain the instructional design plan that will be followed during development.

Legal Aspects covers; Insurance requirements, legal requirements, legal responsibilities, liabilities, and submittals. This section is text information. The information will be organized into a menu structure and presented in popups and scrollable boxes through hyperlinks. Court cases and decisions will be cited as well as any regulatory and statutory law requirements.

The Codes and Standards section describes the applicable building code sections and standards that apply in design and construction. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is developing a standard for "Design Loads on Structures During Construction." Depending on the adoption date, and approval from ASCE, this standard will be presented in this section. Figures, maps, charts will be used to explain loads, their magnitudes, load combinations, etc.

The effects of construction loads, their source, magnitudes, and combinations will be organized in a menu structure and explained through a variety of media forms.

Formwork Design will be divided into vertical and horizontal forms. Vertical forms would include walls, columns, and slip forming. Horizontal forms are used for floors, beams and girders. Both types have different variations that will be described. This section will contain design examples, pictures, videos of forming operations, and formwork supplier product info.

The last major section is Shoring and Scaffolding. The Shoring section will describe the shoring and reshoring process and analysis encountered in multistory construction. A sound and animation clip would be very helpful in describing this technique. The Scaffolding section provides information on the different systems, safety issues, load capacities, and support options. Supplier information will be solicited and placed into the appropriate categories.

To ensure the continuing education requirement is met, the student will be required to respond to a series of checklists and quizzes during the review of the CD-ROM. These responses as well and student info will be recorded electronically and returned for course validation and continuing education credit. The student will have the option to return the info on a floppy disk or through email.

A considerable amount of this information already exists. Additional multimedia supporting documentation will be collected and developed to enhance the current information. The investigators have hardware and software resources to develop these types of supporting files. Also, they have accumulated over seven years of experience in multimedia development and been responsible for over $400,000 in multimedia research work in various civil engineering functions.

Evaluation Plan

A course evaluation survey will be included on the CD ROM (s) used to present the course materials. Every student completing the course will be asked to print the form, answer the questions and return it to the office of Continuing Engineering Education. The information will be compiled and presented to the course developers as a means of providing insight into future course module development and for revising future editions of the current course. The course developers will also produce a short report of "lessons learned" that may be beneficial to others proposing to develop material using similar delivery technology.

Schedule

 

The schedule is comprised of six major activities beginning with the development of a detailed course outline. Once the outline of the course is established, materials such as code information, vendor information, images, video footage, etc., can be collected. Development of the multimedia materials involves tasks such as formatting and inputting text information and tables, digitizing images, editing and narrating video clips as necessary to support the comprehensibility of the course material. As the progress of developing the multimedia elements for the course nears completion, development of the CD ROM can begin. This activity entails developing the user interface, structuring and organizing the material, and creating the master program. A test and evaluation activity is included to allow for a select outside group to provide feedback before the final course materials are produced. The last activity involves creating the master CD ROM and reproductions plus any course documentation.

Personnel

David J. Harmelink, Assistant Professor, and Bob McCullouch, Research Scientist both in the School of Civil Engineering will be the co-principal investigators of the project. A graduate student knowledgeable in the development of multimedia material will also be utilized in the project.

Please refer to the appendix for qualification summaries.