Augmented Reality Applications for BIM and GIS in Online Construction Education

The technological advancements of Industry 4.0 are starting to reshape the processes of many industries. Even though the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO) industry has been known for its slow adoption of technologies, the last few decades have seen an increase in research integrating new visualization and computation technologies such as building information modeling (BIM) and geographic information systems (GIS). These integrations have the potential of addressing some of the AECO industry’s challenges and improving the overall construction process. Among the newest visualization methods is augmented reality (AR) which allows the overlay of virtual information on top of its user’s field of view. This research project aims at assessing the effect of visualizing integrated BIM-GIS data on the users’ spatio-temporal understanding and collaboration skills. Moreover, this research examined the current benefits of BIM, GIS, and AR and the challenges preventing their widespread adoption in the industry. Through an experimental study conducted with students located remotely, students believed that AR was an effective tool to improve communication among multiple users even when they are not all using AR headsets. In addition, AR was more efficient than traditional visualization methods in solving construction-related tasks. Furthermore, through a series of semi-structured interviews and a Delphi study, it was concluded that one of the main challenges related to AR is the lack of training among existing and new employees. Therefore, a roadmap to integrating AR education, in conjunction with other construction-related technologies, into construction management curricula is presented in this research.