Teaching building measurement principles to suit the transforming construction industry

With the wide use of computer-aided measurement currently practiced in the construction industry, the building measurement process taught within construction management undergraduate programmes needs to be revisited. It is observed that in most undergraduate teaching programmes, the traditional manual measurement process is introduced in detail to the students prior to software applications. As argued by key researchers in the quantity-surveying field, it is by understanding the basic principles in the traditional form that one would be able to adopt and extend to different forms available in relevant software programmes. While this argument is true to some extent, the traditional manual process currently taught to students demands them to learn too many rules and follow confusing steps, which would not be ultimately used in the practice. Recognising this issue, a simpler format that is compatible with most software was introduced in one of the construction management programmes, which is quite popular in Sydney, Australia. This paper discusses this new format and informal feedback received from students and teaching staff who used this format. With the positive outcomes that were received, it is hoped that a similar format could be used by other relevant programmes in an attempt to produce students who meet today's industry demands.