Pedagogical activity

by Raido Puust

My general teaching philosophy rely on the assumptions that classical lecture should be used as a bonus and a motivating communication between a teacher and a student. To support this workflow and basically eliminating so called classical lecture component, a peer instruction (and peer review) methodology can be applied. For that, integrated course design is used in all my main subjects where I’m responsible for the full course delivery (theory and practice). The concept of the peer instruction is to engage students during various activities throughout the learning process. Students should apply the core concepts that they have read/studied prior to a webinar and also be able to explain those concepts to their fellow students. Collaboration is a key workflow that students face when they step into real world. And course itself should develop various skills in its learners. Therefore, I do use various assessment methods throughout the course life-cycle, including peer review in where students should give constructive feedback and evaluate fellow student’s work. For sure, in common lecture we do hope that there is a lot of communication through the lecture but in reality, only couple of students are activated who are highly motivated to ask questions. In an e-learning environment a teacher can use various teaching methodologies to support the development of communications skills of all students (not just those, who are active in a physical lecture). I have designed my courses as e-learning courses, where students are not just getting learning materials, but they must be involved in the learning process topic by topic (module by module). A general design about my main courses is given in the following image.

From the image above, various learning activities are involved during the course. Each student can move in his/her own pace but learning outcomes are integrated with continuous feedback/assessment components and/or activities. An example of this is that each student should carry out a peer review of fellow student’s assignment according to assignment requirements (involving the constructive feedback part as well as a grading component). This should teach not just to produce an assignment according to requirements but also to learn and give feedback how those requirements are fullfilled by a fellow student. In here students should polish their communication and feedback skills throughout various learning modules. Each module ends with a self-reflection part, in where student evaluates how she/he has progressed during the module and how motivated their are to start the next learning module.

One key component while developing course materials is that students do learn differently and therefore, I prepare learning materials for various types of students. In general, it means that I duplicate course materials in various formats. For example, giving a module theory and/or practical component as a full step-by-step text material but also as a video (edited, so that unnecessary pauses/mistakes are removed). As such, students can choose which material is more suitable for them. Statistically (while asking student’s feedback at the end of course) I get very supportive feedback for my methods. Altogether I can conclude that about 70% of students prefer video-based learning material and 30% step-by-step text materials. Of course, both materials can be also used at different time moments. But it clearly states that I can’t remove one or the other from my course materials (for example leaving only video-based learning materials).

During a course delivery (contact hours, e-learning) I’m passionate to offer modern ways of learning. Therefore, I incorporate tools that are used by real life practitioners as well as I have found to add value into learning process through my own learning process. For a general e-learning and course delivery platform I use well known Moodle platform. Moodle as a massive open online course (MOOC) platform has great and modern tools and possibilities to engage students during their participation. While for theoretical part of learning there is one set of tools, for practical workflows I also use industry standard tools which forms a project-based learning part. Altogether that forms integrated course design methodology. This methodology should connect learning goals, teaching and learning activities as well as feedback and assessment into one ecosystem where those components relate with each other. The question that comes up into my mind when designing a course can be asked like so, “What could be ‘that thing’ that I hope students have learned from my course that is still there and has been a great value for their career, even after several years later from the course ending?” Of course, the answer lies behind learning goals and what are the methods to achieve those goals. If we can take the real-world example that is current need or focus in construction sector today and build our course around it, finding all the sub-tasks (goals) that are needed to achieve the major goal – we help to remember and most importantly connect the university subject with real things and industry needs.

An example of this is the most recent course that I have developed those principles in mind – Building information management and modelling (BIM II). Construction information throughout its life-cycle forms a key part in today’s information management using building information modelling. There are standardized workflows available that should be introduced in local markets. This course (once finished in the autumn 2024) is first of its kind to teach such skills. Developing standardized workflows for construction information reuse forms my key research focus area.

During the course my goal is to keep an eye on how students’ progress and if they are struggling somewhere in between, helping them to get on track and encourage ask questions from where they get stuck. After the course I’m also keen on doing learning analytics about my course participants. My goals here is to understand the behaviour of different student groups (for example students who come from study programs vs students who are participating through open university program). Common conclusions can be used to avoid typical issues next semester. I have analysed some of my main subjects in detail. Please note that all of my courses are open courses, and more information (including the layout and content of the course) can be easily seen once clicked on the course webpage. Several conference proceedings are also available which presents some more learning analytics:

[1] Enhancing motivation and skills development in building information modelling for infrastructure topics by using active learning methods (InfraBIM Open, 2019)

[2] Investigating the Drop-Out Rate from a BIM Course (10th Nordic Conference on Construction Economics and Organization, 2019)

[3] Investigating the drop-out rate from a BIM for infrastructure course (Proceedings of the European Conference on Computing in Construction, 2019)

[4] Comparative studies of various e-learning teaching methodologies in civil engineering courses (ICL 2024, to be published)

Example 1: Building information modelling basics (BIM I)

General information about the course:

6 ECTS (16 weeks)
Concentrates onto vertical-BIM side (buildings)
Covers cycles of BIM like preliminary design, energy analysis, design, construction (4D/5D), collaboration
Products used, include: Autodesk FormIt, Autodesk Revit, Autodesk Navisworks, ACC
Assessment/homework: Self-assessment tests (graded), preliminary house project (>100 m², 1-2 story, individual work, peer reviewed by fellow student module-by-module basis)

Course starts with a general introduction and introductory webinars. Because course is designed as an e-learning course, most of the work during semester is with peer instruction (and peer review). Additional contact hours (webinars) are based on questions/topics where students need more help. Course project is individually performed and reflects the knowledge from course sub-topics. Based on student’s continuous activity recordings and feedback, course analytics is carried out. Some statistics is given in the sub-section (more available from published articles). It is important to note how some statistics has changed over the years due to different study groups which has been elaborated in more detail in research articles).

Course learning analytics across the study years and based on two different study groups (open university, study program):

“BIM I” course is taken by quite many students and the key reason is that it is compulsory course in many study programs. Completion rate has been reasonably high in recent years (over 70%) and we should keep in mind that this course has a lot of individual modelling tasks.

Motivation to continue with the course as measured after each module (scale: 1-5, average value over all participants) and general understanding of the key topic (scale: 2-5) (sample from 2020 spring):

Motivation scale:
[5] Motivation has increased significantly
[4] The motivation has rather increased
[3] The motivation is rather reduced
[2] Motivation has clearly decreased
[1] I have no clear motivation to move forward

Understanding of BIM scale:
[5] Significantly clearer
[4] Rather clearer
[3] Rather confusing
[2] Significantly more confusing

As it was mentioned earlier, the course has been set up so that students are reflecting their knowledge, understanding and motivation in various ways. One way to check it, is just by asking how they feel about the general knowledge of the current topic and what is their current motivation to continue with the course (after finishing up module by module). Statistics is an average over all students, including those who did not participated to the end (so mid-results can affect the general average). In general, we can see a positive change in terms of an average understanding and motivation (both do increase over time).

Example 2: BIM for infrastructure (InfraBIM) basics

General information about the course:

6 ECTS (16 weeks)
Concentrates onto horizontal-BIM side (infrastructure, roads, etc.)
Covers cycles of BIM like preliminary design, cost calculations for preliminary design alternatives, design, virtual design and construction (4D/5D), collaboration
Products used, include: Autodesk InfraWorks, Autodesk Civil 3D, Infrakit, Autodesk Navisworks, ACC
Assessment/homework: Self-assessment tests (graded), infrastructure project development (1×1 km area, individual work, peer reviewed by fellow student module-by-module basis)

Course layout follows the same principles as explained in Example 1 (BIM I). Some statistics is given in the sub-section (more available from published articles). It is important to note how some statistics has changed over the years due to different study groups which has been elaborated in more detail in research articles).

Course learning analytics across the study years and based on two different study groups (open university, study program):

Motivation to continue with the course as measured after each module (scale: 1-5, average value over all participants)(sample from 2020 spring):

Understanding of BIM scale:
[5] Significantly clearer
[4] Rather clearer
[3] Rather confusing
[2] Significantly more confusing

Same statistics in terms of learning analytics is given here as well. We can see some decrease in motivation to continue, but overall, the fluctuation is very small and of course in here one demotivated student may influence the graph a lot more due to a small group of people. While comparing with the understanding of BIM curve, we can see some correlation in here and the lack of motivation could have come from a difficult/confusing/harder module, and they just do not know what to expect next.

Example 3: Building Information Management and Modelling (BIM II)

General information about the course:

6 EAP (16 weeks)
Concentrates onto construction information management process (applicable for both: horizontal/vertical BIM as an advanced course)
Covers information management process according to standardized (CEN/ISO) workflows
Products used, include: Autodesk Revit, Autodesk Civil 3D (depends on an attending student’s profile)
Assessment/homework: Self-assessment tests (graded), individual project studies

Course layout follows the same principles as explained in Example 1 and 2. This course has been under major development throughout the autumn 2024 semester to focus onto construction information management process topics which gets lots of interest from the industry in recent years.

Example 4: Water Pipelines and Modelling

General information about the course:

6 ECTS (16 weeks)
Concentrates onto water network modelling in the urban environment with the connection to building information modelling
Covers cycles of modelling theory, assembling the model, model calibration, model’s use cases for water company, transients in hydraulic systems and BIM in the water sector
Products used, include: EPANET, Bentley WaterGEMS, Bentley HAMMER, Autodesk Civil 3D, Autodesk InfraWorks
Assessment/homework: Self-assessment tests (graded), water network model from a given Estonian town area (1×1 km)

Course layout follows the same principles as explained in Example 1 and 2. Some statistics is given in the sub-section (more available from published articles). It is important to note how some statistics has changed over the years due to different study groups which has been elaborated in more detail in research articles).

Course learning analytics across the study years and based on two different study groups (open university, study program):

This course has been in a low registration period for some years (2018-2019) but then once a study program was up and running again, the number of participants is back (from 2020). The overall completion level is at least 70% which is quite a same as in other courses. This course was changed considerably for 2020 semester to be ready fore future updates in where the number of credit points will be 6 ECTS.

Motivation to continue with the course as measured after each module (scale: 1-5, average value over all participants)(sample from 2020 autumn):

Understanding of WDN (water distribution networks) scale:
[5] Significantly clearer
[4] Rather clearer
[3] Rather confusing
[2] Significantly more confusing

Motivation and the knowledge of the topic are quite high in this course. The mid-section has some decrease, but the fluctuations are very small.

Example 5: Basics of BIM

General information about the course:

2 ECTS (4 weeks), offered through open university only to the construction sector as further education; carried out several times per year
Concentrates onto basics of BIM as an introductory course
Includes common learning modules as well as one specialization module according to participants background (during registration she/he select one profile from the following: building construction, road construction, geodesy, project manager, facility manager, water sector specialist)
Assessment/homework: Self-assessment tests (graded)
Throughout the years (2021-2024) close to 500 participants have successfully completed the course

All my full courses include a peer review component in where all students are engaged with each other and developing their peer instruction skills. For that an extensive guidelines are needed which helps students to evaluate each other in a constructive way. It also teaches how to follow the requirements according to somebody’s else work which is a required skill also in real life (checking information quality). I do make changes to my courses in regular basis according to the industry needs but also according to student’s feedback (Appendix A). Those changes include not just content but also by introducing some new teaching methodology to enable the development of collaborative skills.

I have supervised three PhD students to successful completion and currently supervising two PhD students. My goal during a supervision is to see that student is motivated to work on with a given subject. It is vital that understanding about the problem that she/he tries to solve has clear boundaries and it is supported by the research community. As such a successful problem solving starts from the investigations what has been carried out before, in other words from the state of the art literature review. Once that step is secured, and problem itself that student is trying to focus on, is unique – the process of finding and applying suitable solution methodology starts. In here it is important that student presents her/his findings publicly to develop presentation skills and getting feedback and encouragement that she/he is on right track. During a final stage of studies, I see quite problematic that fine tuning of the thesis is less appreciated by the applicant. Somewhat understood but not accepted, because detailing and fine-tuning play important role what differentiates good work from superior piece of work. Therefore, a supervisor should pay attention at that final time period very carefully and motivate students to keep going after several small but important revisions/additions. While supervising PhD students, my goal is to make the work internationally visible. Therefore, I’m trying to find opponents that do have a great experience in the same topic area and can add value or constructive comments to the work itself.