i

DEVELOPING A CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY WEB-BASED LEARNING

SYSTEM IN CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

TOH TIEN CHOON

A project report submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Science (Construction Management)

Faculty of Civil Engineering

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

OCTOBER, 2006
 PSZ 19 : 16 (Pind. 1/97)
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA
BORANG PENGESAHAN STATUS TESIS♦
“Saya/Kami* akui bahawa saya telah membaca karya ini dan pada pandangan
JUDUL: DEVELOPING A CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY WEB-BASED LEARNING
saya/kami* karya ini
SYSTEM IN adalah memadai dari
CONSTRUCTION segi skop danEDUCATION
MANAGEMENT kualiti untuk tujuan
penganugerahaSESI
n ijazah Sarjana Muda
PENGAJIAN Sains
: 2006/ Pembinaan”.
2007

Saya ___________________TOH TIEN CHOON__ ___.

(HURUF BESAR)

mengaku membenarkan tesis (PSM/Sarjana/Doktor Falsafah)* ini disimpan di Perpustakaan

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia dengan syarat-syarat kegunaan seperti berikut :

1.Tandatangan
Tesis adalah hakmilik :Universiti..............................
Teknologi Malaysia. ............
2. Perpustakaan Universiti Teknologi Malaysia dibenarkan membuat salinan untuk tujuan
Nama Penyelia
pengajian I
sahaja. : PN. TANTISH KAMARUDDIN
3. Perpustakaan dibenarkan membuat salinan tesis ini sebagai bahan pertukaran antara
Tarikh :
institusi pengajian tinggi. ..........................................
4. ** Sila tandakan ( 9 )

SULIT (Mengandungi maklumat yang berdarjah keselamatan atau

Kepentingan Malaysia seperti yang termaktub di dalam
Tandatangan : ..........................................
AKTA RAHSIA RASMI 1972)
Nama Penyelia II : PROF. DR. ABD. GHANI KHALID
Tarikh TERHAD : (Mengandungi maklumat TERHAD yang telah ditentukan
..........................................
organisasi/badan di mana penyelidikan dijalankan)

9 TIDAK TERHAD
Disahkan oleh

. .
(TANDATANGAN PENULIS) (TANDATANGAN PENYELIA)

Alamat Tetap :

67 LORONG 4
TAMAN TUPAI MAS 34000 DR. ARHAM ABDULLAH
TAIPING PERAK Nama Penyelia

Tarikh: 13 NOVEMBER 2006 Tarikh: 13 NOVEMBER 2006.

CATATAN: * Potong yang tidak berkenanan.

** Jika tesis ini SULIT atau TERHAD, sila lampirkan surat daripada pihak
berkuasa/organisasi berkenaan dengan menyatakan sekali sebab dan tempoh tesis ini perlu
dikelaskan sebagai SULIT atau TERHAD
♦ Tesis dimaksudkan sebagai tesis bagi Ijazah Doktor Falsafah dan Sarjana secara
penyelidikan, atau disertasi bagi pengajian secara kerja kursus dan penyelidikan, atau
Laporan Projek Sarjana Muda (PSM)
 “I/We* hereby declare that I/we* have read this project report and in my/our*
opinion this project report is sufficient in terms of scope and quality for the award of
the degree of Master of Science (Construction Management)”

Signature : ....................................................
Name of Supervisor I : DR ARHAM ABDULLAH
Date : 13 NOVEMBER 2006

Signature : ....................................................
Name of Supervisor II : MOHD NUR AMAWISHAM ALEL
Date : 13 NOVEMBER 2006
 ii

I declare that this project report entitled “Developing a Construction Industry Web-
Based Learning System in Construction Management Education” is the result of my
own research except as cited in the references. The project report has not been
accepted for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature of any other
degree.

Signature : ....................................................
Name : TOH TIEN CHOON
Date : 13 NOVEMBER 2006
 iii

To my beloved father, mother and brother

 iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Praise is to the Almighty God of the Universe from whom I come and belong.
This piece of work would not become possible without the contributions from many
people and organizations. Most importantly, I would like to acknowledge my
supervisor, Dr Arham Abdullah for his kind assistance, constructive criticisms and
observations in this master project. A special thank you for my master project co-
supervisor, Mr Mohd Nur Asmawisham Alel, who is also the webmaster of Faculty
of Civil Engineering at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for giving me the opportunity
to be involved with the research which I really treasure the experiences I gained
along the process especially in utilizing the open source e-learning software and
developing the CTMC e-learning system. I also like to thank the CTMC directors,
Associate Professor Dr Muhd Zaimi Abd Majid and Associate Professor Dr
Mohamad Ibrahim Mohamad for their valuable comments and ideas that have
provided me with very useful background data and information. Not to forget all
member of staff in Division of Construction Management, Department of Structure
and Materials, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia where my heart will always remain.
Many thanks go to my relatives back home and all my other friends here. I have
received a great deal of support while studying at this postgraduate master. Many
more persons participated in various ways to ensure my research succeeded and I am
thankful to them all.
 v

ABSTRACT

This research is dealing with the development of a web-based learning system

for the post graduate candidates and the short courses participants in order to provide
a medium, in learning and gaining knowledge in the field of construction
management. The computer enhanced training and e-learning approaches are used to
assist in the education of construction management especially in fighting the attack
of viruses in the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) campus recently. Thus, the
integration between the newly developed e-learning with the Construction
Technology and Management Centre (CTMC) existing web portal is essential.
Hence, the first objective of the study is to identify the current state of the art
regarding the types of teaching methods in the field of Construction Management
studies. Secondly, the research is also intended to identify the information regarding
the current syllabuses of the Master of Science in Construction Management
education and suitable materials for the short courses. Eventually, a web-based
learning system for the post graduate candidates in construction management
program and the short courses participants is developed by utilizing the Dokeos open
source e-learning software. The research methodologies used include the knowledge
acquisition technique, documentary analysis and the web portal development model.
This research will be directly focused on the Construction Technology and
Management Centre (CTMC) needs through a problem solving basis. It is believed
that the developed e-learning web portal, therefore, is an approach to facilitate and
enhance learning for personnel involved in construction through computer and
communication technology.
 vi

ABSTRAK

Penyelidikan ini berkaitan dengan pembangunan sistem pembelajaran

berasaskan web dan elektronik untuk pelajar pasca ijazah serta peserta kursus pendek
bagi menyediakan suatu perantaraan, dalam mempelajari dan mendapatkan
pengetahuan khususnya dalam pengurusan pembinaan. Latihan dan pembelajaran
berbentukkan komputer diaplikasikan bagi membantu dalam pendidikan pengurusan
pembinaan khasnya dalam usaha untuk menangani serangan virus yang melanda
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) baru-baru ini. Oleh itu, integrasi antara
pembangunan sistem pembelajaran berbentuk web dan elektronik yang baru
dihasilkan ini dengan laman web Pusat Teknologi dan Pengurusan Pembinaan sedia
ada adalah penting. Objektif pertama penyelidikan ialah untuk mengenalpasti
kaedah-kaedah pengajaran terkini dalam bidang pendidikan pengurusan pembinaan.
Objektif kedua ialah untuk mengenalpasti maklumat yang berkaitan dengan silabus
Sarjana Sains Pengurusan Pembinaan dan bahan-bahan pengajaran yang bersesuaian
bagi kursus-kursus pendek tersebut. Akhir sekali, sistem pembelajaran berasaskan
web dan berelektronik bagi pelajar-pelajar pasca ijazah serta peserta dalam kursus
pendek telah dihasilkan dengan mengaplikasikan perisian pembelajaran berelektronik
sumber terbuka Dokeos. Kaedah-kaedah penyelidikan yang digunakan termasuklah
kajian literatur, analisis dokumen dan model pembangunan web. Kajian ini turut
memfokuskan secara langsung ke atas keperluan Pusat Teknologi dan Pengurusan
Pembinaan dengan tujuan untuk menyelesaikan masalah yang dihadapinya. Diharap
dengan penghasilan sistem pembelajaran berelektronik ini, ia dapat memudahkan
pembelajaran bagi mereka yang terlibat dalam pembinaan melalui teknologi
komputer dan komunikasi.
 vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

DECLARATION ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv
ABSTRACT v
ABSTRAK vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
LIST OF TABLES xi
LIST OF FIGURES xii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xiv

1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Issues and Problem Statements 2
1.3 Research Objectives 3
1.4 Research Scopes and Limitations 3
1.5 Research Justifications 4
1.6 Chapters Organization 5

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6
2.1 Definition of Current State of the Art 6
2.2 Engineering Education Scenario 7
2.3 Common Teaching Methods 9
2.4 Lecturing 10
 viii

2.4.1 Preparing and Planning Lectures 11

2.4.2 Delivery of the Lectures 12
2.4.3 Questioning and Answering in the
Classroom 14
2.5 Grouping Discussion 16
2.5.1 Preparing for Discussions 17
2.5.2 Grouping Methods for Discussion 18
2.6 Computer Labs 20
2.7 Teaching with the Case Method 21
2.8 Demonstration Performance Method 23
2.9 Common Technology for Teaching 25
2.10 Advanced Technology for Teaching 28
2.11 Master of Science in (Construction
Management) 29
2.12 Short Courses of Construction
Management 30
2.12.1 Construction Project Management 31
2.12.2 Construction Site Management and
Safety Control 33
2.12.3 Construction Technology 36
2.12.4 Construction Law and Contract 39
2.12.5 Project Planning and Scheduling 43
2.12.6 Project Estimating 47
2.12.7 Construction Management
Information System 50
2.12.8 Financial Management 52

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 56
3.1 Literature Review 56
3.2 Documentary Analysis 57
3.3 Planning for Portal Deployment 59
3.4 Data and Security Requirements 61
3.5 Software Configuration Management and
Storyboarding 63
 ix

3.6 Search Utilities 65

3.7 Content Management System 66
3.8 Definitions and Applications of E-Learning 70
3.9 Learning Management System (LMS) 71
3.10 Learning Management System Services
And Strategies 75
3.11 Definition of Open Source 77
3.12 Open Source E-Learning Software 80
3.13 Linux Web Solutions with Apache, PHP,
MySQL and ht://Dig 82
3.14 Installation guide for Windows using
EasyPHP 84
3.15 The E-Learning Environment 86
3.16 E-Learning Framework 87
3.16.1 Presentation, Common Service,
E-Learning Service and Resource 88

4 WEB-BASED LEARNING SYSTEM

DEVELOPMENT 92
4.1 Introduction to Dokeos 92
4.2 Dokeos Tools 93
4.3 Downloading and Installing the EasyPHP
Local Web 94
4.4 Downloading and Installing the Dokeos
E-Learning Software 95
4.5 Running the Local Web at EasyPHP 96
4.6 Dokeos Installation for Version 1.6.4 97
4.7 Install, Create and Delete a Course 98
4.8 Access Platform Web Administration and
Manage Users 99
4.9 Manage Groups and Classes of Users 100
4.10 Manage Courses (Backup and Restore) 101
4.11 Manage Categories of Courses 102
4.12 Uploading and Downloading
 x

Course Notes 103

4.13 Customize Home Page Layout 104
4.14 Configuration 105
4.15 Self Registration and Creating a Course
Website 107
4.16 Platform Administration 108
4.17 Administering a Course 109
4.18 Agenda 110
4.19 Learning Path 111
4.20 Dropbox 112
4.21 Statistic and Tracking 113

5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 114

5.1 Summary of Findings 115
5.2 Conclusions 116
5.3 Limitations of the Study 116
5.4 Recommendations for Further Study 117

REFERENCES 118
 xi

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO TITLE PAGE

3.1 Functions, tasks and deliverables for web-publishing

Process 67
3.2 Test items for alpha and beta tests 69
3.3 Course supporting and communication functions of
learning management system (LMS) 74
 xii

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO TITLE PAGE

3.1 Research methodology flow chart 58

3.2 Integrated virtual learning environment
(IVLE) learning management system 71
3.3 Learning management system (LMS) launches
courses developed by learning content
management system (LCMS) 72
3.4 Educator’s view when administering a course 73
3.5 How reusable learning objects (RLOs) work? 76
3.6 The e-learning environment 86
3.7 Distributed services-based e-learning architecture 87
4.1 Downloading and installing the EasyPHP local web 94
4.2 Downloading and installing the Dokeos e-learning
software 95
4.3 Running the local web at EasyPHP 96
4.4 Dokeos installation for version 1.6.4 97
4.5 Install, create and delete a course 98
4.6 Access platform web administration and manage
users 99
4.7 Manage groups and classes of users 100
4.8 Manage courses (backup and restore) 101
4.9 Manage categories of courses 102
4.10 Uploading and downloading course notes 103
4.11 Customize home page layout 104
 xiii

4.12 Self registration and creating a course website 107

4.13 Platform administration 108
4.14 Administering a course 109
4.15 Agenda 110
4.16 Learning path 111
4.17 Dropbox 112
4.18 Statistic and tracking 113
 xiv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AIA - American Institute of Architects

AIG - Associated General Contractors
CBT - Computer-based Training
CMS - Content Management System
CSV - Computerized System Validation
CTMC - Construction Technology and Management Centre
CTRL - Control
FKA - Faculty of Civil Engineering
FTP - File Transfer Protocol
GNU - General Public License
GPL - General Public License
HTML - Hypertext Markup Language
IMS - Instructional Management System
IT - Information Technology
LAS - Learning Administration System
LCMS - Learning Content Management System
LMS - Learning Management System
MSc - Master of Science
OSD - Open Source Definition
OSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSI - Open Source Initiative
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy
PHP - Hypertext Preprocessor
REIT - Real Estate Investment Trust
RLO - Reusable Learning Object
 xv

RSS - Really Simple Syndication

SCORM - Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model
SPACE - School of Professional and Continuing Education
US - United States
UTM - Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
VLE - Virtual Learning Environment
WBT - Web-based Training
XML - Extensible Markup Language
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Two major factors impacted the construction industry during the last few
years. The first was an increase in computer ownership by professionals and the
availability of share packages. The second was increased competition in the industry.
This competition compelled companies to use advanced technologies to reduce costs
and time, while maintaining project quality. During the same period, construction
industry became more diversified and fragmented. As projects became more complex,
more design firms, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and associated specialists
were needed to guide the project through the feasibility study, planning, design,
construction and operation phases (Li and Young, 1996). Information is a key
element that drives these processes and holds all the activities together. Because the
amount of information is considerable, its effective management and control
becomes challenging. Therefore, the construction industry applies information
technologies (IT) to cope with these demands. Moreover, study of this information
management systems show that they can boost the industry productivity. For instance,
computer aided design, construction automation, and decision support packages have
helped the industry respond quickly to design changes; keep down construction costs;
and make efficient decisions.
 2

Today’s society faces an immense proliferation of all aspects of knowledge.

In order to keep curricula from becoming dated, current research results and
applications to “real life” must be incorporated into today’s classrooms. This
integration implies a need for instructor awareness of the latest advances in
engineering education. More and more students wish to obtain higher education.
Technology is moving fast in some areas so educators need additional training every
few years. Both of the above lead to a deficit of available educational resources too.
Additionally, adult and part-time learners are becoming important consumers of
higher education, requiring methods of educational delivery addressing space and
time separation and student diversity (Vouk et al. 1999).

1.2 Issues and Problem Statements

Viruses have infected more than 6,000 computers at two campuses of

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in recent months. The campus in Skudai, near
here, is believed to have suffered the bulk of the virus attacks. The spate of virus
attacks that began in February caused many students to lose their assignments, course
notes and information. UTM Centre for ICT director Prof Zamri Mohamad said the
virus attacks were widespread on the campus, with 30% affecting computers
belonging to administration staff. Prof Zamri advised students to be aware of the
problem and to avoid visiting websites that were not secure. “Most of the viruses
come from the exchange of software and information using pen drives, disks and e-
mail,” he said (Vijayan, 2006). UTM was also looking towards moving its entire
software system from Windows to Open Source as there were fewer viruses created
for it (Vijayan, 2006). Meanwhile, UTM e-learning system has been developed for
the past few years to ease the undergraduates and lecturers in uploading and
downloading the lecture notes but, there isn’t any collocation for the postgraduates.
The same also goes to the UTM Construction Technology and Management Centre
(CTMC) website where it is developed to promote regarding the center’s operations,
aims and services offered instead.
 3

1.3 Research Objectives

1.3.1 To identify the current state of the art regarding the types of teaching methods
in the field of Construction Management studies.

1.3.2 To identify the information regarding on the current syllabuses of the Master
of Science in Construction Management education and suitable materials for
the short courses to be used in the e-learning system.

1.3.3 To develop a web-based learning system for the post graduate candidates and
the short courses participants in order to provide a medium, to learn and gain
knowledge in the field of Construction Management.

1.4 Research Scopes and Limitations

Basically, this research project focuses on reviewing the current syllabuses of

the Master of Science in Construction Management education which are conducted at
the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor. Furthermore, several Construction
Technology and Management Centre (CTMC) of the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
related short courses and subjects will be selected as required and so have to be
converted to the digital, electronic and portable document format in order to be
adapted into the CTMC web portal at the following stage. Most probably, these short
courses are being provided as the training modules for relevant local authority,
government’s agencies, contractors, suppliers and others independent interested
group of public. Hence, integration with the CTMC existing web portal is essential.
The web-based learning system or e-learning created would be also a contribution
towards improving the current methodologies in teaching and transferring the
relevant knowledge to the learners particularly in the field of Construction
Management education and for the sake of the Construction Industry generally.
 4

1.5 Research Justifications

With its vast potential and global reach, the Internet places increasing
demands for our nation’s educators. Some suggest the Internet will bridge the gap
between school and home and increasing numbers of teachers have already
incorporated web-based resources into their curriculum to expand instruction time
beyond the typical classroom day. Web-based tools can genuinely support the
teachers, collect and disseminate real-time information, eliminate technology
problems, extend learning opportunities, and prepare their students for tests.
Spearheading this revolution is a new generation of administrators and teachers who
will utilize web-based learning tools to help students prepare for the information age
we now live in (Valerie Chernek, 2006).

Additionally, synchronous e-learning is self-paced. Advanced learners are

allowed to speed through or bypass instruction that is redundant while novices slow
their own progress through content, eliminating frustration with themselves, their
fellow learners, and the course. In these ways, e-learning is inclusive of a maximum
number of participants with a maximum range of learning styles, preferences, and
needs. Some of the most outstanding advantages to the trainer or organization are
such as reducing the overall cost is the single most influential factor in adapting e-
learning. The elimination of costs associated with instructor’s salaries, meeting room
rentals, and student travel, lodging, and meals are directly quantifiable. The reduction
of time spent away from the job by employees may be the most positive offshoot.

Besides that, the learning times reduced, an average of 40 to 60 percent, as

found by Brandon Hall (Web-based Training Cookbook, 1997, pp. 108). Moreover,
the increased retention and application to the job averages an increase of 25 percent
over traditional methods, according to an independent study by Fletcher (Multimedia
Review, Spring 1991, pp. 33-42) is also one of the benefits discussed. Consistent
delivery of content is possible with a synchronous and self-paced e-learning (Kevin
Kruse, 2006). On the other hand, the online web-based and e-learning sessions are
especially easy to keep up to date because the updated materials are simply uploaded
to a server in fact (Obringer, 2006).
 5

1.6 Chapters Organization

The write-up in this research comprises of five (5) main chapters including
the introduction, literature review, research methodology, web-portal development
and lastly the conclusion and suggestion. These chapters are arranged and organized
in such a way so that they are inter-related consequentially among each of the topics
stated as above (Glatthorn, 1998). Chapter 1: Introduction, discusses on the matters
which are relevant to the fundamentals of research such as topic introduction, issues
and problem statement, research aims and objectives, research scopes, research
justification and the chapters organization. The first chapter is significant in
determining the “4 WH 1 H” concept representing what, when, where, who and how.

Later on, the second chapter focuses on the literature review. Chapter 2:
Literature Review is written as to explain, review and gather the information related
to the current state of the art regarding the types of teaching methods in the field of
Construction Management studies. Besides that, this chapter would also touch in
detail about information regarding the current syllabuses of the Master of Science in
Construction Management education and suitable materials for the short courses.
Meanwhile, this information might resource from reference books, articles and
journals either in hardcopy format or online web-resources as well. Accordingly,
Chapter 3: Research Methodology emphasize on the methods used in collecting data,
including the secondary data through articles, books and journal reviews.

It also deals with how study is designed and performed to gain understanding
towards designing a web-based learning system for the post graduate candidates and
the short courses participants in order to provide a medium, to learn and gain
knowledge in the field of Construction Management. As a result, Chapter 4: Web-
Based Learning System Development would discuss on the developed web portal for
e-learning in detail including the guidelines to utilize the web correctly and
effectively. Then, Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation are written to draw
conclusions which have achieved. A section is also devoted to limitations in this
study output where there is a need for possible areas to further research in the vast
field of web-based learning system in construction management applications.
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of Current State of the Art

Current shall mean things that occurring in or belonging to the present time;
“current events”; “the current topic”; “current negotiations”; “current psychoanalytic
theories”; “the ship’s current position” (Web Dictionary, 2006). Current also refers to
being in progress now; for example current negotiations. Its synonyms are including
prevalent, especially at the present time. The characteristic of recent times or
informed of what is current is such as au courant, contemporary, mod, modern, up-
to-date, and up-to-the-minute or in existence now. Most generally existing or
encountered at a given time: predominant, prevailing, prevalent, regnant, rife and
widespread (Answers, 2006). Based on the web definition for state of the art, it is the
system available on the market or it is still just an innovative concept, or it is
somewhere in between. Besides that, state of the art might also refer to the highest
degree of development of an art or technique at a particular time; for instance, “the
state of the art in space travel”. Moreover, it is also an adjective referring to the level
of development (as of a device, procedure, process or technique) reached at any
particular time usually as a result of modern methods (Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary, 2006). It could be meant as the current level of advancement achieved by
the most modern, up-to-date technology or thinking (English Dictionary, 2006).
 7

2.2 Engineering Education Scenario

The majority of engineering professors have never had a formal course in

education, and some can even produce a variety of challenging rationalizations why
such a course is unnecessary: I didn’t need a teaching course; I learned how to teach
by watching my teachers; Good teachers are born and not made; Teaching is
unimportant; Teaching courses have not improved the teaching in high schools and
grade schools; Engineers need more technical courses; If I am a good researcher, I
will automatically be a good teacher; and lastly even if a teaching course might be a
good idea, none is available. The first criticism can be answered in several ways. Just
because someone did not need a teaching course does not logically imply that he or
she would not have benefited from one. Now, mentoring is in research, and an
assistant professor in engineering at a research university may teach only one course
a semester. In the past the major topic of discussion with older professors was
teaching; now it is research and grantsmanship. Because of these changes, formal
training in teaching methods is now much more important. Van Ness (1989) has
presented a detailed description of the changes in chemical engineering education
which closely match changes in other areas of engineering education.

The problems facing engineering education have also changed. According to

demographic studies, the number of traditional engineering students, male eighteen
year olds is expected to go through a minimum from 1992 to 1994 and then increase
very slowly (Hodgkinson, 1985; Reynolds and Oaxaca, 1988). In order to have
enough engineers to remain internationally competitive, we must recruit, teach, and
retain nontraditional students such as women and underrepresented minorities. There
is also a moral imperative for reaching out to these nontraditional students. They
offer different challenges and require different educational methods. A related
problem is how to encourage enough U.S. citizens, particularly women and
minorities, to earn a Ph.D. and then become educators. Many students see the
workloads of assistant professors as oppressive and do not want the sword of the
tenure decision hanging over their heads. A course on efficient, effective teaching
would reduce the trauma of starting an academic career and help these students to see
the joys of teaching in fact.
 8

You undoubtedly learned something about teaching from your teachers, but
what if they were bad teachers? Even if you did have good teachers, this method at
best gives the new professor a limited repertoire and does not provide for any of the
necessary practice. This approach also does not help you incorporate new
educational technology into the classroom unless you have had the rare opportunity
to take a course from one of the pioneers in these areas. An opinion contrary to this is
given by Highet (1976, p. 112), who argues that a course on education during
graduate study is not needed since students can learn by watching good and bad
teachers. Some of the characteristics of good teachers may well be inborn and not
made, but the same can be said for engineers.

We expect engineers to undergo rigorous training to become proficient. It is

logical to require similar rigorous training in the teaching methods of engineering
professors. Experience in teaching engineering students “how to teach” shows that
everyone can improve her or his teaching (e.g., see Wankat and Oreovicz, 1984;
Stice, 1991). Even those born with an innate affinity for teaching or research can
improve by study and practice. Finally, in its extreme, this argument removes all
responsibility and all possibility for change from an individual. There is no doubt
that teaching is very important to students, parents, alumni, accreditation boards, and
state legislatures. Unfortunately, at many universities research is more important than
teaching in the promotion process. When assistant professors are denied tenure, it is
because of lack of research, not because they have not been good teachers.

An efficient teacher can do a good job teaching in the same amount of time
an inefficient teacher spends doing a poor job. New professors who study educational
methods will likely be better prepared to teach and will be more efficient during their
first years in academia. There is a general trend toward reducing the number of
courses in pedagogy and increasing the number of content courses for both grade
school and high school teachers. However, there is no trend toward zero courses or
no practice in how to teach. The optimum number of courses in teaching methods
undoubtedly lies between the large number required of elementary school teachers
and the zero number taken by most engineering professors. The demand for more
and more technical courses is frequently heard at both the undergraduate and
graduate levels in fact.
 9

2.3 Common Teaching Methods

Teaching techniques are the ways in which the information to be learned is

presented. Teaching techniques vary in terms of the medium (textbook, video,
computer, etc), structure of the program, how the teacher operates, and how progress
is monitored and tested. Several questions should be asked before selecting a
teaching technique. Does the technique allow adjustment according to the needs of
different students? Does it encourage the students to become actively involved with
the learning? Does it adequately cover the material so that it is learned by all the
students? Does it adequately monitor the students’ progress? Does it permit extra
assistance to students who require it? Does it allow an adequate amount of time to
practice and integrate the skills? (Think Quest, 2000).

The teaching technique that is best for the students is often not economically
feasible, especially in terms of public schooling. Reducing class size is expensive,
and many schools do not have the budget to maintain small classes. Similarly, the
teaching resources best suited to the students, such as the latest technology, may not
be available to the teacher. Teachers must find the best techniques to teach the
students using the resources available to them (Think Quest, 2000). The teaching
methods commonly employed on the college level include lectures, demonstrations,
laboratory exercises, discussion and quiz sections, field trips, audio-visual
presentations, and seminars. Examples of other methods are independent study,
programmed instruction, and self study teaching modules (Univ. of Georgia, 2003).

If the lesson content is such that it requires the quick, efficient coverage of a
lot of facts, teacher-centered methods, such as lectures, demonstrations, slides, or
audio-visual presentations, may be indicated. On the other hand, student-centered
methods, such as laboratory exercises, field trips, student demonstrations or reports,
or reading assignments, may be more effective when intense student involvement is
needed to increase the understanding of broad concepts or processes (Univ. of
Georgia, 2003). The following brief discussions of the use of some of the more
common instructional strategies may be helpful as you seek to develop your own
repertoire of teaching techniques.
 10

2.4 Lecturing

Lecturing is often equated with college teaching. This is not rapidly changing,
however, as university instructors have begun to recognize that not all students
benefit from lecture, nor is lecture the most efficient way to disseminate information.
Originally the “lecturer” read to an audience because access to written material was
limited, and many of the learners were illiterate. The printing process, digitalized
information, and general literacy have dramatically changed the lecturer’s function.
Lecturing still has its rightful place among dozens of other teaching techniques, but
the question one has to ask is, “Which technique will do most to help students
learn?” Furthermore, some of the topics lend themselves much more naturally to
lecturing when comparing to others.

The lecture is valid for these reasons: to provide structure and organization to
scattered material; to help pace student learning; to reinforce assigned reading by
providing an alternative perspective or source of information; and to use the public
speaking opportunity to motivate students (Farris, 1985). One of the most common
teaching techniques is the lecture method. It is the most economical method of
transmitting knowledge, but it does not necessarily hold the student’s attention or
permit active participation. However, lectures can be effective, if supported by texts
and other references. About ninety percent of post secondary instruction uses the
lecture method, but it is significantly less common in primary and secondary schools.

At these levels, discussion sessions are more effective in stimulating the

students’ interests and assessing their understanding of the material. The discussion
method is favored in secondary schools, particularly in the social sciences. Hence,
discussion not only helps teach material, but it also develops the thinking process,
promotes a positive attitude towards learning, and develops interpersonal skills
among the students. Group discussions foster interaction between students whose
skills, attitudes, and interests differ, and allow the students to use democratic
leadership skills to lead the direction of their discussion and participation. In this
manner, discussion sessions help students extend their knowledge through higher
level independent thought (Think Quest, 2000).
 11

2.4.1 Preparing and Planning Lectures

Being in the same room with someone saying something is not equivalent to
learning it. Students must engage the material to retain it. Also, given that students’
attention span is around 15 to 20 minutes long and university classes last 50 to 75
minutes, you need to do something to control their attention. Lectures should be
punctuated with periodic activities. Many university instructors report that when they
intersperse short lectures with active engagement for students for as brief a time as
two to five minutes, students seem to become re-energized for the next 15 to 20
minutes mini lecture (Middendorf and Kalish, 1996). When you start to plan a lecture,
first consider your audience. Undergraduate students represent a broad cross section
of backgrounds and skills, and as a result may arrive at college with varying levels of
competence. You neither want to talk over their heads nor to patronize them. You
will be more effective if you try as much as possible to draw on knowledge they
already have or appeal to experiences that, by analogy, suit the topic. Before
preparing the lecture, ask yourself: how does the lecture fit into the course as a whole?
What are your objectives?

Do you want to provide the students with an overview of the subject, give
them some background information, or provoke them into further contemplation?
Once you’ve decided that the nature of your topic is indeed suitable for a lecture and
have considered both your objectives and the knowledge level of your audience, you
still want to make sure that what you need to cover will fit within the time allotted. A
typical instructor lament is that there is so much material and so little time. Good
organization will enable you to eliminate irrelevant material so that you may cover
important points more thoroughly. One award-winning university faculty member
told us that “I believe in the ‘few things’ approach. Rather than going through a lot of
topics, I cover a few in great depth. Having students stay with a few topics provides a
longer lasting learning experience than jumping through a lot of different things”
(Middendorf et. al., 1996). Another university professor tells us that in 20 years of
teaching a large introductory lecture course, he has gradually eliminated 75 percent
of the material he tried to cover. He thinks it is much better for his students to really
learn a little than for them to be buried under too much (Farris, 1985).
 12

2.4.2 Delivery of the Lectures

A lecture should be designed with the student’s perspective in mind. What are
students’ current knowledge, assumptions, biases, and, perhaps, misconceptions
about the topic? In planning the lecture, you will need to find a way to build on the
knowledge students bring, and also provide a means for students to reflect upon their
biases and misconceptions. The lecture overall should be planned to answer the
question, “How will students’ understanding be different at the end of the
presentation?” (Farris, 1985). Once you have determined your subject and what your
students’ needs are, formulate one general question that covers the heart of it, one
you could answer in a single lecture. Take time to write it down and study it. Then
generate three or four points that you could develop to answer this question. Note
these down under the question. You are now gazing at your lecture outline (Farris,
1985). Your next task is to define the elements of your key points and generate
effective examples or analogies for each. Examples generated “on the spur of the
moment” in class tend to be trivial; if prepared in advance, examples can both
illustrate a particular point and broaden students’ understanding of the subject.

Think the examples through carefully and consider ways to illustrate them
with chalkboard diagrams, slides, overhead transparencies, demonstrations, or case
studies, any of which can increase students’ understanding and interest. To
effectively teach concepts, we must tell our students the generality or rule and give
them specific and carefully considered examples. However, that is not enough. If
they are to learn the concept in a usable way, we must provide them with a chance to
practice using it. For example, in an anthropology lecture on ethnocentrism, students
could be asked to list foods from other countries that they find disgusting. Then, you
could give them a list of things Americans eat that are unacceptable to people from
other cultures. The value of this type of exercise is that it helps students to make
connections between ideas and to create structures of meaning out of what otherwise
might be merely a large number of unrelated facts. Demonstrating that you know
more than your students is easy; teaching is more difficult. Keep in mind that how
you relate the material to students will determine your effect as a teacher more than
will your ability to generate perfect, complete answers to every question students ask.
 13

Your lecture will be more effective if you remember a number of points about
the style and clarity of presentation. The following suggestions can help ensure that
your lecture is clear and well received (Cashin, 1985). Speak clearly and loudly
enough to be heard. This may seem obvious but undoubtedly we have all sinned
against this prescription. Talk as though you are talking to the person sitting in the
very back of the room. Perhaps in the very first class you should suggest that people
signal you if they cannot hear, e.g., cup a hand behind an ear. Speak slowly. Most of
us tend to speak more rapidly when nervous, and this makes many lectures difficult
to follow. We also do not notice how fast we are speaking unless it is pointed out or
we hear ourselves on tape. Slow down. Avoid distracting mannerisms, verbal tics
like “ah” or “you know,” straightening your notes or tie, etc. Use a videotape early in
the semester to help you identify mannerisms that you want to shed. Provide an
introduction. Begin with a concise statement, something that will preview the lecture.
Give the listeners a set or frame of reference for the remainder of your presentation.
Refer to previous lectures. Attract and focus their attention. Try a broad question to
students or a survey of opinions to help draw student attention to your presentation.

Present an outline. Write it on the chalkboard, or use an overhead

transparency, or a handout. Then be sure that you refer to it as you move from point
to point in your lecture. Emphasize principles and generalizations. Research suggests
that these are what people really remember and what you probably really want to
teach. Repeat your points in two or three different ways. Your listeners may not have
heard it the first time, or understood it, or had time to write it down. Include
examples or concrete ideas. These help both understanding and remembering. Use
short sentences. Stress important points. This can be done with your tone of voice. It
can also be done explicitly, e.g., “Write this down”; “This is important”; “This will
be on the test.” Pause. Give your listeners time to think, and to write. Change
activities frequently. The average adult attention span is 15 to 20 minutes, so change
activities several times in a class. Many activities provide a change of pace: stop and
ask questions; have your students discuss a point with one or several others, and then
get several groups to report to the whole class; have them write for a few minutes; or
have them work a practice problem using a method you have presented in your
lecture. By adding a “change up” to your lecture, you can revitalize your students’
attention and thus give them renewed attention several times in one meeting.
 14

2.4.3 Questioning and Answering in the Classroom

By learning how to use questions effectively in the classroom, instructors can

accomplish a number of interrelated goals. First, by engaging students in a question
and-answer dialogue, the usual “one-way” flow of information from instructor to
students is transformed into a more interactive process. Students become more active
participants in their own learning. In addition, skillful questioning can encourage
students to engage in higher-level cognitive processes (analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation), thus helping to develop their capacity for critical thinking. The current
literature suggests several tactics that may assist teachers in improving the use of
questioning in their teaching (Hyman, 1980). After asking a question, wait for a
response. Do not answer the question yourself; don’t repeat it, rephrase it, modify it,
call on another student to answer it, or replace it with another question until you have
waited at least three to five seconds. Studies show that the average “wait times” is as
low as 0.9 seconds, which is clearly not long enough. Students need time to think
about the question and prepare their responses. With a wait-time of three to five
seconds, students respond more, use complex cognitive processes, and begin to ask
more questions.

Ask only one question at a time. Do not ask a string of questions one after the
other in the same utterance. For example, ask, “Compare the skeleton of an ape with
that of a human.” Do not ask, “How are apes and humans alike? Are they alike in
bone structure and/or family structure and/or places where they live?” A series of
questions tends to confuse students. They are not able to determine just what the
teacher is requesting from them. Napell (1978), states that videotape replays reveal
an interesting pattern when the teacher asks a series of questions. “Hands will go up
in response to the first question, and a few will go down during the second, and those
hands remaining up will gradually get lower and lower as the instructor finally
concludes with a question very different from the one for which the hands were
initially raised.” Collect several answers to your question, even if the first student to
answer gives a perfect response. Not all students think at the same speed, and you
want to encourage those who were not first to continue reflecting. Often, the third or
fourth answers will add dimensions that the first answer missed.
 15

When student questions are desired, request them explicitly, wait, and then
acknowledge student contributions. For example, a teacher may wish to solicit
questions about the plays of Shakespeare, which the class has been studying. The
instructor might say, “What questions or clarifications of points need to be raised?”
or, “Please ask questions about the main characters or the minor characters,
whichever you wish at this point,” or “In light of Sally’s allusion to Lady Macbeth, I
invite you to ask her some questions for embellishment or clarification.” Avoid
soliciting questions without a context, as in the classic, “Any questions?” Indicate to
students that questions are not a sign of stupidity but rather the manifestation of
concern and thought about the topic. Be very careful not to subtly or even jokingly
convey the message that a student is stupid for asking for clarification or restatement
of an idea already raised in class or in the text.

Let students try out their answers by quickly discussing them in pairs or by
writing for a minute or two. They are much more willing to share their answers with
the class when they have had this opportunity. Use a variety of probing and
explaining questions. Ask questions that require different approaches to the topic,
such as causal, teleological, functional, or chronological explanations. Avoid
beginning your question with the words “why” and “explain,” and instead phrase
your questions with words which give stronger clues about the type of explanation
sought. Thus, for a chronological explanation, instead of asking, “Why did we have a
depression in the 1930s?” try “What series of events led up to the stock market crash
of 1929 and the high unemployment in the 1930s?”

When answering a student’s question, keep in mind your goals for that day’s
class. If the question moves the class toward that goal, you will want to give a
complete answer or to redirect it to the class for discussion. If the question is not
pertinent, you can tell the student where he or she can find an answer or offer to
discuss it after class. However, a majority of the new instructors are often at a loss
when they do not know the answer to a question. But it is not necessary to be able to
field every question, and students can sense when an instructor “fakes” an answer.
Instead, the instructor can offer to find the answer (and then should be sure and
follow up) or suggest to the student where he or she can find the answer to the
questions being asked in fact.
 16

2.5 Grouping Discussion

Discussion is important to learning in all disciplines because it helps student’s

process information rather than simply receive it. Discussion sections differ from
lectures in many ways. Two major differences are that the students can be more
active and that there can be more personal contact. But discussion is an instructional
activity that has uses in classes of all sizes and disciplines. Students can and should
talk to each other and the instructor even in a large class, as well as in small to
medium-sized classes. Good discussions give students an opportunity to formulate
principles in their own words and to suggest applications of these principles; they
help students become aware of and define problems implied in readings or lectures;
they can also increase students’ sensitivity to other points of view and alternative
explanations (Unruh, 1986).

Leading a discussion requires skills different from lecturing. The goal of a

discussion is to get students to talk purposefully about the course material. Your role
becomes that of facilitator. You moderate the discussion rather than convey
information. If you want to hold a discussion, don’t do all the talking yourself; don’t
lecture to the group or talk to one student at a time. Remember that the discussion
isn’t just a matter of your communication with your students; it’s a chance for your
students to share ideas and pool resources. Many instructors overlook this potential
and end up trying to carry the whole conversation themselves. Remember that as
long as you’re speaking, the students cannot (Ronkowski, 1986).

Discussion sessions are more effective in stimulating the students’ interests

and assessing their understanding of the material. The discussion method is favored
in secondary schools, particularly in the social sciences. Hence, discussion not only
helps teach material, but it also develops the thinking process, promotes a positive
attitude towards learning, and develops interpersonal skills among the students.
Group discussions foster interaction between students whose skills and interests
differ, and allow the students to use democratic leadership skills to lead direction of
their discussion and participation. In this discussion sessions help students extend
their knowledge through higher level independent thought (Think Quest, 2000).
 17

2.5.1 Preparing for Discussions

Some instructors have an unfortunate misunderstanding about the amount of

preparation that discussions require. Too many instructors assume that you can “just
walk in” to the classroom and begin useful discussion. It is as if they think that, with
a basic understanding of the subject, they can rely upon their students to fill 40 or 50
minutes with questions and answers. However, a good discussion takes a great deal
of prior planning and review of the subject matter (Middendorf and Kalish, 1996).
Do you want this discussion to be a five-minute break in the middle of a lecture?
Two minutes at the beginning of class to be sure they read the assignment? Or will
you spend the entire class period having the students develop their own ideas? Any
of these might be appropriate, depending on what your goal for the discussion is.

Knowing the content to be covered is not enough. Naming the chapter your
students will read is not enough. If you’ve only thought as far as, “I want students to
know,” you haven’t thought through enough about what needs to be taught. You
should be able to articulate what the students will be able to do with the information
or ideas. For example, in a philosophy class for which students has read a chapter on
epistemologies or theories of knowledge, you might want students to be able to
construct legitimate arguments for and against any epistemology about which they
have read. Having a clear goal in mind makes it much easier to plan a discussion.
You know what you want students to get out of it. But it is not enough: an instructor
told the story of how she wanted her students to deal with the issue of prejudice.

She tried to start discussion merely by saying “Discuss prejudice.” No one

spoke. She then asked if anyone had seen prejudice. One student raised a hand. When
she asked what it was like, the student merely said “awful.” She had a goal, but not a
problem or an activity to get the students to engage the ideas to achieve the goal. The
opposite end of the spectrum is also a problem. While “Discuss prejudice” is too
open-ended, merely asking for the basic facts won’t work either. You’ve probably
heard a professor rattle off a list of questions that require only brief factual replies
and little student involvement. The result could hardly be called a discussion. So,
give your students an open-ended problem to solve; something that begs for closure.
 18

2.5.2 Grouping Methods for Discussion

Many discussion activities can be used in the classroom. You want to choose
one that will help your students meet your goals for the discussion. The more specific
you can be in assigning the task, the more likely your students will be to succeed at it.
Some possible tasks are as follows: Think-Pair-Share, brainstorm, buzz groups, case
analysis, role-playing, and press conferences. Choosing a grouping method varies by
size, method of selection, and duration. By size: Two to six is ideal. Smaller groups
(two-three) are better for simple tasks and reaching consensus. Also, students are
more likely to speak in smaller groups. Larger groups of four-five are better for more
complex tasks and generating lots of ideas. By selection: Randomly assigning
students to groups avoids the problem of friends wanting to get off track.

For long term groups, you may want to select for certain attributes or skills
(e.g. a statistician, geology major, and a writer) or by interest in the topic, if different
groups have different tasks. By duration: Just for this activity or for all semester.
Stop the discussion groups while they are still hard at work; next time, they will
work doubly hard. Long term groups allow students to practice collaborative skills
and make stronger bonds, but sometimes they get tired of each other. Choosing a
debriefing method may involve many techniques which can get students to share
what their smaller groups have done with the entire class: verbally, on newsprint/
flipchart, blackboard or overhead, ditto/ photocopy, etc. And you don’t have to hear
from everyone; calling on a few groups at random to report works quite well.

Always debrief students; it is the most important part of a discussion of the

time to summarize and synthesize. Most of learning in discussions happens during
debriefing, so don’t squeeze it in; a rule of thumb is to use one-third of the total
discussion time for debriefing. You can use debriefing to correct incorrect notions.
You can slip in any points that students neglected but that are important. You can
pick which student reports from each group, though you should tell them in advance
that you plan to do this. This makes everyone in the group responsible. You don’t
have to hear from every group, but can instead choose a few at random. When groups
start repeating ideas, it’s time to stop.
 19

Grouping is a common teaching technique, especially at the elementary level.

Organizational arrangements place students together in groups within the classroom
to improve the learning conditions. Traditionally, grouping has been the most
effective approach to teaching reading and basic math. The teacher follows a detailed
program of instruction and examples, and then the groups work together to respond
to the questions presented to them. Grouping allows teachers to place students of the
same achievement level together, making it easier for the teacher to work with them.
On the other hand, cooperative learning groups place students of different abilities
together, so that students within each group can help each other. These groupings are
often effective in raising students’ achievement while improving interpersonal skills.

Grouping has been particularly successful with hard-to-teach and fast-

learning students. The recent trends of “streaming” and “tracking”; grouping students
according to age and intellectual ability - have promoted much inquiry. It has
attracted both ardent support and extreme condemnation. The uniformity created by
putting students with their intellectual peers makes teaching more effective and
learning more pleasant. Those opposed to streaming believe that it has a negative
effect on the psychological and moral states of children in the lower streams. They
also believe that a varied class allows the weaker students to benefit from actively
sharing with the stronger students (Think Quest, 2000).

Facilitating discussions shall include in establishing a safe atmosphere to

encourage participation, one in which students feel comfortable with one another and
safe from harsh judgment. No one wants to feel that his or her remark will be put
down or put off. Students are also sensitive to what they think you really want. (E.g.,
does he want a discussion or a chance for an extended monologue? Does she say she
wants disagreement and then gets defensive when someone challenges her?) Your
students will try to read you so that they can respond appropriately. Be sensitive to
the clues you give them. Create the expectation of participation by arranging the
room so students can see one another’s faces. Devise ways so that students have
something to say early in the semester. If discussion is to be a large component of the
course, the first day of classes is not too early to start. Set clear expectations. Provide
clear directions for the discussion activity. Explain that your role is facilitator rather
than presenter of information (Middendorf and Kalish, 1996).
 20

2.6 Computer Labs

Computer labs can be among the richest experiences students have at the
university. It is one of the few opportunities students will have to practice computer
and science much in the way professionals do. Often, though, labs are presented as
mere recipes in which students follow precise instructions to arrive at a conclusion
whose importance is not clear. In order for labs to be effective, students need to
understand not only how to do the experiment, but why the experiment is worth
doing, and what purpose it serves for better understanding a concept, relationship, or
process. The most important thing you can do to ensure that your lab sections run
smoothly is to be well prepared. Your preparation, prior to the start of the semester,
should include being acquainted with the storeroom of the lab so that time won’t be
lost during a lab looking for necessary equipment or materials, and if applicable,
knowing the location of the first aid kit, basic first aid rules, and procedures for
getting emergency assistance (Ronkowski, 1986). Basic weekly planning for your lab
section might include the following.

Know exactly what the students are supposed to learn and why they have to
learn these things. This will come in handy when your students start to wonder why
they’re doing what they’re doing. Perform the entire experiment in advance. There is
no guarantee it’s going to work as advertised in the lab manual. By going through the
lab yourself, you’ll be familiar with some of the stumbling blocks that your students
may confront and you’ll know the subtle points of the process you are demonstrating.
If this isn’t possible, at least read through the procedure as though you were doing it.
And familiarize yourself with the equipment that your students will be using. Also,
obtain some sample data and work the calculations and answer the questions
(without using the key). Read and study the theory on which the experiment(s) are
based. Your understanding of the theoretical aspect of the lab should be useful to you
in handling most student questions which don’t deal with concrete parts of the
experiment(s). Research the relevance of the experiment, both the technique being
taught and the applications of the theory being demonstrated. Talk to experienced
instructors. They will often have very useful tips about things you are teaching. Plan
how you will guide students in preparing their lab reports.
 21

2.7 Teaching with the Case Method

Cases are narratives, situations, select data samplings, or statements that

present unresolved and provocative issues, situations, or questions. As a teaching or
learning tool, cases challenge participants to analyze critique, make judgments,
speculate and express reasoned opinions. Above all, although information can be real
or invented, a case must be realistic and believable. The information included must
be rich enough to make the situation credible, but not so complete as to close off
discussion or exploration. Cases can be short for brief classroom discussions, or long
and elaborate for semester-long projects. Cases are important for bringing real world
problems into a classroom or a workshop; they ensure active participation and may
lead to innovative solutions to problems. The formats for cases are such as
“Finished” cases based on facts; for analysis only, since the solution is indicated or
alternate solutions are suggested. “Unfinished” open-ended cases, where the results
are not yet clear (either because the case has not come to a factual conclusion in real
life, or because the instructor has eliminated the final facts.) Students must predict,
make choices and offer suggestions that will affect the outcome.

Fictional cases entirely written by the instructor; can be open-ended or

finished. Cautionary note: the case must be both complexes enough to mimic reality,
yet not have so many “red herrings” as to obscure the goal of the exercise. Original
documents like news articles, reports with data and statistics, summaries, excerpts
from historical writings, artifacts, literary passages, video and audio recordings,
ethnographies, etc. With the right questions, these can become problem-solving
opportunities. Comparison between two original documents related to the same topic
or theme is a strong strategy for encouraging both analysis and synthesis. This gives
the opportunity for presenting more than one side of an argument, making the
conflicts more complex. In managing a case assignment, design discussions for small
groups: 3-6 students are an ideal group size for setting up a discussion on a case.
Design also the narrative or situation such that it requires participants to reach a
judgment, decision, recommendation, prediction or other concrete outcome. If
possible, require each group to reach a consensus on the decision requested.
Structure the discussion then. The instructor should provide a series of written
 22

questions to guide small group discussion. Pay careful attention to the sequencing of
the questions. Early questions might ask participants to make observations about the
facts of the case. Later questions could ask for comparisons, contrasts, and analyses
of competing observations or hypotheses. Final questions might ask students to take
a position on the matter. The purpose of these questions is to stimulate, guide or prod
(but not dictate) participants’ observations and analyses. The questions should be
impossible to answer with a simple yes or no. Debrief the discussion to compare
group responses. Help the whole class interprets and understand the implications of
their solutions. Then, allow groups to work without instructor interference. The
instructor must be comfortable with ambiguity and with adopting the non-traditional
roles of witness and resource, rather than authority.

There are some guidelines for designing the case study questions including
the cases can be more or less “directed” by the kinds of questions asked; these kinds
of questions can be appended to any case, or could be a handout for participants
unfamiliar with case studies on how to approach one. What is the situation; what do
you actually know about it from reading the case? (Distinguishes between fact and
assumptions of critical understanding), what issues are at stake? (Opportunity for
linking to theoretical readings), what questions do you have; what information do
you still need? Where or how could you find it? What problem(s) need to be solved?
(Opportunity to discuss communication versus conflict, gaps between assumptions,
sides of the argument), what are all the possible options? What are the pros and cons
of each option? What criteria should you use when choosing an option and lastly
what does that mean about your assumptions?

In managing discussion and debate effectively, delay the problem-solving

part until the rest of the discussion has had time to develop. Start with expository
questions to clarify the facts, then move to analysis, and finally to evaluation,
judgment, and recommendations. Shift points of view: “Now that we’ve seen it from
[W’s] standpoint, what’s happening here from [Y’s] standpoint?” What evidence
would support Y’s position? What are the dynamics between the two positions?
Shift levels of abstraction: if the answer to the question above is “It’s just a bad
situation for her,” quotations help: When [Y] says something, what is or are her
assumptions? Or seek more concrete explanations: Why does she hold this point?
 23

2.8 Demonstration Performance Method

This method of teaching is based on the simple, yet sound principle that we
learn by doing. Students learn physical or mental skills by actually performing those
skills under supervision. An individual learns to write by writing, to weld by welding,
and to fly an aircraft by actually performing flight maneuvers. Students also learn
mental skills, such as speed reading, by this method. Skills requiring the use of tools,
machines, and equipment are particularly well suited to this instructional method
(Dynamic Flight, 2003). Every instructor should recognize the importance of student
performance in the learning process. Early in a lesson is to include demonstration
and performance; the instructor should identify the most important learning
outcomes. Next, explain and demonstrate the steps involved in performing the skill
being taught. Then, allow students time to practice each step, so they can increase
their ability to perform the skill. The demonstration-performance method is widely
used. The science teacher uses it during laboratory periods, the aircraft maintenance
instructor uses it in the shop, and the flight instructor uses it in teaching piloting
skills. There are five essential phases in including explanation, demonstration,
student performance, instructor supervision and lastly evaluation.

Explanations must be clear, pertinent to the objectives of the particular lesson

to be presented, and based on the known experience and knowledge of the students.
In teaching a skill, the instructor must convey to the students the precise actions they
are to perform. In addition to the necessary steps, the instructor should describe the
end result of these efforts. Before leaving this phase, the instructor should encourage
students to ask questions about any step of the procedure that they do not understand.
The instructor must show students the actions necessary to perform a skill. As little
extraneous activity as possible should be included in the demonstration if students
are to clearly understand that the instructor is accurately performing the actions
previously explained. If, due to some unanticipated circumstances the demonstration
does not closely conform to the explanation, this deviation should be immediately
acknowledged and explained. Because these two phases, which involve separate
actions, are performed concurrently, they are discussed here under a single heading.
The first of these phases is the student's performance of the physical or mental skills
 24

that have been explained and demonstrated. The second activity is the instructor's
supervision. Student performance requires students to act and do. To learn skills,
students must practice. The instructor must, therefore, allot enough time for
meaningful student activity. Through doing, students learn to follow correct
procedures and to reach established standards. It is important that students be given
an opportunity to perform the skill as soon as possible after a demonstration. In flight
training, the instructor may allow the student to follow along on the controls during
the demonstration of a maneuver. Immediately thereafter, the instructor should have
the student attempt to perform the maneuver, coaching as necessary. In another
example, students have been performing a task, such as a weight and balance
computation, as a group. Prior to terminating the performance phase, they should be
allowed to independently complete the task at least once, with supervision and
coaching as necessary. In this phase, the instructor judges student performance. The
student displays whatever competence has been attained, and the instructor discovers
just how well the skill has been learned.

To test each student’s ability to perform, the instructor requires students to

work independently throughout this phase and makes some comment as to how each
performed the skill relative to the way it was taught. From this measurement of
student achievement, the instructor determines the effectiveness of the instruction.
Direct of indirect oral questioning of the student is one of the most practical means of
evaluation of the student. Oral questions can be divided into two categories including
fact and thought. Memory or recall is the basis for fact questions. Thought questions
require the students to combine knowledge of facts with the ability to analyze
situations, solve problems and arrive at conclusion. Effective oral quizzing questions
have some general characteristics. There may be only one correct answer to each
question, but the answer may be expressed in a variety of ways. Answers need to be
easily evaluated by the instructor. To be effective the questions must apply to the
subject being taught, and be brief, concise, clear, and definite. Effective questions
must be adapted to the ability, experience, and stage of training of the different
students. They must center on only one idea and include one question. Questions
must challenge students. They should be difficult for the student at that particular
stage of training. Before answering a student’s question, the instructor must clearly
understand the question (Stephenson, 2006).
 25

2.9 Common Technology for Teaching

The technology for presenting instructional materials and enhancing

communication has been rapidly changing in recent years, but it is important to
remain focused on the pedagogic rather than the “gee-whiz” value of technology in
your class. Technology can make presentations more effective by introducing
information in various new and interesting ways. The key to successful use of
technology in instruction is to know the learning objective before choosing a
technical tool. Technology can help your students to learn better if you plan it
carefully to support specific learning objectives. All classrooms should have an
overhead projector.

If you plan to use any other presentation technology in your teaching,

whether it can be videotapes, 35mm slides, 16mm films, computer display, etc.,
communicate the special attributes needed in the room you may be assigned to teach
in to your departmental scheduling officer. These attributes may include such things
as room darkening capabilities, ability to project dual slide images, active network
connections, etc. Most of our students have a great deal of experience passively
watching video for entertainment (Middendorf, 1993). If you want them to actively
watch video for educational purposes, you must help them to change their viewing
habits. There are three stages to using video, film and other media in class.

Prior to viewing, introduce the video or film by providing an overview of its

content, a rationale of how it relates to the current topic being studied, and a reason
students need to know about it. Then, direct student attention to specific aspects of
the presentation, possibly by asking them questions beforehand that will be discussed
following the presentation. Viewing should focus on showing only the relevant
sections of a video or film, rather than the entire piece, for best use of class time and
greatest impact. It may also be appropriate to stop the video or film at appropriate
points for discussion or clarification. Post viewing; follow up a video or film with an
activity that allows students to respond to or extend ideas presented. Discussions,
short writing assignments, or application exercises, for example, will reinforce the
concepts and increase learning from classroom media (Middendorf, 1993).
 26

For slides, less is more. Students learn more when they view fewer slides but
have more time to analyze and interpret them. Discussions, short writing assignments,
and application exercises will reinforce concepts and increase learning from slides.
With slides, the three steps are slightly different than those with video. Prior to
viewing, rehearse the points you want to make about each slide; plan questions to
direct student attention and activities to encourage student participation. While
viewing, direct student attention; give them a question or two to answer as they view
the slides. Do not turn the classroom lights all the way off. Do not show more than
five slides in a row, or view multiple slides for more than five minutes at a time.
During post viewing, leave an empty slot after every few slides. Ektographic
projectors, the most commonly used type at universities, will shut off automatically
when a blank slot is left between slides. At this point, give the students an activity to
respond to the slides: discussions, short writing assignments, or application exercises,
for example, will reinforce the concepts and increase learning (Middendorf, 1993).

Chalkboard or marker board; perhaps the most widely used medium of

instruction is the chalkboard or dry marker board. The guiding principle of board
work is to look at your writing as though you were a student in your own class.
Almost anything you write will be clear to you. The task, however, is to make your
presentation clear to your students. However, the students must be able to see and to
read what you have written. Illegible or obscured work is valueless. Watch out if you
have small handwriting, tend to scrawl, or write too lightly. Before class, write
something on the board and then go to the back of the room to see if it is legible. Sit
in one of the last rows and take a critical look at your board work. Some instructors
like to mark off the “bottom line of visibility” with a chalk line. Try to keep your
work visible for as long as possible. If you are right-handed, fill the right-hand panel
first, then move to the panel on the left and continue your writing. In this way you
will not be blocking the view of student copying the writing you have just completed.
Your board work must be organized so that students will be able to interpret their
notes later: first erase the board completely. This step is especially important in
mathematics, where stray lines may be interpreted as symbols. If you are to solve a
problem or prove a theorem, write a complete statement of the problem or theorem
on the board, or write a precise reference. Fill one panel in at a time, always starting
at the top and moving down (White and Hennessey, 1996).
 27

Make your notation consistent with that in the textbook or lecture, so that
students do not have to translate from one system into another. Underline or in some
other way mark the most important parts of your presentation: the major assumptions,
conclusions, or intermediate steps that you plan to refer to later on. Colored chalk
may help to clarify drawings. Talking about what you are writing gives your students
the material in both visual and auditory modes. Be sure to speak loudly enough; if
you are facing the board to write on it, you must raise your voice somewhat to be
heard. Other tips for effective board use are including erase only when you have run
out of space. If you find that you have made a mistake, stop. Don’t go back over the
last three panels madly erasing minus signs: first explain the error, then go back and
make corrections, if possible, with a different color of chalk or marker.

If you are presenting material that you want students to duplicate in their
notes, you need to give them time to copy what you have written. They will want to
copy everything you put on the board into their notes, even if you tell them not to.
Don’t ask them to analyze while they are writing. When you want them to discuss a
point, stop writing. Let people catch up to you (they may be lagging behind by two
or three lines). Then begin your discussion. Similarly, if you have engaged in a long
discussion without writing very much on the board, allow them time to summarize
the discussion in their notes before you begin to use the board or to speak. Students
will copy everything you put on the board (and sometimes nothing else) into their
notes. The board should serve to highlight and clarify your discussion or lecture.

Find out if you are using the board effectively. After class, request one
advanced and one average student to lend you their notes. If the notes seem
inadequate, ask yourself what you could have done to make your presentation more
clear. At some point, ask your students if they can read or make sense of what you
have written. Don’t do this every five minutes; an occasional check, however, is in
order. View a videotape of your presentation, putting yourself in the place of a
student taking notes. After the chalk or marker board, the overhead projector is the
most frequently used teaching tool in the college classroom. Many of the points
made above about board use apply to the overhead. Keep in mind these guidelines
when producing and presenting transparencies (Middendorf, 1993). These guidelines,
will improve legibility of your projected materials and the students comprehension.
 28

2.10 Advanced Technology for Teaching

If you are using computers to produce overheads or slide shows for

presentation in the classroom, many of the design and presentation guidelines given
above for overhead transparencies apply equally to computer-based materials. Some
computer based presentation technologies, however, do present new challenges, even
to those who use the technology to perform traditional functions such as visual
support for a lecture. Because computers can make a series of slides appear visually
slick, with seamless transitions, it’s easy to rush through material too fast and to
forget to keep students active and attentive. Developing a presentation sequence and
rhythm that includes frequent interaction with students, writing exercises, problem
solving, or other events will help keep students from being mesmerized by the march
of slides (Middendorf, 1993). Another challenge is the result of the increased access
to information that computers facilitate. Instructors who choose to present Web
materials during lecture will find that the selection and editing of those materials
becomes critical. More is not always better. Overloading students with information
and seemingly infinite resources can cause them to feel overwhelmed, numb, and lost,
which can eventually dampen their enthusiasm.

Even if you find excellent materials to download and present in class, these
may not always serve your instructional objectives. Select carefully, and make sure
students know what is important and why. If you plan to surf on the web during a
presentation, plan meticulously the navigation sequence. Students can grow fatigued
and uninterested watching you click and browse, looking for the correct link. Also, if
you are not the author of the pages you are planning to visit, it is a good idea to
check the links the day of the presentation. Certain pages and links undergo continual
editing, and may not always look the same from one visit to the next. Also make sure
you’ve checked the pages in the browser you’ll use in class. Some pages interact
differently with different browsers. It is less risky to download the pages and run
them from a disk, rather than rely on the active server. Finally, be sure to enlarge the
size of the display font in the browser and minimize clutter on screen by turning off
extraneous buttons bars. In developing your presentation, allow for frequent periods
when you can move away from the computer to share the students’ perspective.
 29

2.11 Master of Science in Construction Management

The programme aims are to develop the construction management skills of

construction graduates to enable them to play leading roles in a professional capacity
in the construction industry and academia, and to develop and deliver new areas of
teaching in response to the changing managerial requirements of the construction
industry for academics and practitioners in the UK and overseas. The programme is
suitable for graduates employed in civil engineering design and or construction and
is primarily intended for early mid-career training to enable practicing civil engineers
and other professionals aspiring to high management positions in public and private
organizations to upgrade their knowledge and develop management skills applicable
to the construction industry. Graduates from other disciplines are welcome and the
intake is gradually widening to take account of changes and developments in the
industry (University of Birmingham, 2006). In addition, this programme aims to
produce postgraduates at the forefront of management of construction projects who
recognize the complexity and systems nature of the construction industry (University
of Plymouth, 2006).

Master of Science or Post-Graduate Diploma in Construction Management

provides grounding in the main disciplines and techniques and to develop personal
skills of practical use in the management and implementation of construction and
civil engineering projects. The programme addresses the management of technical
(engineering) techniques, the development of personal, interpersonal and project
management skills, and provides a fundamental understanding of the social,
economic, resource management and legal frameworks within which the construction
project takes place. Generally, the purpose of the course is to prepare the student to
make an effective contribution to the project management of the whole enterprise
and environment in which she/he will work. The content of the programme takes into
account the dominant position of the engineer at every stage in the development of a
civil engineering project. Since the engineer is normally chosen to fill a position with
responsibility for technical, financial and contractual decisions and for the overall
management and also the administration of a project, the programme is directed to
satisfying these needs.
 30

2.12 Short Courses of Construction Management

A short course is a form of academic teaching, at a university or offered by a

commercial or professional organization, in small groups where students are
requested to actively participate during meetings. This often has to be done by
presenting a paper in class and also in written form. Normally, participants must not
be beginners. The idea behind short courses is to confront students with the
methodology of their chosen subject and also to familiarize them with practical
problems that might crop up during their research work. Often a short course will be
open to discussion, where questions can be raised and debates conducted. Another
form of academic teaching is lecturing, a form which involves larger student groups
with less active participation. In some European universities a short course can be a
large lecture course, especially when conducted by a renowned thinker, regardless of
the size of the audience or its participation in discussion. Postgraduate education can
involve studying for qualifications such as certificates and diplomas; normally held
to be lower than degrees. They are sometimes used as steps on the route to a degree,
or as part of training for a specific career, or as a qualification in an area of study too
narrow to warrant a full degree course.

However, some of the short courses are directly related to the continuing
professional development in the field of construction management. This programme
was designed to enable individuals, in a short time-block, to update their professional
skills or to acquire new computing skills. It also provides an opportunity for
individuals who, through their various professional commitments are unable to attend
courses during business hours, to obtain personal or professional development. In the
Department of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University, the
modules and short courses are available for Continuing Professional Development
which can be accumulated for a Master of Science in Construction Management
degree (Loughborough University, 2006). For Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, its
School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE) is offering the short
courses in Construction Management based on the modules and subjects in the
Master of Science in Construction Management programme which are also
conducted by the UTM Construction Management lecturers (UTM, 2006).
 31

2.12.1 Construction Project Management

The management of construction projects requires knowledge of modern

management as well as an understanding of the design and construction process.
Construction projects have a specific set of objectives and constraints such as a
required time frame for completion. While the relevant technology, institutional
arrangements or processes will differ, the management of such projects has much in
common with the management of similar types of projects in other specialty or
technology domains such as aerospace, pharmaceutical and energy developments.
Generally, project management is distinguished from the general management of
corporations by the mission-oriented nature of a project. A project organization will
generally be terminated when the mission is accomplished.

According to the Project Management Institute, the discipline of project

management can be defined as follows (Wideman, 1986). Project management is the
art of directing and coordinating human and material resources throughout the life of
a project by using modern management techniques to achieve predetermined
objectives of scope, cost, time, quality and the participation satisfaction. By contrast,
the general management of business and industrial corporations assumes a broader
outlook with greater continuity of operations. Nevertheless, there are sufficient
similarities as well as differences between the two so that modern management
techniques developed for general management may be adapted for the project
management in fact.

A working knowledge of general management and familiarity with the

special knowledge domain related to the project are indispensable. Supporting
disciplines such as computer science and decision science may also play an
important role. In fact, modern management practices and various special knowledge
domains have absorbed various techniques or tools which were once identified only
with the supporting disciplines. For example, computer-based information systems
and decision support systems are now common-place tools for general management.
Similarly, many operations research techniques such as linear programming and
network analysis are now widely used in many knowledge or application domains.
 32

Specifically, project management in construction encompasses a set of

objectives which may be accomplished by implementing a series of operations
subject to resource constraints. There are potential conflicts between the stated
objectives with regard to scope, cost, time and quality, and the constraints imposed
on human material and financial resources. These conflicts should be resolved at the
onset of a project by making the necessary tradeoffs or creating new alternatives.
Subsequently, the functions of project management for construction generally
include the following; the specification of project objectives and plans including
delineation of scope, budgeting, scheduling, setting performance requirements, and
selecting project participants; maximization of efficient resource utilization through
procurement of labor, materials and equipment according to the prescribed schedule
and plan; implementation of various operations through proper coordination and
control of planning, design, estimating, contracting and construction in the entire
process and lastly the development of effective communications and mechanisms for
resolving conflicts among the various participants.

The Project Management Institute focuses on nine distinct areas requiring

project manager knowledge and attention: Project integration management to ensure
that the various project elements are effectively coordinated; Project scope
management to ensure that all the work required (and only the required work) is
included; Project time management to provide an effective project schedule; Project
cost management to identify needed resources and maintain budget control; Project
quality management to ensure functional requirements are met; Project human
resource management to development and effectively employ project personnel;
Project communications management to ensure effective internal and external
communications; Project risk management to analyze and mitigate potential risks and
lastly Project procurement management to obtain necessary resources from external
sources. Professional construction management refers to a project management team
consisting of a professional construction manager and other participants who will
carry out the tasks of project planning, design and construction in an integrated
manner. Contractual relationships among members of the team are intended to
minimize adversarial relationships and contribute to greater response within the
management group. Consequently, it is important to recognize the changing nature of
the organizational structure as a project is carried out in various stages.
 33

2.12.2 Construction Site Management and Safety Control

Quality control and safety represent increasingly important concerns for

project managers. Defects or failures in constructed facilities can result in very large
costs. Even with minor defects, reconstruction may be required and facility
operations impaired. Increased costs and delays are the result. In the worst case,
failures may cause personal injuries or fatalities. Accidents during the construction
process can similarly result in personal injuries and large costs. Indirect costs of
insurance, inspection and regulation are increasing rapidly due to these increased
direct costs. Good project managers try to ensure that the job is done right the first
time and that no major accidents occur on the project. As with cost control, the most
important decisions regarding the quality of a completed facility are made during the
design and planning stages rather than during construction. It is during these
preliminary stages that component configurations, material specifications and
functional performance are decided. Quality control during construction consists
largely of insuring conformance to these original designs and planning decisions.
While conformance to existing design decisions is the primary focus of quality
control, there are exceptions to this rule.

First, unforeseen circumstances, incorrect design decisions or changes desired

by an owner in the facility function may require reevaluation of design decisions
during the course of construction. While these changes may be motivated by the
concern for quality, they represent occasions for redesign with all the attendant
objectives and constraints. As a second case, some designs rely upon informed and
appropriate decision making during the construction process itself. For example,
some tunneling methods make decisions about the amount of shoring required at
different locations based upon observation of soil conditions during the tunneling
process. Since such decisions are based on better information concerning actual site
conditions, the facility design may be more cost effective as a result. With the
attention to conformance as the measure of quality during the construction process,
the specification of quality requirements in the design and contract documentation
becomes extremely important. Quality requirements should be clear and verifiable,
so that all parties in the project can understand the requirements for conformance.
 34

Much of the discussion here relates to the development and the implications
of different quality requirements for construction as well as the issues associated
with insuring conformance. Safety during the construction project is also influenced
in large part by decisions made during the planning and design process. Some
designs or construction plans are inherently difficult and dangerous to implement,
whereas other, comparable plans may considerably reduce the possibility of
accidents. For example, clear separation of traffic from construction zones during
roadway rehabilitation can greatly reduce the possibility of accidental collisions.
Beyond these design decisions, safety largely depends upon education, vigilance and
cooperation during the construction process. Workers should be constantly alert to
the possibilities of accidents and avoid taken unnecessary risks.

A variety of different organizations are possible for quality and safety control
during construction. One common model is to have a group responsible for quality
assurance and another group primarily responsible for safety within an organization.
In large organizations, departments dedicated to quality assurance and to safety
might assign specific individuals to assume responsibility for these functions on
particular projects. For smaller projects, the project manager or an assistant might
assume these and other responsibilities. In either case, insuring safe and quality
construction is a concern of the project manager in overall charge of the project in
addition to the concerns of personnel, cost, time and other management issues.
Inspectors and quality assurance personnel will be involved in a project to represent a
variety of different organizations.

Each of the parties directly concerned with the project may have their own
quality and safety inspectors, including the owner, the engineer/architect, and the
various constructor firms. These inspectors may be contractors from specialized
quality assurance organizations. In addition to on-site inspections, samples of
materials will commonly be tested by specialized laboratories to insure compliance.
Inspectors to insure compliance with regulatory requirements will also be involved.
Common examples are inspectors for the local government’s building department,
for environmental agencies, and for occupational health and safety agencies. The US
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) routinely conduct site visits
of work places in conjunction with approved state inspection agencies.
 35

OSHA inspectors are required by law to issue citations for all standard
violations observed. Safety standards prescribe a variety of mechanical safeguards
and procedures; for example, ladder safety is covered by over 140 regulations. In
cases of extreme non-compliance with standards, OSHA inspectors can stop work on
a project. However, only a small fraction of construction sites are visited by OSHA
inspectors and most construction site accidents are not caused by violations of
existing standards. As a result, safety is largely the responsibility of the managers on
site rather than that of public inspectors. While the multitude of participants involved
in the construction process require the services of inspectors, it cannot be emphasized
too strongly that inspectors are only a formal check on quality control. Quality
control should be a primary objective for all the members of a project team.
Managers should take responsibility for maintaining and improving quality control.
Employee participation in quality control should be sought and rewarded, including
the introduction of new ideas. Most important of all, quality improvement can serve
as a catalyst for improved productivity. By suggesting new work methods, by
avoiding rework, and by avoiding long term problems, good quality control can pay
for itself. Owners should promote good quality control and seek out contractors who
maintain such standards.

In addition to the various organizational bodies involved in quality control,

issues of quality control arise in virtually all the functional areas of construction
activities. For example, insuring accurate and useful information is an important part
of maintaining quality performance. Other aspects of quality control include
document control (including changes during the construction process), procurement,
field inspection and testing, and final checkout of the facility. Construction is a
relatively hazardous undertaking. There are significantly more injuries and lost
workdays due to injuries or illnesses in construction than in virtually any other
industry. These work related injuries and illnesses are exceedingly costly (Bowker
and Liebermann, 1972). Included in this total are direct costs (medical costs,
premiums for workers’ compensation benefits and property losses) as well as indirect
costs (reduced worker productivity, delays in projects, administrative time, and
damage to equipments). In contrast to most industrial accidents, innocent bystanders
may also be injured by construction accidents. Several crane collapses from high rise
buildings under construction have resulted in fatalities to passersby.
 36

2.12.3 Construction Technology

The structural design of complex engineering systems generally involves both

synthesis and analysis. Synthesis is an inductive process while analysis is a deductive
process. The activities in synthesis are often described as an art rather than a science,
and are regarded more akin to creativity than to knowledge. The conception of a new
structural system is by and large a matter of subjective decision since there is no
established procedure for generating innovative and highly successful alternatives.
The initial selection of a workable system from numerous possible alternatives relies
heavily on the judicious judgment of the designer. Once a structural system is
selected, it must be subjected to vigorous analysis to insure that it can sustain the
demands in its environment. In addition, compatibility of the structural system with
mechanical equipment and piping must be assured. For traditional types of structures
such as office buildings, there are standard systems derived from the past experience
of many designers. However, in many situations, special systems must be developed
to meet the specified requirements. The choice of materials for a structure depends
not only on the suitability of materials and their influence on the form of the structure.

In the design of an airplane hangar, a steel skeleton frame may be selected

because a similar frame in reinforced concrete will limit the span of the structure
owing to its unfavorable ratio or resistance to weight. However, if a thin-shelled roof
is adopted, reinforced concrete may prove to be more suitable than steel. Thus, the
interplay of the structural forms and materials affects the selection of a structural
system, which in turn may influence the method of construction including the use of
falsework. Since construction is site specific, it is very important to investigate the
subsurface conditions which often influence the design of a facility. The uncertainty
in the design is particularly acute in geotechnical engineering so that the assignment
of risks in this area should be a major concern. Since the degree of uncertainty in a
project is perceived differently by different parties involved in a project, the
assignment of unquantifiable risks arising from numerous unknowns to the owner,
engineer and contractor is inherently difficult. It is no wonder that courts or
arbitrators are often asked to distribute equitably a risk to parties who do not perceive
the same risks and do not want to assume a disproportionate share of such risks.
 37

While the general information about the construction site is usually available
at the planning stage of a project, it is important for the design professionals and
construction manager as well as the contractor to visit the site. Each group will be
benefited by first-hand knowledge acquired in the field. For design professionals, an
examination of the topography may focus their attention to the layout of a facility on
the site for maximum use of space in compliance with various regulatory restrictions.
In the case of industrial plants, the production or processing design and operation
often dictate the site layout. A poor layout can cause construction problems such as
inadequate space for staging, limited access for materials and personnel, and
restrictions on the use of certain construction methods. Thus, design and construction
inputs are important in the layout of a facility.

The construction manager and the contractor must visit the site to gain some
insight in preparing or evaluating the bid package for the project. They can verify
access roads and water, electrical and other service utilities in the immediate vicinity,
with the view of finding suitable locations for erecting temporary facilities and the
field office. They can also observe any interference of existing facilities with
construction and develop a plan for site security during construction. In examining
site conditions, particular attention must be paid to environmental factors such as
drainage, groundwater and the possibility of floods. Of particular concern is the
possible presence of hazardous waste materials from previous uses. Cleaning up or
controlling hazardous wastes can be extremely expensive.

Another approach to construction innovation is to apply the principles and

organizational solutions adopted for manufacturing. Industrialized construction and
pre-fabrication would involve transferring a significant portion of construction
operations from the construction site to more or less remote sites where individual
components of buildings and structures are produced. Elements of facilities could be
prefabricated off the erection site and assembled by cranes and other lifting
machinery. There is a wide variety and degree of introducing greater industrialization
to the construction process. Many components of constructed facilities have always
been manufactured, such as air conditioning units. Lumber, piping and other
individual components are manufactured to standard sizes. Even temporary items and
concrete form can be assembled off-site and transported for use.
 38

Reinforcing bars for concrete can also be pre-cut and shaped to the desired
configuration in a manufacturing plant or in an automated plant located proximate to
a construction site. A major problem in extending the use of pre-fabricated units is
the lack of standardization for systems and building regulations. While designers
have long adopted standard sizes for individual components in designs, the adoption
of standardized sub-assemblies is rarer. Without standardization, the achievement of
a large market and scale economies of production in manufacturing may be
impossible. An innovative and more thorough industrialization of the entire building
process may be a primary source of construction cost savings in the future.

When might pre-fabricated components be used in preference to components

assembled on a construction site? A straightforward answer is to use pre-fabricated
components whenever their cost, including transportation, is less than the cost of
assembly on site. As an example, forms for concrete panels might be transported to a
construction site with reinforcing bars already built in, necessary coatings applied to
the forms, and even special features such as electrical conduit already installed in the
form. In some cases, it might be less expensive to pre-fabricate and transport the
entire concrete panel to a manufacturing site. In contrast, traditional construction
practice would be to assemble all the different features of the panel on-site. The
relevant costs of these alternatives could be assessed during construction planning to
determine the lowest cost alternative.

In addition to the consideration of direct costs, a construction planner should

also consider some other aspects of this technology choice. First, the planner must
insure that pre-fabricated components will satisfy the relevant building codes and
regulations. Second, the relative quality of traditional versus pre-fabricated
components as experienced in the final facility should be considered. Finally, the
availability of components at the required time during the construction process
should also be considered. Building codes originated as a part of the building
regulatory process for the safety and general welfare of the public. The source of all
authority to enact building codes is based on the police power of the state which may
be delegated by the state legislature to local government units. Consequently, about
8,000 localities having their own building codes, either by following a national
model code or developing a local code (Field and Rivkin, 1975).
 39

2.12.4 Construction Law and Contract

Because of the unique nature of constructed facilities, it is almost imperative

to have a separate price for each facility. The construction contract price includes the
direct project cost including field supervision expenses plus the markup imposed by
contractors for general overhead expenses and profit. The factors influencing a
facility price will vary by type of facility and location as well. Within each of the
major categories of construction such as residential housing, commercial buildings,
industrial complexes and infrastructure, there are smaller segments which have very
different environments with regard to price setting. However, all pricing
arrangements have some common features in the form of the legal documents
binding the owner and the supplier(s) of the facility. Without addressing special
issues in various industry segments, the most common types of pricing arrangements
can be described broadly to illustrate the basic principles. The basic structure of the
bidding process consists of the formulation of detailed plans and specifications of a
facility based on the objectives and requirements of the owner, and the invitation of
qualified contractors to bid for the right to execute the project.

The definition of a qualified contractor usually calls for a minimal evidence

of previous experience and financial stability. In the private sector, the owner has
considerable latitude in selecting the bidders, ranging from open competition to the
restriction of bidders to a few favored contractors. In the public sector, the rules are
carefully delineated to place all qualified contractors on an equal footing for
competition, and strictly enforced to prevent collusion among contractors and
unethical or illegal actions by public officials. Detailed plans and specifications are
usually prepared by an architectural or engineering firm which oversees the bidding
process on behalf of the owner. The final bids are normally submitted on either a
lump sum or unit price basis, as stipulated by the owner. A lump sum bid represents
the total price for which a contractor offers to complete a facility according to the
detailed plans and specifications. Unit price bidding is used in projects for which the
quantity of materials or the amount of labor involved in some key tasks is
particularly uncertain. In such cases, the contractor is permitted to submit a list of
unit prices for those tasks, and the final price used to determine the lowest bidder is
 40

based on the lump sum price computed by multiplying the quoted unit price for each
specified task by the corresponding quantity in the owner’s estimates for quantities.
However, the total payment to the winning contractor will be based on the actual
quantities multiplied by the respective quoted unit prices. Instead of inviting
competitive bidding, private owners often choose to award construction contracts
with one or more selected contractors. A major reason for using negotiated contracts
is the flexibility of this type of pricing arrangement, particularly for projects of large
size and great complexity or for projects which substantially duplicate previous
facilities sponsored by the owner. An owner may value the expertise and integrity of
a particular contractor who has a good reputation or has worked successfully for the
owner in the past. If it becomes necessary to meet a deadline for completion of the
project, the construction of a project may proceed without waiting for the completion
of the detailed plans and specifications with a contractor that the owner can trust.
However, the owner’s staff must be highly knowledgeable and competent in
evaluating contractor proposals and monitoring subsequent performance.

Generally, negotiated contracts require the reimbursement of direct project

cost plus the contractor’s fee as determined by one of the following methods: Cost
plus fixed percentage; Cost plus fixed fee; Cost plus variable fee; Target estimate;
and lastly Guaranteed maximum price or cost. The fixed percentage or fixed fee is
determined at the outset of the project, while variable fee and target estimates are
used as an incentive to reduce costs by sharing any cost savings. A guaranteed
maximum cost arrangement imposes a penalty on a contractor for cost overruns and
failure to complete the project on time. With a guaranteed maximum price contract,
amounts below the maximum are typically shared between the owner and the
contractor, while the contractor is responsible for costs above the maximum. In
residential construction, developers often build houses and condominiums in
anticipation of the demand of home buyers. Because the basic needs of home buyers
are very similar and home designs can be standardized to some degree, the
probability of finding buyers of good housing units within a relatively short time is
quite high. Consequently, developers are willing to undertake speculative building
and lending institutions are also willing to finance such construction. The developer
essentially set the price for each housing unit as the market will bear, and can adjust
the prices of remaining units at any given time according to the market trend.
 41

Some owners use in-house labor forces to perform a substantial amount of

construction, particularly for addition, renovation and repair work. Then, the total of
the force-account charges including in-house overhead expenses will be the pricing
arrangement for the construction. Provisions for the allocation of risk among parties
to a contract can appear in numerous areas in addition to the total construction price.
Typically, these provisions assign responsibility for covering the costs of possible or
unforeseen occurrences. A partial list of responsibilities with concomitant risk that
can be assigned to different parties would include: Force majeure (i.e., this provision
absolves an owner or a contractor for payment for costs due to “Acts of God” and
other external events such as war or labor strikes); Indemnification (i.e., this
provision absolves the indemnified party from any payment for losses and damages
incurred by a third party such as adjacent property owners.); Liens (i.e., assurances
that third party claims are settled such as “mechanics liens” for worker wages);
Labor laws (i.e., payments for any violation of labor laws and regulations on the job
site); Differing site conditions (i.e., responsibility for extra costs due to unexpected
site conditions); Delays and extensions of time; Liquidated damages (i.e., payments
for any facility defects with payment amounts agreed to in advance); Consequential
damages (i.e., payments for actual damage costs assessed upon impact of facility
defects); Occupational safety and health of workers, permits, licenses, laws, and
regulations; Equal employment opportunity regulations; Termination for default by
contractor; Suspension of work and warranties and guarantees.

The language used for specifying the risk assignments in these areas must
conform to legal requirements and past interpretations which may vary in different
jurisdictions or over time. Without using standard legal language, contract provisions
may be unenforceable. Unfortunately, standard legal language for this purpose may
be difficult to understand. As a result, project managers often have difficulty in
interpreting their particular responsibilities. Competent legal counsel is required to
advise the different parties to an agreement about their respective responsibilities.
Standard forms for contracts can be obtained from numerous sources, such as the
American Institute of Architects (AIA) or the Associated General Contractors (AGC).
These standard forms may include risk and responsibility allocations which are
unacceptable to one or more of the contracting parties. In particular, standard forms
may be biased to reduce the risk and responsibility of the originating organization.
 42

Parties to a contract should review all contract documents carefully. While

construction contracts serve as a means of pricing construction, they also structure
the allocation of risk to the various parties involved. The owner has the sole power to
decide what type of contract should be used for a specific facility to be constructed
and to set forth the terms in a contractual agreement. It is important to understand the
risks of the contractors associated with different types of construction contracts.
Once a contract is reached, a variety of problems may emerge during the course of
work. Disputes may arise over quality of work, over responsibility for delays, over
appropriate payments due to changed conditions, or a multitude of other
considerations. The mechanism for contract dispute resolution can be specified in the
original contract or, less desirably, decided when a dispute arises. The most
prominent mechanism for dispute resolution is adjudication in a court of law. This
process tends to be expensive and time consuming since it involves legal
representation and waiting in queues of cases for available court times. Any party to
a contract can bring a suit. In adjudication, the dispute is decided by a neutral, third
party with no necessary specialized expertise in the disputed subject. After all, it is
not a prerequisite for judges to be familiar with construction procedures!

Legal procedures are highly structured with rigid, formal rules for
presentations and fact finding. On the positive side, legal adjudication strives for
consistency and predictability of results. The results of previous cases are published
and can be used as precedents for resolution of new disputes. Negotiation among the
contract parties is a second important dispute resolution mechanism. These
negotiations can involve the same sorts of concerns and issues as with the original
contracts. Negotiation typically does not involve third parties such as judges. The
negotiation process is usually informal, unstructured and relatively inexpensive. If an
agreement is not reached between the parties, then adjudication is a possible remedy.
A third dispute resolution mechanism is the resort to arbitration or mediation and
conciliation. In these procedures, a third party serves a central role in the resolution.
These outside parties are usually chosen by mutually agreement of the parties
involved and will have specialized knowledge of the dispute subject. In arbitration,
the third party may make a decision which is binding on the participants. In
mediation and conciliation, the third party serves only as a facilitator to help the
participants reach a mutually acceptable resolution.
 43

2.12.5 Project Planning and Scheduling

The development of a construction plan is very much analogous to the

development of a good facility design. The planner must weigh the costs and
reliability of different options while at the same time insuring technical feasibility.
Construction planning is more difficult in some ways since the building process is
dynamic as the site and the physical facility change over time as construction
proceeds. On the other hand, construction operations tend to be fairly standard from
one project to another, whereas structural or foundation details might differ
considerably from one facility to another. Forming a good construction plan is an
exceptionally challenging problem. There are numerous possible plans available for
any given project. While past experience is a good guide to construction planning,
each project is likely to have special problems or opportunities that may require
considerable ingenuity and creativity to overcome or exploit. Unfortunately, it is
quite difficult to provide direct guidance concerning general procedures or strategies
to form good plans in all circumstances. There are some recommendations or issues
that can be addressed to describe the characteristics of good plans, but this does not
necessarily tell a planner how to discover a good plan.

However, as in the design process, strategies of decomposition in which

planning is divided into subproblems and hierarchical planning in which general
activities are repeatable subdivided into more specific tasks can be readily adopted in
many cases. From the standpoint of construction contractors or the construction
divisions of large firms, the planning process for construction projects consists of
three stages that take place between the moments in which a planner starts the plan
for the construction of a facility to the moment in which the evaluation of the final
output of the construction process is finished. The estimate stage involves the
development of a cost and duration estimate for the construction of a facility as part
of the proposal of a contractor to an owner. It is the stage in which assumptions of
resource commitment to the necessary activities to build the facility are made by a
planner. A careful and thorough analysis of different conditions imposed by the
construction project design and by site characteristics are taken into consideration to
determine the best estimate.
 44

The success of a contractor depends upon this estimate, not only to obtain a
job but also to construct the facility with the highest profit. The planner has to look
for the time-cost combination that will allow the contractor to be successful in his
commitment. The result of a high estimate would be to lose the job, and the result of
a low estimate could be to win the job, but to lose money in the construction process.
When changes are done, they should improve the estimate, taking into account not
only present effects, but also future outcomes of succeeding activities. It is very
seldom the case in which the output of the construction process exactly echoes the
estimate offered to the owner. In the monitoring and control stage of the construction
process, the construction manager has to keep constant track of both activities'
durations and ongoing costs. It is misleading to think that if the construction of the
facility is on schedule or ahead of schedule, the cost will also be on the estimate or
below the estimate, especially if several changes are made. Constant evaluation is
necessary until the construction of the facility is complete. When work is finished in
the construction process, and information about it is provided to the planner, the third
stage of the planning process can begin. The evaluation stage is the one in which
results of the construction process are matched against the estimate. A planner deals
with this uncertainty during the estimate stage.

Only when the outcome of the construction process is known is he/she able to
evaluate the validity of the estimate. It is in this last stage of the planning process that
he or she determines if the assumptions were correct. If they were not or if new
constraints emerge, he/she should introduce corresponding adjustments in future
planning. Even before design and construction processes begin, there is a stage of
“pre-project planning” that can be critical for project success. In this process, the
project scope is established. Since construction and design professionals are often not
involved in this project scope stage, the terminology of describing this as a “pre-
project” process has arisen. From the owner’s perspective, defining the project scope
is just another phase in the process of acquiring a constructed facility. The definition
of a project scope typically involves developing project alternatives at a conceptual
level, analyzing project risks and economic payoff, developing a financial plan,
making a decision to proceed (or not), and deciding upon the project organization
and control plan. The danger of poor project definition comes from escalating costs
(as new items are added) or, in the extreme, project failure.
 45

Construction planning is a fundamental and challenging activity in the

management and execution of construction projects. It involves the choice of
technology, the definition of work tasks, the estimation of the required resources and
durations for individual tasks, and the identification of any interactions among the
different work tasks. A good construction plan is the basis for developing the budget
and the schedule for work. Developing the construction plan is a critical task in the
management of construction, even if the plan is not written or otherwise formally
recorded. In addition to these technical aspects of construction planning, it may also
be necessary to make organizational decisions about the relationships between
project participants and even which organizations to include in a project. For
example, the extent to which sub-contractors will be used on a project is often
determined during construction planning. Forming a construction plan is a highly
challenging task (Baracco Miller, 1987). Essential aspects of construction planning
include the generation of required activities, analysis of the implications of these
activities, and choice among the various alternative means of performing activities.
In contrast to a detective discovering a single train of events, however, construction
planners also face the normative problem of choosing the best among numerous
alternative plans.

Moreover, a detective is faced with an observable result, whereas a planner

must imagine the final facility as described in the plans and specifications. In
developing a construction plan, it is common to adopt a primary emphasis on either
cost control or on schedule control. Some projects are primarily divided into expense
categories with associated costs. In these cases, construction planning is cost or
expense oriented. Within the categories of expenditure, a distinction is made between
costs incurred directly in the performance of an activity and indirectly for the
accomplishment of the project. For example, borrowing expenses for project
financing and overhead items are commonly treated as indirect costs. For other
projects, scheduling of work activities over time is critical and is emphasized in the
planning process. In this case, the planner insures that the proper precedence’s
among activities are maintained and that efficient scheduling of the available
resources prevails. Traditional scheduling procedures emphasize the maintenance of
task precedences (resulting in critical path scheduling procedures) or efficient use of
resources over time (resulting in job shop scheduling procedures).
 46

In addition to assigning dates to project activities, project scheduling is

intended to match the resources of equipment, materials and labor with project work
tasks over time. Good scheduling can eliminate problems due to production
bottlenecks, facilitate the timely procurement of necessary materials, and otherwise
insure the completion of a project as soon as possible. In contrast, poor scheduling
can result in considerable waste as laborers and equipment wait for the availability of
needed resources or the completion of preceding tasks. Delays in the completion of
an entire project due to poor scheduling can also create havoc for owners who are
eager to start using the constructed facilities. Attitudes toward the formal scheduling
of projects are often extreme. Many owners require detailed construction schedules
to be submitted by contractors as a means of monitoring the work progress. The
actual work performed is commonly compared to the schedule to determine if
construction is proceeding satisfactorily. After the completion of construction,
similar comparisons between the planned schedule and the actual accomplishments
may be performed to allocate the liability for project delays due to changes requested
by the owner, worker strikes or other unforeseen circumstances.

In contrast to these instances of reliance upon formal schedules, many field

supervisors disdain and dislike formal scheduling procedures. In particular, the
critical path method of scheduling is commonly required by owners and has been
taught in universities for over two decades, but is often regarded in the field as
irrelevant to actual operations and a time consuming distraction. The result is “seat-
of-the-pants” scheduling that can be good or that can result in grossly inefficient
schedules and poor productivity. Progressive construction firms use formal
scheduling procedures whenever the complexity of work tasks is high and the
coordination of different workers is required. Formal scheduling procedures have
become much more common with the advent of personal computers on construction
sites and easy-to-use software programs. Sharing schedule information via the
Internet has also provided a greater incentive to use formal scheduling methods.
Savvy construction supervisors often carry schedule and budget information around
with wearable or handheld computers. As a result, the continued development of
easy to use computer programs and improved methods of presenting schedules have
overcome the practical problems associated with formal scheduling mechanisms.
Managers should understand their proper use and limitations.
 47

2.12.6 Project Estimating

The costs of a constructed facility to the owner include both the initial capital
cost and the subsequent operation and maintenance costs. Each of these major cost
categories consists of a number of cost components. The capital cost for a
construction project includes the expenses related to the initial establishment of the
facility including land acquisition, including assembly, holding and improvement;
planning and feasibility studies; architectural and engineering design; construction,
including materials, equipment and labor; field supervision of construction;
construction financing ; insurance and taxes during construction; owner’s general
office overhead; equipment and furnishings not included in construction and lastly
inspection and testing. The operation and maintenance cost in subsequent years over
the project life cycle includes the following expenses such as land rent, if applicable
operating staff; labor and material for maintenance and repairs; periodic renovations;
insurance and taxes; financing costs; utilities and owner’s other expenses.

The magnitude of each of these cost components depends on the nature, size
and location of the project as well as the management organization, among many
considerations. The owner is interested in achieving the lowest possible overall
project cost that is consistent with its investment objectives. It is important for design
professionals and construction managers to realize that while the construction cost
may be the single largest component of the capital cost, other cost components are
not insignificant. For example, land acquisition costs are a major expenditure for
building construction in high-density urban areas, and construction financing costs
can reach the same order of magnitude as the construction cost in large projects such
as the construction of nuclear power plants. From the owner’s perspective, it is
equally important to estimate the corresponding operation and maintenance cost of
each alternative for a proposed facility in order to analyze the life cycle costs. The
large expenditures needed for facility maintenance, especially for publicly owned
infrastructure, are reminders of the neglect in the past to consider fully the
implications of operation and maintenance cost in the design stage. In most
construction budgets, there is an allowance for contingencies or unexpected costs
occurring during construction.
 48

This contingency amount may be included within each cost item or be

included in a single category of construction contingency. The amount of
contingency is based on historical experience and the expected difficulty of a
particular construction project. For example, one construction firm makes estimates
of the expected cost in five different areas such as design development changes;
schedule adjustments; general administration changes (such as wage rates); differing
site conditions for those expected, and third party requirements imposed during
construction, such as new permits. Contingent amounts not spent for construction can
be released near the end of construction to the owner or to add additional project
elements. Cost estimating is one of the most important steps in project management.
A cost estimate establishes the base line of the project cost at different stages of
development of the project. A cost estimate at a given stage of project development
represents a prediction provided by the cost engineer or estimator on the basis of
available data. According to the American Association of Cost Engineers, cost
engineering is defined as that area of engineering practice where engineering
judgment and experience are utilized in the application of scientific principles and
techniques to the problem of cost estimation, cost control and profitability.
Virtually all cost estimation is performed according to one or some combination of
the following basic approaches.

For the production function, in microeconomics, the relationship between the

output of a process and the necessary resources is referred to as the production
function. In construction, the production function may be expressed by the
relationship between the volume of construction and a factor of production such as
labor or capital. A production function relates the amount or volume of output to the
various inputs of labor, material and equipment. For example, the amount of output
Q may be derived as a function of various input factors x1, x2, xn by means of
mathematical and/or statistical methods. Thus, for a specified level of output, we
may attempt to find a set of values for the input factors so as to minimize the
production cost. The relationship between the sizes of a building project (expressed
in square feet) to the input labor (expressed in labor hours per square foot) is an
example of a production function for construction. For the empirical cost inference,
empirical estimation of cost functions requires statistical techniques which relate the
cost of constructing or operating a facility to a few important characteristics or
 49

attributes of the system. The role of statistical inference is to estimate the best
parameter values or constants in an assumed cost function. Usually, this is
accomplished by means of regression analysis techniques. Unit costs for bill of
quantities: A unit cost is assigned to each of the facility components or tasks as
represented by the bill of quantities. The total cost is the summation of the products
of the quantities multiplied by the corresponding unit costs. The unit cost method is
straightforward in principle but quite laborious in application. The initial step is to
break down or disaggregate a process into a number of tasks. Collectively, these
tasks must be completed for the construction of a facility. Once these tasks are
defined and quantities representing these tasks are assessed, a unit cost is assigned to
each and then the total cost is determined by summing the costs incurred in each task.
The level of detail in decomposing into tasks will vary considerably from one
estimate to another.

Allocation of joint costs: Allocations of cost from existing accounts may be

used to develop a cost function of an operation. The basic idea in this method is that
each expenditure item can be assigned to particular characteristics of the operation.
Ideally, the allocation of joint costs should be causally related to the category of
basic costs in an allocation process. In many instances, however, a causal
relationship between the allocation factor and the cost item cannot be identified or
may not exist. For example, in construction projects, the accounts for basic costs may
be classified according to labor, material, construction equipment, construction
supervision, and general office overhead. These basic costs may then be allocated
proportionally to various tasks which are subdivisions of a project. Construction cost
constitutes only a fraction, though a substantial fraction, of the total project cost.
However, it is the part of the cost under the control of the construction project
manager. The required levels of accuracy of construction cost estimates vary at
different stages of project development, ranging from ball park figures in the early
stage to fairly reliable figures for budget control prior to construction. Since design
decisions made at the beginning stage of a project life cycle are more tentative than
those made at a later stage, the cost estimates made at the earlier stage are expected
to be less accurate. Generally, the accuracy of a cost estimate will reflect the
information available at the time of estimation. Construction cost estimates may be
viewed from different perspectives because of different institutional requirements.
 50

2.12.7 Construction Management Information System

Construction projects inevitably generate enormous and complex sets of

information. Effectively managing this bulk of information to insure its availability
and accuracy is an important managerial task. Poor or missing information can
readily lead to project delays, uneconomical decisions, or even the complete failure
of the desired facility. Pity the owner and project manager who suddenly discover on
the expected delivery date that important facility components have not yet been
fabricated and cannot be delivered for six months! With better information, the
problem could have been identified earlier, so that alternative suppliers might have
been located or schedules arranged. Both project design and control are crucially
dependent upon accurate and timely information, as well as the ability to use this
information effectively. At the same time, too much unorganized information
presented to managers can result in confusion and paralysis of decision making.
When a project proceeds, the types and extent of the information used by the various
organizations involved will change as well.

A listing of the most important information sets would include the cash flow
and procurement accounts for each organization, intermediate analysis results during
planning and design, design documents, including drawings and specifications,
construction schedules and cost estimates, quality control and assurance records,
chronological files of project correspondence and memorandum, construction field
activity and inspection logs, legal contracts and regulatory documents. Some of these
sets of information evolve as the project proceeds. The financial accounts of
payments over the entire course of the project are an example of overall growth. The
passage of time results in steady additions in these accounts, whereas the addition of
a new actor such as a contractor leads to a sudden jump in the number of accounts.
Some information sets are important at one stage of the process but may then be
ignored. Common examples include planning or structural analysis databases which
are not ordinarily used during construction or operation. It may be necessary at later
stages in the project to redo analyses to consider desired changes. In this case,
archival information storage and retrieval become important. Even after the
completion of construction, an historical record may be important for use during
 51

operation, to assess responsibilities in case of facility failures or for planning similar

projects elsewhere. The control and flow of information is also important for
collaborative work environments, where many professionals are working on different
aspects of a project and sharing information. Collaborative work environments
provide facilities for sharing datafiles, tracing decisions, and communication via
electronic mail or video conferencing. The datastores in these collaborative work
environments may become very large. While there may be substantial costs due to
inaccurate or missing information, there are also significant costs associated with the
generation, storage, transfer, retrieval and other manipulation of information. In
addition to the costs of clerical work and providing aids such as computers, the
organization and review of information command an inordinate amount of the
attention of project managers, which may be the scarcest resource on any
construction project. It is useful, therefore, to understand the scope and alternatives
for organizing project information.

Given the bulk of information associated with construction projects, formal

organization of the information is essential so as to avoid chaos. Virtually all major
firms in the arena of project management have computer based organization of cost
accounts and other data. With the advent of micro-computer database managers, it is
possible to develop formal, computerized databases for even small organizations and
projects. In this section, we will discuss the characteristics of such formal databases.
Equivalent organization of information for manual manipulation is possible but
tedious. Computer based information systems also have the significant advantage of
rapid retrieval for immediate use and, in most instances, lower overall costs. For
example, computerized specifications writing systems have resulted in well
documented savings. These systems have records of common specification phrases
or paragraphs which can be tailored to specific project applications (Kim, 1979).
Formally, a database is a collection of stored operational information used by the
management and application systems of some particular enterprise (Mitchell and
William, 1977). This stored information has explicit associations or relationships
depending upon the content and definition of the stored data, and these associations
may themselves be considered to be part of the database. There are several
alternative models for organizing databases, including network and hierarchical
models (Latimer, Dewitt and Chris Hendrickson, 2002).
 52

2.12.8 Financial Management

Investment in a constructed facility represents a cost in the short term that

returns benefits only over the long term use of the facility. Thus, costs occur earlier
than the benefits, and owners of facilities must obtain the capital resources to finance
the costs of construction. A project cannot proceed without adequate financing, and
the cost of providing adequate financing can be quite large. For these reasons,
attention to project finance is an important aspect of project management. Finance is
also a concern to the other organizations involved in a project such as the general
contractor and material suppliers. Unless an owner immediately and completely
covers the costs incurred by each participant, these organizations face financing
problems of their own. At a more general level, project finance is only one aspect of
the general problem of corporate finance. If numerous projects are considered and
financed together, then the net cash flow requirement constitutes the corporate
financing problem for capital investment. Whether project finance is performed at
the project or at the corporate level does not alter the basic financing problem.
In essence, the project finance problem is to obtain funds to bridge the time between
making expenditures and obtaining revenues.

Based on the conceptual plan, the cost estimate and the construction plan, the
cash flow of costs and receipts for a project can be estimated. Normally, this cash
flow will involve expenditures in early periods. Covering this negative cash balance
in the most beneficial or cost effective fashion is the project finance problem. During
planning and design, expenditures of the owner are modest, whereas substantial costs
are incurred during construction. Only after the facility is complete do revenues
begin. In contrast, a contractor would receive periodic payments from the owner as
construction proceeds. However, a contractor also may have a negative cash balance
due to delays in payment and retainage of profits or cost reimbursements on the part
of the owner. Plans considered by owners for facility financing typically have both
long and short term aspects. In the long term, sources of revenue include sales, grants,
and tax revenues. Borrowed funds must be eventually paid back from these other
sources. In the short term, a wider variety of financing options exist, including
borrowing, grants, corporate investment funds, payment delays and others.
 53

Many of these financing options involve the participation of third parties such
as banks or bond underwriters. For private facilities such as office buildings, it is
customary to have completely different financing arrangements during the
construction period and during the period of facility use. During the latter period,
mortgage or loan funds can be secured by the value of the facility itself. Thus,
different arrangements of financing options and participants are possible at different
stages of a project, so the practice of financial planning is often complicated. On the
other hand, the options for borrowing by contractors to bridge their expenditures and
receipts during construction are relatively limited. For small or medium size projects,
overdrafts from bank accounts are the most common form of construction financing.
Usually, a maximum limit is imposed on an overdraft account by the bank on the
basis of expected expenditures and receipts for the duration of construction.
Contractors who are engaged in large projects often own substantial assets and can
make use of other forms of financing which have lower interest charges than
overdrafting. In recent years, there has been growing interest in design-build-operate
projects in which owners prescribe functional requirements and a contractor handles
financing. Contractors are repaid over a period of time from project revenues or
government payments. Eventually, ownership of the facilities is transferred to a
government entity.

Financing arrangements differ sharply by type of owner and by the type of

facility construction. As one example, many municipal projects are financed in the
United States with tax exempt bonds for which interest payments to a lender are
exempt from income taxes. As a result, tax exempt municipal bonds are available at
lower interest charges. Different institutional arrangements have evolved for specific
types of facilities and organizations. A private corporation which plans to undertake
large capital projects may use its retained earnings, seek equity partners in the project,
issue bonds, offer new stocks in the financial markets, or seek borrowed funds in
another fashion. Potential sources of funds would include pension funds, insurance
companies, investment trusts, commercial banks and others. Developers who invest
in real estate properties for rental purposes have similar sources, plus quasi-
governmental corporations such as urban development authorities. Syndicators for
investment such as (REITs) as well as domestic and foreign pension funds represent
relatively new entries to the financial market for building mortgage money.
 54

Public projects may be funded by tax receipts, general revenue bonds, or

special bonds with income dedicated to the specified facilities. General revenue
bonds would be repaid from general taxes or other revenue sources, while special
bonds would be redeemed either by special taxes or user fees collected for the project.
Grants from higher levels of government are also an important source of funds for
state, county, city or other local agencies. Despite the different sources of borrowed
funds, there is a rough equivalence in the actual cost of borrowing money for
particular types of projects. Because lenders can participate in many different
financial markets, they tend to switch towards loans that return the highest yield for a
particular level of risk. As a result, borrowed funds that can be obtained from
different sources tend to have very similar costs, interest charges and issuing costs.

As a general principle, however, the costs of funds for construction will vary
inversely with the risk of a loan. Lenders usually require security for a loan
represented by a tangible asset. If for some reason the borrower cannot repay a loan,
then the borrower can take possession of the loan security. To the extent that an asset
used as security is of uncertain value, then the lender will demand greater return and
higher interest payments. Loans made for projects under construction represent
considerable risk to a financial institution. If a lender acquires an unfinished facility,
then it faces the difficult task of re-assembling the project team. Moreover, a default
on a facility may result if a problem occurs such as foundation problems or
anticipated unprofitability of the future facility. As a result of these uncertainties,
construction lending for unfinished facilities commands a premium interest charge of
several percent compared to mortgage lending for completed facilities.

Financing plans will typically include a reserve amount to cover unforeseen

expenses, cost increases or cash flow problems. This reserve can be represented by a
special reserve or a contingency amount in the project budget. In the simplest case,
this reserve might represent a borrowing agreement with a financial institution to
establish a line of credit in case of need. For publicly traded bonds, specific reserve
funds administered by a third party may be established. The cost of these reserve
funds is the difference between the interest paid to bondholders and the interest
received on the reserve funds plus any administrative costs. Finally, arranging
financing may involve a lengthy period of negotiation and review.
 55

Particularly for publicly traded bond financing, specific legal requirements in

the issue must be met. Since there are numerous different sources and arrangements
for obtaining the funds necessary for facility construction, owners and other project
participants require some mechanism for evaluating the different potential sources.
The relative costs of different financing plans are certainly important in this regard.
In addition, the flexibility of the plan and availability of reserves may be critical. As
a project manager, it is important to assure adequate financing to complete a project.
Alternative financing plans can be evaluated using the same techniques that are
employed for the evaluation of investment alternatives. Secured lending involves a
contract between a borrower and lender, where the lender can be an individual, a
financial institution or a trust organization. Notes and mortgages represent formal
contracts between financial institutions and owners. Usually, repayment amounts and
timing are specified in the loan agreement. Public facilities are often financed by
bond issues for either specific projects or for groups of projects. For publicly issued
bonds, a trust company is usually designated to represent the diverse bond holders in
case of any problems in the repayment.

The borrowed funds are usually secured by granting the lender some rights to
the facility or other assets in case of defaults on required payments. In contrast,
corporate bonds such as debentures can represent loans secured only by the good
faith and credit worthiness of the borrower. Refinancing of debts has two major
advantages for an owner. First, they allow re-financing at intermediate stages to save
interest charges. If a borrowing agreement is made during a period of relatively high
interest charges, then a repurchase agreement allows the borrower to re-finance at a
lower interest rate. Whenever the borrowing interest rate declines such that the
savings in interest payments will cover any transaction expenses (for purchasing
outstanding notes or bonds and arranging new financing), then it is advantageous to
do so. Another reason to repurchase bonds is to permit changes in the operation of a
facility or new investments. Under the terms of many bond agreements, there may be
restrictions on the use of revenues from a particular facility while any bonds are
outstanding. These restrictions are inserted to insure bondholders that debts will be
repaid. By repurchasing bonds, these restrictions are removed. For example, several
bridge authorities had bonds that restricted any diversion of toll revenues to other
transportation services such as transit.
 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Literature Review

A literature review report is a synthesis of information on a topic presented in

an organized formal narrative. It is to document what other professionals have
learned, developed or investigated on a topic of interest to this research. Some of the
literature sources are including the encyclopedias and general references, and there
are also more specialized sources like the research journals and special reports in
each discipline (Zimmerman and Rodrigues, 1992). Any investigation, whatever the
scale, will involve reading what other people have written about the area of interest
in this specific research, gathering information to support or refute the arguments and
writing about their findings. It is to provide evidence that the researcher has read
certain amount of relevant literature and he also has some awareness of the current
state of knowledge on the subjects (Bell, 1993). In planning this research, firstly, the
relevant topics in teaching methods, current syllabuses and short courses material of
the Master of Science in Construction Management are being identified and selected.
Those keywords and important terminologies in these research objectives are also
needed to be defined. Besides, parameters such as time period, type of material,
possible search terms, selected sources and books will also have to be cited in this
report as well.
 57

3.2 Documentary Analysis

This is also known as the documentary frequency studies where, it is also the
type of normative-survey research, like historical research, deals with records which
already exist. But it is definitely quantitative. It is not concerned with the general
importance of the documents, but with certain characteristics which can be identified
and counted. The fact that one works directly from documents does not mean that he
avoids all problems of collecting and selecting data. In some cases, he may need only
to produce a few books from a library, but in other cases he may need to collect his
documentary specimens from afar, and he may have to select only certain aspects of
these specimens for his study. In documentary analysis, the following may be used as
sources of data such as records, reports, printed forms, letters, autobiographies,
bulletins, catalogues, syllabi, court decisions, pictures, films and cartoons. When
using documentary sources, one must bear in mind the fact that data appearing in
print are not necessarily trustworthy. Documents used in this research must be
subjected to the same careful types of critics employed by the historian. Not only is
the authenticity of the document important, but the validity of its contents is also
crucial in fact (Kulbir Singh Sidhu, 1984).

Hence, the purposes of the documentary studies are including describing the
prevailing practices or conditions; to discover the relative importance of, or interest
in certain topics or problems; to discover level of difficulty of presentations in
textbook or in other publications; to evaluate bias, prejudice or propaganda in
textbook presentations; to analyze types of errors in student’s work; to analyze the
use of symbols representing persons, political parties or institutions, countries, or
points of view; to identify the literacy style, concepts or beliefs of a writer and lastly
to explain the possible causal factors related to some outcome, action or event. The
curriculum analysis can be particularly valuable in curriculum revision. The
underlying theory states that since not everything known can be taught in school, the
things which are socially most useful should be selected and taught. These can be
discovered by an appropriate interpretation of frequency analysis of social activities
and interest. In fact, this research technique is to tackle the reviewing of the current
syllabuses and short courses material in the Construction Management education.
 58

TOPIC SELECTION
Firstly, a research topic is being selected
through an extensive literature review,
reading and surveying on journals, reference
books and previous research articles. Then,
Stage 1 the possible practical outcome of the study is
decided. The area of research is being
Topic Selection matched with the supervisors who have the
related expertise and specialization.

RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL

Secondly, in this section, the issues and
problem statements are being identified
through the critical thinking and
brainstorming approaches. This is follows by
the determination of the objectives and
Stage 2
research scopes. Furthermore, the research
Research Project design is to be carried out consequentially on
Proposal the relevant subjects which are to be
discussed in the research.

DATA COLLECTION & WEB-BASED

LEARNING SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
Stage 3 Thirdly, the data needed and its sources are
being identified. This is where the research
Data Collection
designs involved. These secondary data are
And Web Portal collected through literature review and
documentary analysis. Later on, a web portal
Development
for the e-learning is being developed using
the open source system.

REPORT WRITING AND

CONCLUSIONS
Finally, the research would be reported by
following the approved thesis manual
Stage 4 guidelines. The findings, web portal and
Report Writing results found are documented and useful
suggestions would be made for further
And Conclusions research purposes. Final report editing and
checking are taken placed.

Figure 3.1: Research methodology flow chart

 59

3.3 Planning for Portal Deployment

Writing about the web portal deployment planning is a little like those heady
philosophical discussions one has in high school about Existentialism, and the
struggle to make rational decisions in an irrational universe. A lot of that type of
debate relates to the building of portals, particularly the need to make choices and
then commitments to them. The difficult aspect of this decision making is that portal
design involves the task of aggregating disparate subsystems into a single interface
that has to satisfy a contradictory set of users and their needs. Additional factors that
make this decision-making process so difficult are the rapid changes in data and
technologies, organizational issues, and, last but not least, ignorance. Portal plans
often start out innocently as a means of collaboratively sharing information among a
common user base. Questions like “Who will use the portal?”; "What synergy among
our disparate user groups will this portal bring?” and perhaps, “What self-service
features can we expect from this portal?” will have been addressed in broad terms at
the onset of a program, so that the monies needed for development and deployment
start flowing. But what happens next? One word comes to mind: chaos.

To overcome this chaos, pre-emptive measures need to be made at the onset

of portal development to ensure that technical surprises don’t surface during the
latter stages of development. The application of iterative modeling procedures such
as the Unified Process (UP) or Extreme Programming (XP) will increase your
chances of avoiding those surprises. When planning a portal deployment, many
concerns need to be addressed, but the two most important modeling determinations
are the management of Web content data and the user communities that will be
exposed to that data. Accommodations must be made to ensure that portlet content is
not rendered improperly to the disparate user base, which could compromise an
individual’s privacy. User profiles should be established so that content can be
shown in proper user communities. This chapter addresses these matters. Across all
portal applications, content is exposed to its users in many forms, but the most
prevalent forms of exposure include message boards, calendars, weather forecasts,
news, and search utilities. For portals to retain and increase their user bases, they
need to maintain lucid navigation flows so that end-users know where they are and
 60

where they are going to go next. If a design does not provide a proper navigation
model, users may become confused, lose interest, and ultimately browse somewhere
else. A portal is defined as retrieving the information such as calendar, messageboard,
news feed, search, query and email from the office cupboard. Generally, a file
cabinet is a place where multitudes of related and unrelated data are stored for office
use. The file cabinet analogy can be applied to portals because they warehouse
unrelated data for business operations. With file cabinets, individual folders are
tabbed to indicate the content they keep. With portals, portlet applications emulate
folders in that they represent individual subsystems of data. Typically, a requirement
is considered a specific characteristic or functionality that the system must perform
on a problem domain from a customer’s perspective. If a requirement is established
but does not affect a stakeholder, it should be considered a design or implementation
decision. To gather requirements for a portal project, development, testing, and
design teams should sit down with all of the program’s stakeholders who are
responsible for all of the different subsystems and portlets to determine the features
that are needed for the successful deployment of your system.

The exclusion of partners who are expected to contribute content to the portal
usually ends up hurting your program in the long run. Similarly, the inclusion of
extraneous portal participants in your development or design meetings could also be
a distraction. A compromise must be drawn that allows for the limited participation
of each portlet subsystem’s team with members who possess technological and
problem domain expertise of their application. Those members must then be allowed
to report back to their team about the details of those meetings. Last, all concerned
parties should be prepared to negotiate trade-offs in each other’s deployments.
Requirements come in many flavors, but the following sections describe some
typical requirements that portal applications might consider capturing during their
design activities, along with definitions and questions you should ask. Operational
requirements focus on 24 hours and 7 days portal uptime so that user operations and
maintenance activities do not conflict. Some questions that your design team might
consider when capturing these requirements are as follows like what does the system
do?; what are your performance constraints and expectations?; how often and when
will new content be made available to users?; lastly when and what maintenance
activities are needed to service the portal community?
 61

3.4 Data and Security Requirements

Operational requirements for a portal indicate what activities the individual

portlet components will perform inside the larger portal view. Constraints and user
expectations need to be delineated by the stakeholders to ensure that the portlet
subsystems play together properly in the portal sandbox. Additionally, rules need to
be established to ensure that Web content updates and maintenance operations do not
halt operations. There are many data requirements, too many to list here, but with
portal implementations, care should be taken during requirements analysis to
consider the content delivery mechanism used to publish data. One issue that might
be considered when gathering requirements that address data delivery is whether
your system will implement push or pull operations. The traditional model of content
delivery on the Web reflects the latter strategy where users search repeatedly, or
“pull” data in a random manner, which can become tedious and frustrating when the
information they are seeking does not measure up to their needs. Because of this
dilemma, technologies were developed to “push” content to user desktops. Push
technology works by having the end users fill out profiles in which they specify
particular types of data they want “pushed” to their applications; it could be a portlet.

This profile acts like a filter for content and is stored on either the client’s
machine or on some content provider’s server. Unfortunately, latency issues can
become a problem with the implementation of push technology. Networks can
become overloaded and filters can allow significant amounts of unwanted content to
be propagated to a system if the filters are not properly configured. Typically,
profiles work well for simple queries such as stock quotations and weather forecasts
and can overwhelm a system when complex alert systems are implemented.
Additionally, consideration needs to be given to how your portal system persist data
during transactional activities. Will a relational database or an XML file suffice as
data-persistence mechanisms? Are your data operations atomic, and can they be
rolled back if they are not properly processed? Should data abstraction layers be
implemented, like Java Data Objects (JDO) or other Object/ Relational Mapping
(ORM) tools? These are just a few of the issues that your portal team should
deliberate on during data requirements analyses.
 62

Security is usually one of the biggest concerns for any portal deployment
process. Relevant data needs to be exposed to users of a portal based on profile
information that might be stored in an LDAP directory server or some other
persistent data store for retrieval. User communities need to be established so that
Web content can be targeted properly to the portal audience. Some questions that
might be used to capture common security requirements are as follows: “Will
declarative or programmatic security is implemented?”; “What type of a Security
realm is needed for deployment?”; “Will security features propagate properly among
all of the disparate portlets?” Compromised data on a portal application, or any Web
application for that matter, negatively impacts the user community that will use and
support that application. Any single incident can severely damage the reputation of a
company that deploys a portal, which will impair its ability to effectively conduct
future operations. Because of this, portal applications must address the threat of a
security breach or the compromising of delicate user profiles, by implementing
security operating policies that can help improve user trust. Many portal frameworks
roll their own proprietary security APIs, but in many instances, consideration should
be given to the adherence to open security standards.

When addressing security in a portal, architects need to consider the use of

programmatic security when ascribing responsibilities to portlet containers because
the individual portlets need to be certain of the roles of the user who is accessing
them. The JSR-168 specification indicates that the portlet container will share the
same Servlet 2.3 security APIs that implement the Request interface methods to
perform programmatic security. That should prove beneficial for servlet applications
that use these features and now can be wrapped fairly easily with the new portlet
wrappers available in portals that are JSR-168-compliant. Quality assurance
measures are needed on all software development projects to propagate best practices,
and to ensure that code baselines remain intact and that developer modifications
remain in sync. Two important questions that must be asked when determining
quality assurance requirements are how will deployed software be refactored? How
will software be migrated from one system to another? Quality assurance processes
control system differences to manage risk and error propagation. The establishment
of processes is needed to ensure systematic patterns of action that provide evidence
that the portal program adheres to defined technical requirements.
 63

3.5 Software Configuration Management and Storyboarding

After defining these processes, tools need to be identified to achieve a

program’s stated quality assurance goals. Additionally, standards and conventions
need to be established so that best practices can be distributed across the
development spectrum. Adherence to some quality assurance requirements can be
facilitated with open-source applications and continuous integration activities using
CVS, ANT, and CheckStyle; unit and load testing with JUnit and JMeter; and Scarab,
for bug tracking. Software configuration management requires that source code and
design artifact be managed properly so that deployment goals can be attained. Open-
source configuration management tools such as CVS and Subversion control source
code versions and their modifications so that development teams can stay in sync,
minimizing delivery risks. A configuration management plan should be established at
the onset of a program to describe all of the configuration management operations
that will be implemented during a project’s life cycle. This plan should detail
resources and activity schedules, and the personnel responsible for these operations.
When building portlet applications in the portal, it is always important to generate
test applications along with the source code.

Perhaps that seems trivial, but the time savings are invaluable when the
system indicates that the code is no longer working several months after checking it
into a source code repository. With these tests, the programmer can jog the memory
in an easy fashion to recollect how his code worked, and determine what new bugs
were introduced to undermine the software. Several open-source offerings can be
used to perform unit testing (JUnit) and load testing activities (JMeter). Bugs are an
unavoidable aspect of software development. The key to dealing with them is
ensuring that they are tracked and fixed, and that someone corroborates that they are
properly corrected. Web-based defect tracking systems provide program stakeholders
with the capability to remotely ascertain the feature requests, bug fix details, and
problem resolution. Scarab (http://scarab.tigris.org/) is an open-source tool that you
can implement to meet your bug defect tracking needs. Continuous integration is a
concept championed by Martin Fowler that emphasizes an Extreme Programming
practice of testing the software baseline through automated procedures to ensure that
 64

bugs reveal themselves quickly rather than propagating through the system and
revealing themselves in the latter stages of development, which could cripple the
deployment plans. Clearly, requirements are important in that they capture what the
stakeholders of a system expect their system to do. In order for these requirements to
be considered valid, they need to be correct, realistic, and traceable. Portal
component developers must be vigilant in their requirements capturing undertakings
because scope creep or mismanaged requirements handling can undermine the efforts
of all the dependent groups that are responsible for its release. For example, it makes
no sense to establish a requirement that your target run on a Solaris platform when
you’ve been told that the application you’re developing can only run on Windows.
System performance always tests the stated criterion that your requirements should
be realistic. Sure, you can state that your content queries should return results in less
than five seconds, but is that always realistic? Sometimes more difficult queries can
deliver results after five seconds; does that mean that your requirement is unrealistic?
Perhaps, but it is always important to set realistic requirement goals that apply to
reasonable requests that occur in a consistent manner.

As far as traceable requirements are concerned, make sure that system

features can be verified against a requirements specification, that errors can be
identified, and that changes in your system can be managed. It is extremely helpful
for portal architects to experiment with iterative measures to achieve resonance in
their processes as they’re working through their portal development. Additionally, it
is very important to be cognizant of all of the different perspectives of the portlet
integrators so that teams can work toward a consensus during operations. Once all of
the portal user interfaces have been identified, consideration should be given to
developing storyboards based on some of the use case scenarios. A storyboard
typically consists of sample HTML files or other program visualizations that outline
the sequence of events that can occur during normal operations of the portal. This
practice also gives the design team a better understanding of the Web application’s
real estate. Storyboarding can be accomplished by printing out all of the screenshots
from those templates HTML files to ensure that all of the navigation flows have been
completed, and then have they posted to a wall in a fashion. Red spools of thread
attached to tacks can be used to establish navigation flows in the portal application.
This visualization technique is a fairly inexpensive solution for the modeling team.
 65

3.6 Search Utilities

Every portal deployment needs a reliable search utility to enable users to

quickly find data that is reliable and suits their needs. Some common search engines
include Verity, Autonomy, Inktomi, Convera, Google, and the open-source offering
called Lucene. Navigating through a portal using taxonomies is fine for some, but it
can become tiresome when the amount of content available is overwhelming. When
the sheer size of a site’s content can be too much to chew on, and you need to filter
out content to get what you need, then a search utility is warranted. Most search
engines perform queries against a database, XML, or binary data set generated from
an indexing mechanism. Some search engines use robots to survey the Internet so
that they can aggregate more content for their databases. Web documents are
retrieved and indexed. When you enter a query at a search engine Web site, your
input is checked against the search engine’s keyword indices. The best matches are
then returned to you as hits. Two of the more prevalent text-searching capabilities
involve searches by keyword and concept. A keyword search usually searches the
metadata associated with an artifact for the user-specified keyword and returns all
documents that are affiliated with it.

Some search engines omit text submitted with the search request so that they
can search for terms that is deemed more relevant. This operation means that words
such as “a” and “the” might be overlooked during the search operation. Furthermore,
some engines discriminate between uppercase and lowercase characters in a search
string, others do not. A problem with keyword searching is that words that are
spelled the same but have different meanings result in ambiguous content returns
from your query. A concept search attempts to determine what the query string
actually means and tries to obtain content that is statistically related to the string
query. In addition to these two types of searches, search engines enable users to
refine their queries to target content they need. Some of that refinement includes the
capability to search for two or more words and to exclude words that might confuse
the engine database. Boolean operators in the form of words or symbols are part of
that query refinement. Boolean operators such as AND, OR, and NOT, as well as +, -,
enable the search operation to combine and subtract terms from the request.
 66

3.7 Content Management System

On many portal applications, comprehensive solutions are needed to deliver

content in a controlled fashion through content management applications. Data
management encompasses content facilitation through workflow applications known
as content management tools that provide management and publishing operations for
Web content distribution. The implementation of content management systems
typically occurs after a working system has been deployed and the portal
implementers understand the content they possess. Two open-source products,
OpenCMS and Jakarta’s Slide, can be used to control Web content flow in portal
deployments. The programmer should examine many of the key features of these
content management systems to ensure that the system can deploy Web applications
in an efficient manner with these tools. Here is a list of capabilities that programmers
should look for in a content management application: “Content Publishing” entails
the ability to draw information from a persistence store for publication. This can be a
database or an XML-based storage mechanism. “Asset Management” means that all
types of content, from document-based files to graphical images, can be handled in
an efficient manner so that redundancies are avoided.

“Workflow Management” necessitates the creation of those user profiles that

delineate user roles and rights to Web artifacts. Users can pull down a document for
edit or modification, after which the document can be pushed back into a workflow
so that others can work on it. When the workflow chain ends, the artifact is generally
marked for publication. “Versioning” enables developers to track changes through a
history log. More important, it enables versions to be rolled back when problems are
found with deployed distributions, and baseline releases can be constructed and
fielded to targeted systems. “Scheduling” enables content managers to distribute their
content during “off-hour” times so that server implementations are not overloaded
and can handle the new content flows in an efficient manner. “Personalization” is a
tall order for most deployments, because it requires profiles and sophisticated rules to
be set up so that targeted content can be distributed to user communities in an easy
manner. It is generally phased into a content management process because of the
complexities involved in building rules and relevant target communities.
 67

Table 3.1: Functions, tasks and deliverables for web-publishing process

Phase Function Task Deliverable
Planning Strategy • Analyze possible ideas Strategic Plan
• Define objectives
• Define users and their needs
• Research on market
competition
Analysis • Estimate the setup, support Project Plan
and maintenance costs
• Define content and
methodology provider and
process
• Define domain name and
hosting strategies
• Define payment strategies and
process
Process • Define implementation
Overview process timeline and
milestones
• Define development or
outsourcing strategies
• Define manpower allocation
• Define development strategies
• Develop test strategies
• Development help and
support strategies
• Develop launch strategies
• Develop maintenance
strategies
• Define security strategies
• Determine possible legal,
copyright and privacy issues
 68

Design & Design • Work with content or Storyboards

Production methodology providers Prototypes
• Choose navigation structures Database
• Design navigation map
• Design storyboards
• Design of web menu system
• Design content presentation
on web pages
• Design web services
• Design user interaction
Production • Produce web pages according
to designs
• Setup database and connect it
to web pages
• Setup payment gateways and
connect it to web pages
• Implement security measures
Quality • Perform alpha and beta tests Test Reports
Control
Implementation Launch • Promotion strategies Launching
• Support services: like Plan and the
hotlines, helpdesk, etc Website
• Search engine registration
Feedback • Collect customer feedback
Maintenance • Backup databases Plan for
• Analyze website effectiveness revision based
• Monitor network on feedback

• Update for customers

• Prevent website attacks
• Manage web content
• Improve website design and
performance
 69

Table 3.2: Test items for alpha and beta tests

Test/ Area Expectation/ What to check
Alpha • Design supports the web mission
• Fixed all known bug and missing links
• Corrected wrong product and contact information.
• Databases are functioning
• Actual web server is function well
Beta • Look for “what-if” cases that are not discovered
• The user-friendliness of the workflow
• The length of time user learns to use the web services.
• Sense of belonging users have after visiting the web portal
Web design • Broken image links
• Consistent table alignment
• Animation. For example, the rollover buttons is working
• Multimedia elements
Content • All intended content are present and correct
• All contact information are present and correct
Performance • Page download speed
• The number of simultaneous users the site can handle
Brand identity • Titles, content, names and description are correct
• Is the brand name well articulated in most of the pages
Finding a product • Speed of finding the product or information (navigation)
or information • Accuracy of search results in terms of all search results are
correct, any repetition of items among search results
Process • The flow of process. For example, the process of buying an
item or the process of taking a survey at the site
• Checking process decisions at various points. For example,
if users decide to quit half way through the web survey
what is going to happen?
Support • The database backup
• Emergency response when the site is down
• How to handle user requests during or off office hours?
 70

3.8 Definitions and Applications of E-Learning

The idea of using computer to assist training of people started long ago like
the use of Computer-assisted Training (CBT). Since the invention of Internet and
various digital media, this idea of using these media for educational experience
emerges as what we call e-learning today. E-learning is sometimes refereed to as
online Learning/ Education or Network Learning/ Education. Till now, many
universities or organizations have implemented some forms of e-learning system to
extend their education or training online. In general, E-Learning is the use of
technology to enhance educational experience. It includes Computer-based Training
(CBT), Web-based Training (WBT), digital collaboration and virtual classroom,
delivered via Internet, intranet, extranet, e-books, and CD-ROMs etc. Some people
also tried to give some richer meanings to e-learning by saying that the “e”, besides
“electronic”, also means “extended” and “expanded”. As the Internet technologies
allow global access to any Website, e-learning system via Internet is able to provide
online learning opportunity 24 hours a day to users.

Many organizations are using some forms of e-learning system to provide

learning opportunity to employees in the form of self-improvement training,
mentoring, work related training, workgroup, consultation and newsletter circulation.
For institutions, many e-learning programs were setup to provide formal certificate
training programs. These programs include self-reading of lecture materials,
discussion group with facilitators and fellow classmates, virtual classroom, online
assessment, student account management, performance tracking, schedule
management, lesson plan, lecture creation tools and so on. Most of the Web based e-
learning systems allow fast growth in users. The e-learning infrastructure and
programs are able to handle large number of user registration with flexibility. Among
many e-learning solutions, we see quite a diverse definitions and services provided
by vendors. Throughout all of the confusion and inconsistency, there is a general
acceptance of key elements of “total” e-learning solution that comprises Content,
Technology, Service and Strategy (Henry, 2001). The key success factor for an e-
learning program is the integration of these elements. Due to the vast variety of this
solution, achieving well integrated e-learning has long-term impacts on organization.
 71

3.9 Learning Management System (LMS)

Technology infrastructure refers to Internet, Intranet, and mobile or hybrid

delivery platform capable of synchronous and asynchronous access. Thus, the
infrastructure includes Web hosting and services, database, Internet access, use of
video technology like video-on-demand and video conferencing. These tools range
from word processing tools like MS Word and PowerPoint to Web authoring tools
like Authorware, Dreamweaver, Flash and Director. These tools are essential to
convert content into electronic content for online use. LMS is a software or Intranet
system that automates the administration of training events. The LMS registers users,
tracks courses in a catalog, and records data from learners and provides appropriate
reports to management. Some LMS includes online assessment, personalization and
other resources (Rossett, 2002). Examples of LMS are Learningspace (IBM),
Integrated Virtual Learning Environment (IVLE) (Wizlearn, Singapore National
University of Singapore) and Blackboard (Blackboard, Inc., USA).

Figure 3.2: IVLE learning management system

 72

Figure 3.3: LMS launches courses developed by LCMS

While LMS is a high-level, strategic solution for planning, delivering, and

managing all learning events within an organization, including online, virtual
classroom, and instructor-led courses, it pays little or no attention to how e-learning
content is created, stored, delivered, used, and reused. LCMS tackles exactly this
issue. LCMS is a software application that manages the creation, storage, use, and
reuse of learning content. Often, LCMS stores content in granular forms such as
learning objects. LCMS gives authors or instructional designer’s means to create e-
learning content more efficiently by creating just enough content just in time to meet
the needs of individuals or groups of learners. Rather than developing entire courses
for multiple audiences, instructional designers create reusable content chunks and
make them available to course developers throughout the organization. This
eliminates duplicate development efforts and allows for the rapid assembly of
customized content (Greenberg, 2002). Because LCMS handles issues about content
for e-learning, it works well with LMS in many ways. During content creation, the
content creator can import content from external source or get content from existing
content repository within the LCMS. The workflow within LCMS allows the created
content to be stored at the content repository and published for the use by LMS
facilitators and users.
 73

As LMS is a basic platform before any systematic e-learning activities can

take place, it is worth our effort to take a closer look at what services LMS provides.
Typically, a LMS has a number of functions to facilitate the entire operations and
management of an e-learning program (Wizlearn, 2003; Britain and Liber, 1999) and
these functions can be categorized into Course Administration, Course Support and
Communication. As a LMS needs to administer large number of training courses, the
functions the administrators can use to manage courses are comprehensive. Key
functions include the Course Management, which the course management provides
an overview of the course structure that includes Course Particulars, Trainers
Information, Related Websites, Aims and Objectives, Prerequisites, Course Schedule,
Assessment, and other optional functions. Lesson plan allows educators to plan at
lesson level. It includes lesson outline, schedule and calendar, weekly activities and
resources, and events for every lesson.

Figure 3.4: Educator’s view when administering a course

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Table 3.3: Course supporting and communication functions of LMS

Function Explanation
Multimedia LMS allows educators and students to share multimedia
Resources resources on resources Web. This feature is useful as many
multimedia tools are used today to create animation, sound,
simulation or video for education purpose.
Work Bin Educators and students have their individual work bins to
upload files and other resources pertaining to the course.
Bookmark Bookmark allows LMS users, whether educators or students,
to bookmark course modules, related Websites, and resources.
Users can easily access the bookmarked resources.
Class LMS allows educators to add, edit or delete user accounts.
Management Forming of groups or sending email to student is done here.
Distribution List Users or students from the same module or course can get to
know each other via this list. Information you can access here
include, names, address, telephone, email, personal Website,
and photograph; those published by users.
Search Tool Search tool allows LMS users to search through a huge amount
of course information to find information within a short time.
Many LMSs have guided criteria to narrow the search results
and to reduce the search time.
Announcement A notice board or announcement area normally appears as
soon as the user logs in to the system.
Email Most LMS allows educators to send email to students. Some
LMS allows sending of announcements to students via email.
Chat Room/ Asynchronous conferencing/ discussion forums provide the
Discussion Forum means for students to engage in exchange about course topics.
Synchronous Synchronous collaboration tools such as Chat, Shared
Collaboration Whiteboards. Group browsing and video-conferencing are
Tools available in most LMS.
Survey Survey in LMS has many purposes. A course evaluation can
be conducted by using a survey form in the LMS to gain
feedback from students on effectiveness of the course.
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3.10 Learning Management System Services and Strategies

In general, users of an LMS are divided into two main classes: Students and
Tutors. Whilst tutors have a similar view of the LMS to students, they usually have
additional tools and privileges that allow them to add materials, create conferences
and track student’s progress. In some cases students have an area for conversation
that is private from the tutor’s view. To many organizations, LMS is a basic engine
for e-learning initiatives. If technology is the backbone of an e-learning program,
services are activities that link facilitators, users and managers together on this
backbone. Services are required in the running of an e-learning program. Services are
in the form of content creation and delivery, facilitator support, marketing, launching,
facilitation, monitoring, assessment, collection of user feedback, newsletter, helpdesk,
and any form of ongoing support to users of an e-learning program.

While e-learning services are activities that link facilitators, users and
management together, strategies are principles, thoughts and methods on how to use
the resources and services in order to achieve the e-learning objectives. The two
levels of strategies that are important to an e-learning program are the learning
strategies and e-learning strategies. For learning strategy, the strategy here includes
use of pedagogy, instructional design principles, way of delivery, level of interaction
and participation, level of facilitation, level of resource support, and type of
collaboration model in order to achieve the objectives of an e-learning program for a
particular group of users (Christopher Tan, 2003).

E-learning strategy is the level of strategy concerns about the building of an

e-learning culture reusability of the created content, relating of e-learning to
knowledge management. Digital content to facilitate learning is the central issue here.
Both content creators and users are accessing this digital content. The types of
content for e-learning program are off-the-shelf content, customer-made content, and
self-authored content. In recent years, a number of organizations are trying to come
up with standards for e-learning content. For example, Instructional Management
System (IMS) metadata group were working on how content can be tagged. This has
an exact meaning when creating your own tags in XML implementation.
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Figure 3.5: How reusable learning objects (RLOs) work?

After the content for particular course is created and loaded to a LMS for user
to access in a particular e-learning program, the following issues are frequently
raised: How easy can the content of this course be portable to other LMS? Can some
of the small sub units of the content for this course be readily assembled to become
the content for another course? If the answers to the above questions are “no”, it
would means content for this e-learning program would have to be recreated in many
ways, and this would mean cost and labor. A Reusable Learning Object (RLO) is an
element of or all of an instructional program that is delivered using technology. RLO
can be lesson plans, case studies, quizzes, simulations, or interactions. These objects
are stored in a database and briefly described using MetaData. MetaData, in this
context, is the information about the learning object. MetaData can be the name of
the author, the instructional approach used, or the learning objective it works to
fulfill. RLOs allow designers to create content once, store the content in a database
using MetaData and deliver the content in many different structures. RLOs can
provide the underlying structure for Adaptive Learning Systems. Educators or course
facilitators can, based on the demands of different learner groups, pull together
different lessons consisting of a combination of these basic learning objects and
present to or accessed by learner groups A and B.
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3.11 Definition of Open Source

Open source doesn’t just mean access to the source code. The distribution
terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria: 1. Free
Redistribution. The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away
the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing
programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or
other fee for such sale. Rationale: By constraining the license to require free
redistribution, we eliminate the temptation to throw away many long-term gains in
order to make a few short-term sales dollars. If we didn’t do this, there would be lots
of pressure for cooperators to defect. 2. Source Code. The program must include
source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form.
Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a
well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable
reproduction cost–preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The
source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the
program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms
such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

Rationale: We require access to un-obfuscated source code because you can’t

evolve programs without modifying them. Since our purpose is to make evolution
easy, we require that modification be made easy. 3. Derived Works. The license
must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed
under the same terms as the license of the original software. Rationale: The mere
ability to read source isn’t enough to support independent peer review and rapid
evolutionary selection. For rapid evolution to happen, people need to be able to
experiment with and redistribute modifications. 4. Integrity of the Author’s Source
Code. The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form
only if the license allows the distribution of “patch files” with the source code for the
purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit
distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require
derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.
Rationale: Encouraging lots of improvement is a good thing, but users have a right to
 78

know who is responsible for the software they are using. Authors and maintainers
have reciprocal right to know what they’re being asked to support and protect their
reputations. Accordingly, an open-source license must guarantee that source be
readily available, but may require that it be distributed as pristine base sources plus
patches. In this way, “unofficial” changes can be made available but readily
distinguished from the base source. 5. No Discrimination against Persons or
Groups. The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
Rationale: In order to get the maximum benefit from the process, the maximum
diversity of persons and groups should be equally eligible to contribute to open
sources. Therefore we forbid any open-source license from locking anybody out of
the process. Some countries, including the United States, have export restrictions for
certain types of software. An OSD-conformant license may warn licensees of
applicable restrictions and remind them that they are obliged to obey the law;
however, it may not incorporate such restrictions itself. 6. No Discrimination
against Fields of Endeavor. The license must not restrict anyone from making use
of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the
program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

Rationale: The major intention of this clause is to prohibit license traps that
prevent open source from being used commercially. We want commercial users to
join our community, not feel excluded from it. 7. Distribution of License. The rights
attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed
without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties. Rationale:
This clause is intended to forbid closing up software by indirect means such as
requiring a non-disclosure agreement. 8. License Must Not Be Specific to a
Product. The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program’s being
part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that
distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program’s license, all
parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those
that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution. Rationale:
This clause forecloses yet another class of license traps. 9. License Must Not
Restrict Other Software. The license must not place restrictions on other software
that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not
insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source
 79

software. Rationale: Distributors of open-source software have the right to make

their own choices about their own software. Yes, the GPL is conformant with this
requirement. Software linked with GPLed libraries only inherits the GPL if it forms a
single work, not any software with which they are merely distributed. 10. License
Must Be Technology-Neutral. No provision of the license may be predicated on any
individual technology or style of interface. Rationale: This provision is aimed
specifically at licenses which require an explicit gesture of assent in order to
establish a contract between licensor and licensee. Provisions mandating so-called
“click-wrap” may conflict with important methods of software distribution such as
FTP download; CD-ROM anthologies, and web mirroring; such provisions may also
hinder code re-use. Conformant licenses must allow for the possibility that (a)
redistribution of the software will take place over non-Web channels that do not
support click-wrapping of the download, and that (b) the covered code (or re-used
portions of covered code) may run in a non-GUI environment that cannot support
popup dialogues (Open Source Initiative, 2006).

Open source describes practices in production and development that promote

access to the end product’s sources. Some consider it as a philosophy, and others
consider it as a pragmatic methodology. Before open source became widely adopted,
developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term
open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet and its enabling of diverse
production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. Later, open
source software became the most prominent face of open source. The open source
model can allow for the concurrent use of different agendas and approaches in
production, in contrast with more centralized models of development such as those
typically used in commercial software companies (Wikipedia1, 2006). “Free
software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should
think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free beer”. Free software is a matter of
the user’s freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.
Precisely, it refers to 4 kinds of freedom, for the users of the software: the freedom to
run the program, for any purpose; the freedom to study how the program works, and
adapt it to your needs; access to the source code; the freedom to redistribute copies
so you can help your neighbors and the freedom to improve the program, and release
improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (GNU, 2006).
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3.12 Open Source E-Learning Software

A Learning Management System (or LMS) is a software package, usually on

a large scale (that scale is decreasing rapidly), that enables the management and
delivery of learning content and resources to students. At a minimum, the LMS
usually allows for student registration, the delivery and tracking of e-learning courses
and content, and testing, and may also allow for the management of instructor-led
training classes. In the most comprehensive of LMS, one may find tools such as
competency management, skills-gap analysis, succession planning, certifications,
virtual live classes, and resource allocation (venues, rooms, textbooks, instructors,
etc.). Most systems allow for learner self-service, facilitating self-enrollment, and
access to courses. Some LMS vendors do not distinguish between LMS and LCMS,
preferring to refer to both under the term “LMS”, but there is a difference. Learning
Content Management System facilitates organization of content from authoring tools,
and presentation of this content to students via the LMS. LMS are based on a variety
of development platforms, from Java EE based architectures to Microsoft.NET, and
usually employ the use of a robust database back-end.

While most systems are commercially developed, free and open-source

models do exist. Other than the most simple, basic functionality, all LMS cater to,
and focus on different educational, administrative, and deployment requirements.
Open source and Web-based LMS software solutions are growing fast in the
education and business world (Wikipedia2, 2006). A Virtual learning environment
(VLE) system can often track the learner’s progress, which can be monitored by both
teachers and learners. While often thought of as primarily tools for distance
education, they are most often used to supplement the face-to-face classroom. These
systems usually run on servers, to serve the course to students as internet pages.
Components of these systems usually include templates for content pages, discussion
forums, chat, quizzes and exercises such as multiple-choice, true/ false and one-
word-answer. Teachers fill in these templates and then release them for learners to
use. New features in these systems include blogs and RSS. Services generally
provided include access control, provision of e-learning content, communication
tools, and administration of the user groups (Wikipedia3, 2006).
 81

At the same time, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization, UNESCO, has also opened a gateway to resources related to the free
software and open source technology movement. Some of the open source e-learning
software is as follows. Online Learning and Training; OLAT is a web-based
Learning Management System (LMS)/ Learning Content Management System
(LCMS) used in the public sector of Switzerland. The initial development started at
the University of Zurich, Switzerland where it is deployed on the main OLAT server.
Official support for OLAT is available at the OLAT-Center. OLAT is open source
and completely free of charge. The e-Learning XHTML editor (eXe) is a web-based
authoring environment designed to assist teachers and academics in the design,
development and publishing of web-based learning and teaching materials without
the need to become proficient in HTML, XML or complicated web-publishing
applications. It supports SCORM exports for LMS. Moodle is a free, open source
PHP application for producing Internet-based educational courses and Web sites on
any major platform (Linux, Windows and Mac OS X). Courses are easily built up
using modules such as forums, chats, journals, quizzes, surveys, assignments,
workshops, resources, choices and more. Moodle has been designed to support
modern pedagogies based on social constructionist, and focuses on providing an
environment to support collaboration, connected knowing and a meaningful
exchange of ideas (UNESCO, 2005).

Dokeos is also free software translated in 31 languages and helping more

than 1,000 organizations worldwide to manage learning and collaboration activities.
It allows the teacher/ trainer to create content, structure activities along a sequenced
path, interact with students/ trainees and follow their progress. Dokeos is also a
company helping these organisations launches and develops blended learning
programs. Claroline is free GPL software working with PHP/ MySQL. It is a course
based educational tool allowing the teacher to create, admin and feed his courses
through the web. Features are such as shared documents (File Manager); agenda;
forums; student; papers upload; statistics; announcements; logging and sessions and
links. The idea behind MIT Open Course Ware (MIT OCW) is to make MIT course
materials that are used in the teaching of almost all undergraduate and graduate
subjects available on the web, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world. It is
to serve as a model for university dissemination of knowledge in the Internet age.
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3.13 Linux Web Solutions with Apache, PHP, MySQL and ht://Dig

Of all the web servers on the market today, Apache is most popular because it
supplies basic web server functionality right out of the box. Yet, many customers
want a more sophisticated website, one with SQL database functionality, search
capabilities, and server-side scripting. The complexity and interdependencies of these
packages make it difficult for independent software vendors, solution developers,
and website administrators to put together a solution. Customizing the Apache server
with additional functionality can be complex on the Linux platform. The solutions
for extending functionality are just not obvious. This explanation describes how to
install, configure, and deploy a sophisticated Apache website on the Linux operating
system. Such a website includes the powerful, server-side scripting language, PHP3,
access to the full-featured SQL database, MySQL and the ht://Dig search engine. All
of the software packages described in this description is open source applications.
What makes open source software so attractive? First of all, it is free. Secondly, you
get copies of the software source code, which frees you to control the software to
meet your short-term and long-term requirements.

Apache is more widely used than all other web servers combined. A survey
by Netcraft in September 2000 substantiates this claim. After polling over 21 million
sites for web server software usage on Internet-connected computers, they found that
over 61% of all Internet websites run on the Apache server. (For updates, see
http://www.netcraft.com/survey/). Clearly, the Apache Software Foundation is
meeting its goal “to provide a secure, efficient, and extensible server that keeps its
HTTP services in step with HTTP standards.” The Apache Web Server Project
homepage contains versions of the Apache server and corresponding documentation
that you can download. The official website for the Apache Web server is
http://www.apache.org/. In term of getting the support and help from Apache, this
organization has prepared their online documentation and a list of frequently asked
questions, the Apache site maintains a number of mailing lists. To receive mail from
other Apache developers about code releases, bug fixes, security fixes, and other
information, join one, such as announce@apache.org. Locate the mailing list at
http://www.apache.org/announcelist.html (Compaq, 2000).
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The PHP (originally Personal Home Page) scripting language supports the
creation of dynamic, customized websites. With PHP, developers embed scripts
within web pages. The web server calls PHP to perform the script operations, and
then the server returns the page to the user. Functionally, PHP and the Microsoft
Active Server Page (ASP) scripting language are quite similar. PHP popularity
continues to grow. Many open-source and commercial projects choose PHP as an
implementation language for web-based e-mail solutions, database access tools, and
shopping carts for e-commerce sites, among others. The official PHP website at
http://www.php.net publishes usage statistics it receives from NetCraft. At the
current growth rate, as of September 2000, there will be in excess of 3.5 million
(virtual) servers using PHP. To read a complete list of projects, select “Projects” on
the PHP website. In addition to online documentation and a list of frequently asked
questions, the PHP site maintains a set of mailing lists. As mailing list members learn
about the PHP product, they can share their findings with others on the mailing list.
If you prefer a bundled set of information, you can subscribe to the twice-daily digest.
Multiple countries maintain mailing lists; at the time of this writing, there are
versions in English, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. For general discussions
subscribe to php3@lists.php.net. To subscribe to this or another mailing list, see the
PHP3 support page, http://www.php.net/support.php.

MySQL (pronounced “my - S - Q - L”) is a multi-threaded SQL database

server with a client/ server implementation. Its speed, robustness, and ease of use
make it a popular database for sites with dynamic content. PHP3, C, C++, Java, and
Perl access MySQL directly. The MySQL database source kits, plus pointers to
manuals and SQL tutorials, are available at the official website for the MySQL
database at http://www.mysql.com. The search engine package, ht://Dig, is a
complete web indexing and searching system; it is one of the few open source
software packages available for this purpose. Unlike AltaVista, which can scale to
Internet-wide searches, ht://Dig systems are designed for smaller configurations,
such as small domains, single sites, or website subsections. If necessary, ht://Dig can
index a number of web servers. With proper filters installed, ht://Dig can index and
search through Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files and Microsoft Word (.doc) files. The
source kit, manuals, and an archive of user mailing lists are located on the product’s
official website at http://www.htdig.org/ (Compaq, 2000).
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3.14 Installation guide for Windows using EasyPHP

Alternatively, these steps can be followed for Apache, PHP, MySQL and
ht://Dig setup as well. Moodle (in this research, Dokeos is applied) requires that a
webserver, PHP and a supported database be installed to run on Windows. This may
be achieved by using EasyPHP, a package that bundles all the software you need in
the form of Apache (webserver), PHP and MySQL (database) into a single Windows
application. Please note however, that EasyPHP is not designed to be used for a
production server. Here are the steps from start to finish. 1. Preparation: Firstly, if
you have ever installed MySQL before (even as part of another package), uninstall it
all, delete all the MySQL files and make sure you delete c:\my.cnf and
c:\windows\my.ini. You might want to do a search and delete ANY file called
my.cnf or my.ini. If you’ve ever installed PHP before delete any files called
php4ts.dll from around your Windows directory, as well as any files called php.ini. 2.
Get EasyPHP: Then, download EasyPHP from here: EasyPHP 1.7 (approx 10 Mb).
You may want to try the later EasyPHP 1.8 (approx 9 Mb). 3. Install EasyPHP: Run
the downloaded file: easyphp1-7_setup.exe. The installation process is in French but
is much like installing any other Windows program (Moodle Docs, 2006).

It is advised to accept the defaults and letting it all install. Note: that
“Suivant” means Next and “Oui” means Yes. At the end of the install leave the
checkbox selected to “Lancer EasyPHP” (Start EasyPHP) and hit the “Terminer”
button. You might be taken to an information web page which you can safely ignore.
If all went well, congratulations! Apache, PHP and MySQL are all installed and
running! You should see a black E in your toolbar tray. You can right click on it to
get a menu which will let you control the running programs, but you won’t need that
for now. Some things may be in French and you may prefer English. You can
download this file http://www.easyphp.org/telechargements/dn.php?F=indexUS_1.7
which contains English versions of www and home folder in the EasyPHP1-7 folder.
These can be copied over the default files. 4. Create a database: The next thing you
need to do is to set up a database for Moodle (in this research, Dokeos is applied) to
use. Right-click the black E in the toolbar tray and choose Administration, then click
DB Management (beside PHPMyAdmin). Alternatively, using a browser, go to
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http://localhost/mysql/ (note the final slash). If asked for a username, use “root” with
a blank password. You should see a phpMyAdmin web interface that allows you to
create a new databases and user accounts. Create a new database by typing “moodle”
(in this research, Dokeos is applied) into the field and hitting the “Create” button.
That was easy! You can also create a new user to access your database if you want.
This can be a bit tricky for a first-time user, so you might just want to use the
existing user “root” with no password in your Moodle (in this research, Dokeos is
applied) config for now, and fix this later. 5. Get Moodle! (Dokeos): You’re ready to
install Moodle! (In this research, Dokeos is applied); download the latest release of
Moodle from Moodle.org, or Dokeos from Dokeos.com then unzip the archive. 6.
Installing Moodle (Dokeos): Copy your Moodle (in this research, Dokeos is applied)
files into C:\Program Files\EasyPHP\www. You can either copy the entire Moodle/
Dokeos directory (ie C:\Program Files\EasyPHP\www\moodle) or copy all the
contents of the Moodle (Dokeos) directory. If you choose this second option then
you will be able to access your Moodle/ Dokeos home page using http://localhost/
instead of http://localhost/moodle/ (Moodle Docs, 2006).

Make a new empty folder somewhere else for Moodle (Dokeos) to store
uploaded files in, eg: C:\moodledata or C:\dokeosdata. Go into your Moodle (Dokeos)
folder. Make a copy of config-dist.php, and call it config.php. 7. The web based
installer: You’re nearly there now! The rest of the setup is all web-based. Visit
http://localhost/moodle/admin/ with your browser to continue the setup via your
browser. To use zip files with Moodle (for example the backups use zip) you might
need to enable “zlib”. You can do this by going to your EasyPHP directory
(C:\Program Files\EasyPHP), and running the program phpini.exe in there. Put a
mark in the checkbox next to “zlib.dll”. Close that window, and then go to the black
E in your toolbar and right-click it to get a menu; select “Restart” from this menu. 8.
Tips: If you don’t or can’t use EasyPHP, here are a few tips to make sure your PHP
is set up correctly and avoid common problems: Make sure you enable the GD
module so Moodle (Dokeos) can process images; you may have to edit php.ini and
remove the comment (;) from this line: ‘extension=php_gd2.dll’. Make sure you
enable the Zlib module so that you can create and unpack zip files from within
Moodle (Dokeos). You may have to edit php.ini and fix the directory for
session.save_path; instead of the default “/tmp” use a Windows like “c:/temp”.
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3.15 The E-Learning Environment

Figure 3.6: The e-learning environment

A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a software system which is designed

to facilitate teachers in the management of educational courses for their students, by
especially helping teachers and learners with course administration. A more correct
term may be a virtual environment for learning, rather than virtual learning
environment. This removes any ambiguities and identifies that it is the environment
which is virtual and not the learning. The system can often track the learners’
progress, which can be monitored by both teachers and learners. While often thought
of as primarily tools for distance education, they are most often used to supplement
the face-to-face classroom. These systems usually run on servers, to serve the course
to students as internet pages. Components of these systems usually include templates
for content pages, discussion forums, chat, quizzes and exercises such as multiple
choices and one-word-answer. Teachers fill in these templates and then release them
for learners to use. New features in these systems include blogs and RSS. Services
generally provided include access control, provision of e-learning content,
communication tools, and administration of the user groups (Wikipedia3, 2006).
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3.16 E-Learning Framework

Figure 3.7: Distributed services-based e-learning architecture

The e-learning framework can be broken down into four layers, each with a
series of modular components. The first layer, presentation tier should consist of
portal, entitlement, profiles and user interface. Then, the second layer is to be
supported by the common service tier including the user management, user
administration, collaboration, schedule management, event management and service
locator. These are followed by the third layer which is also known as the e-learning
service tier, consisting of learning content management, learning management,
learning administration, assessment, and digital resources. The last layer is called a
resource tier repository which is made of learning content, learning meta-data,
learning administration, learning assessment, and user. In getting started with
implementation, the precursors to any successful e-learning architecture, regardless
of type of institution, are three key elements including resources, constituents and
strategy. In addition, the implementation roadmap has 3 phases including web
applications, web services and web futures. However, passing through the first phase
is not a prerequisite for entering the second phase (Sun Microsystems, 2003).
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3.16.1 Presentation, Common Service, E-Learning Service and Resource

The presentation tier allows end-users to interact with the service or

application, and comprises both navigation and presentation logic. Portal: The portal
serves two purposes: it provides a single point of entry for all users to the platform
and it aggregates various services through channels and provides both a customized
and a personalized view. The portal is customizable and can be tailored to any
institution’s guidelines and can easily be integrated with an existing portal solution.
Entitlement: The entitlement service authenticates and authorizes users to enter into
the platform, while single sign-on ensures a uniform experience by having the users
enter their credentials only once, no matter how many services or systems they
interact with while using the system. Profiles: This module is where users provide
details about themselves and their preferences. These profiles will then dictate the
services available to them. User Interface: Services may have a presentation tier
which interfaces with the users. The user interface service provides a uniform
approach to integrate the user interface components with their business tier
counterparts.

Common service tier represents the services that everyone needs to do e-

learning, or e-commerce. Since they are not role specific, and are not dependent on
any particular pedagogic function, they should not be part of the E-Learning Service
Tier. User Management: All services in the framework delegate the task of
managing users, groups and roles to a central service. This user management service
provides the backbone for the user authentication, authorization and entitlement for
all services in the framework. User Administration: User administration is a central
service which keeps track of all user registration and account information. It manages
the lifetime user identifier of every user in the e-learning system. Collaboration
Services: The power of the e-learning framework from Sun is the abstraction of
common facilities from the typical ‘LMS only’ model. This is demonstrated in the
use of a central collaboration environment being made available to all users of the
platform. This is the backbone of an all-pervasive feedback mechanism allowing
users to collaborate on any of the services available in the framework and have their
comments directed to the appropriate resource owner. The collaboration service
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supports multiple forms of interaction and is able to adopt new mechanisms with
advances in technology. The main forms of interaction supported including e-mail,
threaded discussion, web cast, desktop sharing/ stimulation, white-boards and chat.
Schedule Management/ Calendar: All services have access to a single schedule
management system controlling both synchronous and asynchronous messages
between the services and the users. Examples of this functionality might include
reminder messages on the progress of a student application for enrollment. User
calendar functionality is also supplied by the schedule management service. Event
Management: All interaction between users and services is captured by the event
management service. This data provides invaluable information for both program
management and research into the pedagogy of e-learning. This warehouse of events
then allows for both canned and dynamic reporting. An example of dynamic
reporting might include the ability to ask “How long does it take for a tutor to
respond to a student query?”

E-Learning Service Tier; Learning Content Management Services: The

learning content management service (LCMS) provides authoring, sequencing, and
aggregation tools that structure content to facilitate the learning process. It uses a
workflow driven approach to the production of both online and traditional
instructional material to support blended learning. Learning objects are discovered
and assembled using a meta-data language allowing flexible course construction. The
workflow model supports course specification and author peer review when
constructing the learning program. The learning material can be imported from other
content systems using IMS interoperability standards and similarly exported to the
learning management service for learning delivery. Learning Management Service:
The learning management service is responsible for the delivery and administration
of the course instance or offering, and the management of legacy applications with
which it may be associated. It manages all interactions between the learning material
and its participants including tracking progress and monitoring the usage levels to
detect how the environment is being used. This information is invaluable in assessing
the quality of the learning experience and detecting problems early enough to address
them. The learning management service is distinguished from a typical ‘LMS’ in the
flexible support for multiple pedagogical models through static and adaptive RLO
sequences. It also manages a catalog of static sequence learning programs or learning
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profiles for adaptive sequencing. Learning Administration Service: The learning

administration system (LAS) manages all reference data in support of the learning
services. The collection of reference data is specific to the individual educational
institution. LAS consist of components that support the non-learning, delivery-
related administration functions. It provides an abstraction between the e-learning
platform and the hosted institution’s existing billing or back office information
system. It supports the institution’s admission operations such as application and
enrollment, fee payment and student transcript management, tutor record, and tutorial
provider management. Assessment Services: The assessment system measures
student performance against specific learning goals. Both formative and summary
assessment is provided through a collection of tools available to the tutor to assess
student’s progress against learning objectives. The tools support the following
assessment types including automated assessment (includes multiple choice
questions, multiple right answer, short answer, true/ false), complex assessment
(includes essay assignment or structured document), and the collaboration
assessment (includes simulations and group work). Using these tools the assessment
process becomes a more interactive model instead of the typical automated solution.

Digital Resource Services: The repositories contain libraries of digital

resources for constructing learning materials. Resources are discovered through an
open search interface and made available to both the learning content management
service for sequence definition of courses and the learning management service for
delivery. RLO are represented using a meta-data language for markup of digital
media including descriptions, specifications and usage guidelines. Resource Tier;
Learning Content Repository: The learning content repository uses meta-data to
store and manage individual learning objects. The data repositories allow multiple
developers and subject matter experts to share content and its components over the
network. Learning Meta Data: A meta-data specification makes the process of
finding and using a resource more efficient by providing a structure of defined
elements that describe, or catalog, the learning resource, along with requirements
about how the elements are to be used and represented. IMS Meta-data
Specifications and those from the Dublin Core Meta-data Initiative are the most
common sources. Learning Assessment Repository: On a platform level, learning
assessment repositories contain quality-assured assessment questions as RLO to
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ascertain learning gaps or test learning acquisition. However, on an Internet level,

they provide access to valid, reliable, and customizable survey instruments which
collect program assessment data in a secure, web-based environment. These
repositories provide a source of data for researchers interested in comparing
programs at different institutions and looking at longitudinal data on program
effectiveness. Learning Administration Repository: This repository may, in fact,
be a series of existing administrative databases, containing non-learning, delivery-
related administration data and functions. User Repository: All user data, including
the user’s profile, assessment and transcript information, is contained here (Sun
Microsystems, 2003).
 CHAPTER 4

WEB-BASED LEARNING SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

4.1 Introduction to Dokeos

Dokeos is an e-learning environment and course management web

application and also a collaboration tool. It is free software released under the GNU
GPL; its development is an international, collaborative effort. It is also OSI certified
and can be used as a content management system for education and educators. Its
features for course management include content distribution, calendaring, progress
tracking, text/ audio/ video chat, test administration, and record keeping. As of 2004,
it has been translated into 31 languages and is used by more than 1,000 organizations.
The main goals of Dokeos are to be a very user-friendly and flexible system with an
easy to use interface. It wants to be a tool for good learning, so that users have
minimal notice of the tools and maximum attention for the content. Dokeos is written
in PHP and uses MySQL as a database. The current stable release is Dokeos 1.6.2.
The developer team is hard at work on Dokeos 1.6.3. The developers have just
released Dokeos community release 2.0. The community releases are intended to be
more open, more community-based, and evolve and release faster than the original
“official” releases. Dokeos.com is also a Belgian company providing hosting,
support, and services around e-learning and the Dokeos platform. The company
contributes back to the community by paying several Dokeos developers.
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4.2 Dokeos Tools

Dokeos contains several tools for different purposes. The Agenda/ calendar
Announcements: important messages for the students (contains also mail
functionality); Course Description: explain the objectives, methodology, course
material, assessment methods to the students; Documents: a basic file manager to
store all kind of documents; Learning Path: determine how the students should
browse through your course. This tells the student which steps he should follow. It
guides the students through your course. Example: pretest, view document 1, post
text, visit site X. With this tool you can also set prerequisites. For instance: the site
cannot be visited before the test has been completed. The learning path is SCORM
compatible and can import and export SCORM packages. Links: links to external
sites; Forums: asynchronous discussion. Drop Box: students can submit
assignments to the teacher (instead of filling the mailbox of the teacher with mails
with large attachments); Groups: group several users together (for a specific task for
instance); Chat module: instant discussion; Student publications: students can
share their work with the rest of the students; Tracking: who has done what and
when and more (Wikipedia4, 2006).

All these different tools are getting more and more combined where each
group has (or can have) its own private document space. Each group has (or can have)
its own private forum. Moreover, a teacher can post an agenda item or announcement
for one or more groups or user or for all the students. Resources (a document, a link,
a forum message) can be combined with the resource linker: you can also add an
‘attachment’ to another course resource in a forum message, an announcement, or an
agenda item. The Dokeos code is written in PHP, using MySQL as database backend.
It already supports SCORM import, and SCORM export is now in an experimental
stage. User data can be imported into the system using CSV or XML files. Dokeos
can add user info and authenticate through LDAP. For the next release (1.6) the
Dokeos developer team is putting effort into complying with W3C xhtml and CSS
standards. Some JavaScript is still required however, and using SCORM more or less
requires the use of frames in the learning path module. The Dokeos development is
an international project where universities, organizations and individuals contribute.
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4.3 Downloading and Installing the EasyPHP Local Web

Figure 4.1: Downloading and installing the EasyPHP local web

EasyPHP is a complete software package allowing using all the power and
the flexibility that offers the dynamic language PHP and the efficient use of
databases under Windows. Package includes an Apache server, a MySQL database, a
fully PHP execution, as well as easy development tools for your web site or your
applications. In order for your scripts to be executed, you must place your files in the
“www” directory. The Apache server is configured to automatically open an index
file when you enter the address ‘http://localhost/’ (Apache must have been started).
This page is the default start page, it’s the proof that EasyPHP is running. You are
advised to create a directory for each project inside the “www” directory; so you can
easily manage all of your developments. To proceed, create a new directory in the
“www” or use the directory created after the installation: “project1” (can be
renamed). Then, save the PHP page with of the following extension: php, php3, php4.
This is the usual set up of the EasyPHP. Extensions may vary with your hosting
company, so don’t forget to change the extension if needed.
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4.4 Downloading and Installing the Dokeos E-Learning Software

Figure 4.2: Downloading and installing the Dokeos e-learning software

The Dokeos open source e-learning software could be obtained from here
(http://www.dokeos.com/) without paying any fee. Through this web portal, users
would have the abilities to experience themselves the demo campus which indicated
the stimulation of a Dokeos system. The counter section is ready for downloading the
latest documentation and software developed. Besides, paying services are also
available for special consultation and training, hosting and support, development and
migration, customers and partners, and lastly the video conferencing. Since then,
Dokeos is developed in order to respond to the vision of using Dokeos as a human
resources training tool. To fulfill the requirements of open source software, it also
has completed with the Dokeos world wide community. There is a list of worldwide
list, user’s forum, and universities consortium. It is then a course management web
application translated in 34 languages and helping more than 1,000 organizations
worldwide to manage learning and collaboration activities. Dokeos is also a company
helping these organisations launches and develops blended learning programs.
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4.5 Running the Local Web at EasyPHP

Figure 4.3: Running the local web at EasyPHP

After downloading the EasyPHP from (http://www.easyphp.org), the next

step is to install the program into the desktop computer. Just start with a double click
at the software icon, and let the whole installation runs. In order to complete the
installation, there are a few buttons to be clicked on and usually they are being set as
default due to the software configuration. Apart from that, you also need to abide to
the GNU/ GPL licenses before the installation data can be copied to the desktop.
Besides that, the installation root path has also been set to default where the user just
needs to click the “Next” button so that the software data is kept at a specific location
inside the desktop hard disk. This location is usually set to be at C:\Program
Files\EasyPHP1.8. After that, you should be able to see the green light indicator
which representing the installation progress. During this process, the system will try
to extract the installation data required from the installer and paste them at the
specific location chosen before this. Meanwhile, EasyPHP consist only simple
interface where you can see the Apache and MySQL are on.
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4.6 Dokeos Installation for Version 1.6.4

Figure 4.4: Dokeos installation for version 1.6.4

As until the last step discussed, the local web server has been set up. One
easy way to start the Dokeos installation is to right click the EasyPHP button which
is represented with the symbol “E”, and click at the local web option. The keyboard
shortcut for this command can also be done by pressing the “F7” button instead. It
seems like you don’t have much choices except clicking the “Install Dokeos” button.
Immediately, you will see the interface as what is shown at the figure above. There
are 6 steps in this installation process and let us start with the “New installation”
button. Step 3 is the MySQL database settings. At this moment, we just need to
follow the default values since our purpose is to run the whole web at the desktop
only. The database host will be set to “localhost”, database username is “root” and
the database password can be left blank at this moment. To proceed, just click
“Next”. Here comes the configuration setting where the administrator is requested to
key in their particulars like email, last name, first name, telephone, login, password,
portal name and the organization short name. Click “Next” until finish then.
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4.7 Install, Create and Delete a Course

Figure 4.5: Install, create and delete a course

Install is web based. The mail system should be configured during the
installation, but is not vital for a test installation. Email functions in the Dokeos
system are handled by standard PHP functions, and are configured through the
php.ini file. On windows, find and open php.ini (could be placed here
c:\windows\php.ini or for EasyPHP 1.7:EasyPHP1-7\apache\php.ini). Then, search
for “SMTP”. Change the default value to: SMTP= [name of your smtp.mailserver.tld
that handles outgoing messages]. For example: SMTP= smtp.myserverprovider.com,
or SMTP=smtp.inapg.fr. Restart the web server. In Outlook, the necessary
information for outgoing mail can be found in Tools, Options, Send mail, Accounts,
Parameters and Connections. After installation, before entering admin interface, you
should create a course so that you can play with a non-empty course list. On the
home page of your portal, log in as admin, Click on Create a course area and fill in
the form. All values are important during the course creation here. After that, to
delete a course see section for course management.
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4.8 Access Platform Web Administration and Manage Users

Figure 4.6: Access platform web administration and manage users

The hierarchy is Categories, Courses, Groups, Classes, and Users. Categories

are a generic word for: faculties, departments, etc. Courses can be divided in groups
with smaller sets of students/ trainees. Groups are for student collaboration, classes
are for management of students. A course can have several classes of students. A
class, with some of the students, can be added or deleted when convenient, and in
this way the total student population in a course can be easily managed. Classes can
be moved from course to course. A course is not just content, but an area including
content, interaction, forums, groups, tests, users and etc. User’s tool allows you to
add users one by one through a web form, import lists of users through CSV or XML
files, export users lists in CSV or XML format, browse users list, modify a user’s
profile, add users to courses, remove users from the platform and add pictures of
people. Long user’s lists will be shown by blocks of 50. Dokeos has been tested with
over 200,000 users and 20,000 courses and did not slow down. The administrator can
either set the users password or just let the system generate them automatically.
 100

4.9 Manage Groups and Classes of Users

Figure 4.7: Manage groups and classes of users

Dokeos promotes collaborative learning. This is why courses contain a

group’s tool allowing the teacher to create and structure groups, fill them, associate
them with research themes etc. Usually, group management is made by the teacher.
However, in some cases, the system admin is requested to edit groups. He must edit
courses one by one. Deleting groups can be done by selecting the box to the right for
each group, and push the button “Delete selected groups”. Classes are for
management of users. In order to affiliate a class to a course you must select both a
class and a course. One class can be added to several courses. To avoid importing
users in courses one by one, you can create classes of users. Classes can restrict
access to a course: a class can be valuable the full length of the course, a class can be
deleted before end of course and lastly a class can be added after some time. Classes
can be used to move students between courses. Select your course and click “ok” to
“Show classes subscribed to this course”, select the class to remove (delete) from the
course, click “Delete from this course” and add the “deleted” class to another course.
 101

4.10 Manage Courses (Backup and Restore)

Figure 4.8: Manage courses (backup and restore)

You can look for a course using the search form on top of Courses tool. It
will search all fields: name, code, leader (teacher), language, etc. Once the course
located, you can modify its settings, move it to another category, delete it or make a
backup of it. The backup will consist of a ZIP file stored, by default, in the Archive
directory at the root of the Dokeos web server area. It can be restored through the
Create course button of the portal home page (depending on config, by default, only
system administrator can restore courses). During the backup process you can also
export the course ZIP archive into the Archive directory of another Dokeos portal,
e.g. a test installation on a teacher machine. Once the copy is made, it is, by default,
located in the “archive” directory at the root of Dokeos install. As campus admin,
you can restore it through “Create a course”. At the bottom of “Create a course” you
have a “Restore” link. If the course already exists, it will be replaced, so be careful.
There is no function yet to duplicate a course in two different occurrences. The
restore does not restore the users but only creates a CSV list of the users.
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4.11 Manage Categories of Courses

Figure 4.9: Manage categories of courses

Categories are a generic word for: Faculties, Departments, Ministries or any

subset of your organization. It may prove relevant to organize the course catalogue
into categories. If you don’t want categories, delete all and the system will show the
whole course catalogue as a flat list. Category management allows the creation of
sub categories so as to create a tree of courses. In the category area it is possible to
change order of the categories, delete or modify a category and to go the area of a
category. It is also here you add a new category. To add a new category go to the
“Add a category” page and fill in the name and code of your course. The new
category will immediately be visible in the list of categories. It is possible to add
several levels of categories, to reflect the structure of the school. When logging in,
the users can then go to the area of their choice. In this research, there are two
categories of courses where the first one is consisting of the Master of Science in
Construction Management program while the second course categories are consist of
the Professional Short Courses that are held by the CTMC, FKA at UTM.
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4.12 Uploading and Downloading Course Notes

Figure 4.10: Uploading and downloading course notes

The uploading courses are done by the teachers and trainers of the related
subjects like for Construction Project Management, Construction Site Management
and Safety Control, Construction Technology, Construction Law and Contract,
Project Planning and Scheduling, Construction Management Information System,
Financial Management, Project Estimating and Human Resource Management. The
above figure showed about the uploaded courses note for Construction Management
Information System. The same arrangement will also go to the Professional Short
Courses which are organized by the CTMC, FKA at UTM. However, the sequences
of the course notes are not in the correct order since this is the limitation of the
software itself. In order to make a proper sequential arrangement of the notes, the
teacher will have to upload the last lecture notes first and then followed by the earlier
versions of notes. When it completes, the interface will be like what we can see at the
above. Trainers can also upload and delete the notes that they want. Then, the
students will just need to click the “ZIP” button for notes downloading.
 104

4.13 Customize Home Page Layout

Figure 4.11: Customize home page layout

The Dokeos development team is working on a tool for easy configuration of

the layout, so this text may soon be obsolete. When you come to the welcome page
for the first time you have this layout like the above. It is possible to change layout of
the welcome page by editing the “home_include.html” file. The editable area for the
home_include.html goes from top of the page to “courses” in the left part of the page.
Some settings like the presence of the link “Registration” on the right menu of the
homepage are described in the Config section of this text. The content for the center
of the page (default=’ Edit home_include.html in the root directory of your install to
modify this introduction text and image”) is the content of the file
home_include.html situated at root directory of your Dokeos install. It is a plain
HTML file that you can edit in any text editor or web page builder. The banner of
your Dokeos portal is the same file included in all pages. If you have some HTML
knowledge, edit this file in a good text editor and modify colors, links, fonts, etc and
please don’t hesitate to add images or links.
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4.14 Configuration

Config is text based. To edit your Dokeos portal settings, use a good text
editor (Ms-Word or Open Office are NOT text editors). Consider using: on MAC:
SimpleText on Windows: Notepad or Editplus on Linux: Bluefish or Quanta. The
files to be edited are located in dokeos/claroline/inc/conf. which can be situated like
this: C:\Program Files\EasyPHP\www\dokeos\claroline\inc\conf. Important. In
general you need to restart the server software (e.g. EasyPHP) for modifications to be
implemented. 1. Main configuration file; the main information about the installation
is claro_main.conf.php. It is highly recommended to read this file. A few extracts
follow here: $rootWeb=”http://localhost/dokeos/”. The URL of the school, the name
“localhost” is for a test installation on a single PC. For access to the installation from
another machine change the “localhost” to a network accepted name of the hosting
machine, or use your web address for the school. $rootSys=”c:/program
files/easyphp/www/dokeos/”. The files for the school are placed in this directory.
When you write http://localhost/dokeos/ in a browser you get the index.php in this
directory. $garbageRepositorySys=”c:/program
files/easyphp/www/dokeos/claroline/garbage/”.

Change this address to a place out of web if you can. There is no need to take
back up of this directory. $mysqlRepositorySys=”C:/Program
Files/EasyPHP/mysql/data/”. The place for the data of the school, general
information given during installation (examples): $siteName=”VICIM e-school”,
$CourseProgram=http://www.ucl.ac.be/etudes/cours, $administratorSurname=”Doe”,
$administratorName=”John”, $emailAdministrator=”admin@localhost”,
$telephone=”(000) 001 02 03”, $administrator[“name”]=$administratorName.”,
“$administratorSurname, $administrator[“phone”]=$telephone,
$administrator[“email”]=$emailAdministrator, $educationManager[“name”]=”Albert
Einstein”, and $educationManager[“phone”]=”” $educationManager["email"]="",
$Institution="VICIM", $InstitutionUrl=http://www.vicim.urv.es,
$allowSelfReg=true. The user can make self-registration. $allowSelfRegProf=true.
The user can make self-registration to become a teacher. Not recommended. 2. Self
modification of profile and email: To modify user’s behavior, for instance, edit
 106

profile.conf.inc.php and replace TRUE by FALSE where relevant. Variables and

comments should help you understand what each TRUE/ FALSE switch is about.
Settings you can change in profile.conf.inc.php are: can the user leave his official
code field empty (default TRUE), $userOfficialCodeCanBeEmpty = true; can the
user edit his own profile or not (default TRUE) $profileIsEditable = true; can the
user leave his email field empty (default TRUE) $userMailCanBeEmpty = true;
3. Changing courses home page default configuration for layout: When a module
is deactivated, its icon is usually moved to the bottom of the course homepage, in the
deactivated tools category. You could also elect to leave the icon in place but grey it
out (so that it looks disabled, and you can’t click on it). Check your
claro_main.conf.php. In here, you will find $homepage_view=”default”; // “default”
gives the default 2 column view // “basic_tools_fixed” gives a 3 column view with
the basic tools in fixed position. 4. Files and folders write permission on Linux
and Unix: You might experience troubles with Write access to folders. Dokeos is a
powerful system and it needs to write in many directories. To allow this, your folders
and files should be writeable by the web server user (this is mainly a LINUX and
UNIX problem and should not appear on Windows servers because they are less
secure). To setup this, see http://www.dokeos.com/INSTALL.txt.

5. Upload limits, Size: Limits for the maximum size of files you can upload
are both in Dokeos itself and in the settings of your PHP and Apache server:
/etc/php.ini (in Windows it may be C:\WINDOWS\php.ini... or look for php.ini file),
claroline/inc/conf/group.document.conf.php and claroline/document/document.php
In php.ini I set the upload_max_filesize = 50M and in the: claroline/document/
document.php the ($maxFilledSpace = 500000000). The claroline/inc/conf/group.
document.conf.php has as standard: $groupDocument_maxFilledSpace = 20000000.
Still, big files upload through the web might prove an uncertain experience. If you
want to upload very big files to a course, consider using FTP. The files sent by FTP
are shown by the Documents tool. Time: Upload limit could also come from the
php.ini time limit. By default, PHP scripts execution are limited to 30 seconds. If the
upload exceeds these 30 seconds, the PHP scripts ends before the upload is complete.
You can either change your php.ini file, or add to the beginning of the concerned
scripts a set_time_limit (int seconds) statements. In php.ini you change:
max_execution_time = 30 to something higher.
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4.15 Self Registration and Creating a Course Website

Figure 4.12: Self registration and creating a course website

Depending on the institution security choices, you are allowed to self-register

as a professor or you are not allowed and should receive your registration settings
from the institution administration. This will only covers self-registration process.
The first step however, is to open the browser such as Explorer or Netscape, and then
typing in the institution’s “Dokeos” website address. After that, select at the
registration button which is located immediately at the bottom of the username and
password blanks. Please to be reminded that all the information is mandatory and
must be filled in correctly including entering the personal settings like password
twice and a valid email. For teachers, you can select “Create course” website as
action. Then, click OK for validating. Later, in the “Create a course area”, enter a
title for the course. Select the category (or department) from the drop down menu.
This is followed by entering a course code and the names of the lecturers delivering
the course. After all, follow the link that appears to return to the “My courses area”.
Click on the newly created course title and you should now see the course website.
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4.16 Platform Administration

Figure 4.13: Platform administration

As the e-learning system administrator, the author can always click on at the
platform administration link which is located at the top blue bar in the system itself.
Right immediately, the above snap screen would be appearing in front of the monitor.
This could in fact show the detail layout of the whole “Dokeos” e-learning system
that is available now. Thus, there are 5 main sub-trees including the users, courses,
classes of users, platform and dokeos.com sections. The users section is consisting of
the users list, add users functions, export the user list into an XML/ CSV file or
importing a list of users from an XML/ CSV file instead. Meanwhile, the courses
section provides the functions like course list, creating a course, manage virtual
courses, categories of courses and adding users to the course. Classes of users also
consist of the class list and adding the classes function. Platform section however, is
to provide the Dokeos configuration settings, system announcements, languages and
to configure homepage. At the same time, Dokeos also providing the services to host
the developed e-learning system to the internet with paying a fee.
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4.17 Administering a Course

Figure 4.14: Administering a course

The print screen above indicates the start from the “My course’s menu” such
as after logging in the system where it must have already created a course website.
After that, click on the title of the course that you wish to administer. The course
main page contains all the features visible to the students, but there are more options
available, and two additional sections to this screen. If you see course from student
point of view (you see course home page but are not offered to hide or show its
content), then the login you entered is not a valid teacher login. A solution to this
may be to self-register once again and inform the system administrator that the
ancient login can be deleted. It can be convenient to view the work as a student will
see it. In top right corner it is possible to change between the teacher and the student
profile. When you are a teacher, change to student profile by clicking on the “Student
view”. Return to the teacher environment by click on “Teacher view”. At the top of
the screen is the introduction text for the course. Click on “Modify” to alter the text
that is displayed “Edit/ Add text”, then click OK to update the introduction text.
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4.18 Agenda

Figure 4.15: Agenda

The agenda appears both in each course area and as a synthetic tool for the
student (“My agenda” in top banner). In the course, the agenda appears as a list of
events. You can attach documents or activities to a date so that the agenda becomes a
chronological program for the learning activities. In addition to being present in the
agenda, the new events are indicated to the student when he or she logs in the next
time. The system tells what has been added in the Agenda (and in the
Announcements) since his or her last visit; icons appear on the portal home page
besides the courses where events and announcements have been added. If you want
to go further in the logic of structuring learning activities one after the other, it is to
be suggested that you use preferably the Learning Path that offers the same principles
with more advanced features. The Learning Path can be considered as a synthesis of
a Table of Contents tool with an Agenda and sequencing (imposed order) and
tracking. Click on the “Modify” icon in the agenda item to be changed and to amend
the details displayed as required. Then, click on OK to accept changes.
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4.19 Learning Path

Figure 4.16: Learning path

This learning path will look like a Table of Contents and can be used as a
Table of Contents, but it will offer much more. The Learning Path tool has two
functions including creating a learning path and upload a SCORM or IMS format
learning path. A Learning Path is a sequence of learning steps included in modules. It
can be content-based (looking like a table of contents) or activities-based, looking
likes an agenda or a program of what you need to do in order to understand and
practice a certain knowledge or know-how. In addition to being structured, a learning
path can also be sequenced. This means that some steps will constitute pre-requisites
for others (“you cannot go to step 2 before step1”). Your sequence can be suggestive
(you show steps one after the other) or imperative (you add pre-requisites so that
people are forced to follow the sequence). The first step is to arrive to Learning Path
Builder section. In the Learning Path screen, there is a link to it. There you can create
many paths by clicking onto “Add a new learning path”. But they are empty, till you
add modules and steps to them.
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4.20 Dropbox

Figure 4.17: Dropbox

The dropbox is a Content Management Tool dedicated to peer-to-peer data

exchange. Any file type is accepted: Word, Excel, PDF etc. It will manage versions
in the sense that it will avoid destruction of a document by a document having the
same name. The dropbox shows the files that were sent to you (the received folder)
and the files that you sent to other members of this course (the sent folder). If the list
of received or sent files gets too long, you can delete all or some files from the list.
The file itself is not removed as long as the other party can see it. To send a
document to more than one person, you need to use CTRL and click in the multiple
select boxes. The multiple select boxes are the form field showing the list of
members. The assignments tool is a very simple one. It allows the students to upload
any document towards the course area. Depending on the course scenario, you have
to decide if you want that all students see all documents or if you want that you are
the only one to see the documents (if, for instance, you ask the same question to
everybody and want to avoid cheating).
 113

4.21 Statistic and Tracking

Figure 4.18: Statistic and tracking

Only administrators or lecturers can see the statistics. Clicking on the

“Tracking” link, from the main course page, allows you to see where there have been
activities in the course. You can follow up the students: did they connect to the
system, when, how many times? How much do they get in tests? Did they already
upload their paper? When? If you use SCORM courses, you can even see how much
time a student spent on a module or chapter. The tracking gives information at 2
levels including globally: How many students access the course? What are the most
visited pages and links? And secondly, nominative: What pages has John Doe visited?
What score does he get in tests? When was his last connection on the system?
“Dokeos” is a modular tool. You can hide and show tools whenever you want,
according to the project or to its different chronological phases. But you can also add
on your home page tools or pages that you have created yourself or that come from
the outside of the Dokeos portal. This way, you will make of your course home page.
Dokeos has another tool called “Links”, that tool makes a long list of links.
 CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Summary of Findings

The primary objective of this study is to develop a web-based learning system

for the post graduate candidates and the short courses participants in order to provide
a medium, to learn and gain knowledge in the field of Construction Management.
Therefore, this chapter is written to conclude the web development process results in
terms of the findings on the application of Dokeos open source e-learning software
for managing the lectures and courses contents. Moreover, the conclusion of the
study, discussion of limitations, and recommendations for future work would also be
explained as well. In addition, it is clear that the application of Dokeos open source
e-learning software can be deployed in managing the lecture and courses contents for
the beneficial on behalf of the postgraduate students and also the short courses
participants. Secondly, the development of this Dokeos open source e-learning
software application is to ease the transfers and dissemination of those lecture notes
among the lecturers and students or courses participants. At the same time, the
storing of course contents at a server with its secure protection such as password, anti
spam and antivirus system has enable a central control of all the courses content from
the Master of Science in Construction Management program and the short courses
program which are free from any virus and threats too.
 115

5.2 Conclusions

In fact, the Dokeos open source e-learning software is very simple and
straight forward software which can be also categorized as user-friendly as well.
However, the software itself is considered as powerful software as this has been
proved by its diversity users from all around the world. The users’ requirement is set
to the minimum so that all of them can handle and utilize this software easily.
Whereas, this is the main concern of the author to ensure that both of the lecturers,
trainers, postgraduate students and the short courses participants could be able to rely
on this software for fulfilling the needs of self-paced learning and training. Besides,
with the development of this software, it would also improve and eliminate the
unnecessary process when transferring the course notes from the trainers/ lecturers to
the students and short courses participants. In this case, e-learning has really helped
and could reduce the unnecessary steps in disseminating knowledge and at the same
place with the guarantee of transferring the safe course notes and material to the
students and learners. This process could be discussed as the users must be connected
with the internet connection first where this internet is considered as a facilities that
has been well established among the Malaysian.

After reaching and getting into the CTMC e-learning website, the users just
need to key in their particulars including usernames and passwords only. Since the
software is so user-friendly, the author believed that the users could use to the system
in just a split second. There should be no problem at all. At the mean time, this
system is being developed as part of the Construction Technology and Management
Centre (CTMC), at Faculty of Civil Engineering (FKA), Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia (UTM) web application. After all, this system should be managed and
administrated by the Faculty of Civil Engineering (FKA) webmaster. On the other
hand, this system is also acted as the document management system for the
Construction Technology and Management Centre (CTMC) especially for their
related courses and lecture notes which are to be delivered for the students and short
courses participants. Finally, this research is also very much concerning in enhancing
the use of Information Technology (IT) application for the learning’s and training’s
document management system particularly in the construction industry.
 116

5.3 Limitations of the Study

The research done has several limitations such as the web-based learning
system is only focused on the platform of providing the space and location for the
placement and storage of the lecture notes and contents so that they are free from any
virus attacks and internet threats such as hackings and virus hits. Although this
system is simple, it has reached and fulfilled the objectives in this research as to
develop a web-based learning system for the post graduate candidates and the short
courses participants in order to provide a medium, to learn and gain knowledge in the
field of Construction Management. This succeed way to eliminate and avoid from
especially the virus attack would have helped the Construction Technology and
Management Centre (CTMC), FKA, UTM to save in a lot of the resources including
monetary, personnel and time in managing their courses and lectures contents.

5.4 Recommendations for Further Study

In fact, this CTMC e-learning system developed could also be modified in

advance so that it can support more technical functions like video conferencing,
distance learning and carrying out the online test and submitting of assignments from
the students and short courses participants to their trainers and lecturers. However,
these are not been done due to the limitation of resources including the funds and
time. While the findings discussed that open source e-learning software can help to
support managing the lecture and course notes storage and dissemination in the
construction industry, the results require further validation such as by completing the
system evaluation through holding a short seminar and conference. Besides, this
should be completed and by doing interviews with the lecturers, trainers and learners
in order to seek their requirements for the educational knowledge management
systems as a whole. Besides, further study could be focused on developing a web-
based learning system that may comprise of more technical functions and for more
 117

courses included in the system as well other than the Masters program and
professional short courses. Most current e-learning products and services overlooked
one crucial factor: how people learn. Work in the area of “collaborative learning” has
shown that learning requires a repertoire of approaches such as: involvement with
realistic tasks, interactions with peers and facilitator or coaches and the opportunities
for feedback and self-reflection. Research into effective e-learning indicates online
communities must be build knowledge together as they work on interesting and
realistic projects and problems. To robustly learn important so call “soft skills” (such
as negotiation or sales techniques, leadership), people must build their new
knowledge by using the new knowledge in multiple ways. They must actively try to
use new ideas and skills, get feedback on a project or performance, and have time to
reflect on what they had done. Despite the availability of new research in areas such
as learning sciences, cognitive science, reasoning, collaborative learning, learner-
centered design, and learning technology, this knowledge is under utilized in most
currently available e-learning products and services. Unfortunately, too many e-
learning companies “deliver course materials” rather than create knowledge-building
communities. And too many e-learning companies stress memorization of facts that
are tested with multiple choice questions, rather than having the learners actually use
their new knowledge and skills as part of collaborative projects with other online
learners. In fact, this situation should be improved indeed.
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