Field Trips and Their Effect on Student Learning: A Comparison of Knowledge Assessment for Physical versus Virtual Field Trips in a Construction Management Course

Teaching through field trips has been very effective in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) disciplines as it allows students to bridge the gap between theory and practice. However, it is not always feasible to take a large class on field trips due to time, safety, and cost limitations. To adequately prepare future professionals in the AEC industry, it is imperative that institutions adopt innovative methods of providing the field trip experience. One such approach is using virtual reality (VR) technology. Creating 3D VR construction environments and immersing students in that virtual world could provide an engaging and meaningful experience. Although researchers in AEC schools have developed and deployed many virtual field trips (VFTs) in education, little is known about their potential to provide the same knowledge base. For that reason, a VR app was created to teach students about the design and construction of steel structures, called the Steel Sculpture App (SSA). The SSA served as a VFT, and the location of the steel frame structure served as the actual field trip (AFT). The research was conducted in structure-related courses in the spring, summer, and fall of 2021 and the spring and fall of 2022 semesters. Each semester, students were split into groups, one being the control group and the other being the experimental group. The control groups learned through AFTs, whereas the experimental groups learned through VFTs. A knowledge test was administered at the end of each treatment to collect quantitative data on the students’ performance, understanding, and knowledge retention. The results indicated that the students learning from VFTs scored higher than those learning from AFTs. The paper discusses student assessment results and student feedback about replacing AFTs with VFTs in times of need.