Mixed-mode delivery of construction management degree programs

The profile of students reading for construction management degrees is changing. In Australia, a buoyant construction industry is currently fuelling high student expectations. Job opportunities for students (as part-time employees) and for graduates are attractive. Students embarking on their studies come from a wide variety of backgrounds with a profile that is significantly different from the early 1990’s when the Bachelor of Construction Management (Building) program started at Newcastle University (Australia). This degree was conceived to meet the needs of the local building industry. It embraced problem-based learning as its main tenet and was developed to be delivered to on-campus as well as to distance learners. Reviews by the Australian Institute of Building and the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveying as well as the University have highlighted the need to respond to market requirements and student expectations. Over the past two and a half years the degree has been redeveloped to embrace mixed-mode delivery of courses to on-campus as well as to distance learning students. This paper describes how the degree has evolved and the manner in which e-learning has been harnessed to deliver an innovative problem-based learning curriculum in mixed-mode.