Developing an international framework for BIM education in the HE sector

There has been an increased use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) over the past decades by the global construction industry. The increased use has been contributed to governments, large clients, architects, builders & contractors, & various engineering specialisms recognising its importance across the building lifecycle. The increased use by industry has seen a number of higher education (HE) institutions rethinking their Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) provisions. This paper will concentrate on those institutions in Australia, USA, & the UK. There has been much debate about how BIM is currently employed in the teaching & learning of undergraduate students in Australia, USA, & the UK. The debate surrounds the inclusion of BIM as a stand alone subject in a programme, or whether BIM should be an underlying theme across the programme. Alongside this dilemma research has been conducted around theories of practice of how BIM education should look like in the future. Increased use will only increase the complexities of this debate.
This paper describes research conducted as part of an Office of Learning & Teaching funded project from the Australian Federal Government. The project is called codeBIM. The paper begins with a literature review of current theories of BIM teaching across global HE institutions in AEC. This is followed by a summary of good practice. A framework for the inclusion of BIM in undergraduate education is described – the IMAC Framework. The framework represents increasing levels of BIM inclusion at different levels of learning. These levels are: Illustration; Manipulation; Application; & Collaboration & they correspond to the increasing levels of learning across undergraduate education. The paper describes a case study of using the IMAC framework before reflections & conclusions are drawn.