BC-DIGIT: A Digital Game Application for Learning Building Construction Technology Course among Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Covid-19 has changed most of the education teaching approaches around the world either synchronous or asynchronous approaches. This includes the Building Construction education for construction sites experiences and practices which are challenging for students. New pedagogical paradigms need to emphasise creative thought. In this case, gamification in teaching and learning is a creative way to inspire students to learn by incorporating game features to achieve an enjoyable and exciting learning experience. Here, Building Construction Digital Board Game (BC-DIGIT) is a digital board game project created for Building Construction education. this gamification project can help develop knowledge and information about Building Construction and improve essential skills for the construction industry’s students and future personnel. This study uses a non-experimental research design in which a survey was developed. The study adopts a theoretical framework, technology acceptance model (TAM) that identifies the variables relevant to the study. The survey was conducted to investigate the features, perceived usefulness, and examine the students' BC-DIGIT satisfaction. The study was conducted in Jan 2022 and the respondents selected for this study were students from Diploma in Building programme at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Sarawak. Via online, registered students were instructed to participate in the digital game. Based on findings, most respondents perceived the usefulness of BC-Digit to them are very high.  Overall, none of the respondents disagreed, 47.69% agreed, and 40.31% strongly agreed with the overall perceived usefulness. In addition, most respondents perceived user satisfaction were high. Overall, only few respondents disagree (0.92%) or were undecided (12.00%) that the digital game was useful to them. On the other hand, most respondents were either agreed or strongly agreed with the user satisfaction. This study is aimed to examine the effectiveness of Building Construction Digital Board Game (BC-DIGIT), a digital-based gamification online learning, specifically its perceived usefulness and perceived satisfaction. Findings, implications, and future research are discussed in following sections.