Integrated construction laboratory - Lessons learned

In 2011, faculty at Northern Arizona University re-designed the Construction Management curriculum by disconnecting topic-specific laboratories from their associated lectures and forming a single integrated laboratory called 'Construct for Practice' (C4P) in an effort to provide students with context-rich experiences. In addition to merging the topic-specific content, the C4P laboratory is co-convened among sophomore, junior and senior levels to facilitate the incorporation of design and project management functions into the building process. The resulting laboratory is both horizontally integrated (among topics) and vertically integrated (among roles). Now, after four complete semesters of implementation, graduates of the CM program have experienced the complete cycle of the laboratory. This paper describes how the laboratory curriculum has developed over time, presenting a summary of lessons learned, costs associated with the laboratory and recommendations for replication at other institutions.