Multimedia in construction education: new dimensions

The use of multimedia for educational purposes has generated considerable discussion in recent years. This paper discusses a number of different ways in which multimedia can be used in the construction industry. Learning from other industries, particularly manufacturing is essential as multimedia has been explored and exploited by such industries. The first half of the paper demonstrates how multimedia can be used to aid learning and training in the construction sector and in disseminating research results to an industrial audience. The second part demonstrates how multimedia can be used as an interface to complex integrated database systems using virtual reality technologies. These can be used in a laboratory environment to train industrialists and students to use integrated systems, a topic of great importance and traditionally known to be difficult to understand. The work presented here builds upon research undertaken at the University of Salford in the UK through the use of case studies and findings generated from workshops attended by industrial collaborators who are interested in improving the ways in which information is delivered in the construction sector through multimedia capabilities.