BIM Game

The BIM Game is a role-playing game for teaching digital planning skills in the application of Building Information Modelling (BIM), developed at the Faculty of Architecture at Jade Hochschule by Prof. Dr. Gregor Grunwald and M.Eng. Christian Heins.

Participants test and experience key BIM technologies in a protected environment. In a non-open design competition, interdisciplinary teams compete not only to build more digitally, but also to use digital transformation to build better, more resource-efficiently, climate-friendly and quality-assured. Participants learn to communicate on the 3D model, organise themselves and their design processes in a digital working platform and thus acquire basic digital planning skills. The knowledge is imparted through so-called BIM nuggets, self-learning formats specially developed for the BIM Game to explain the complex handling of different tools. The knowledge nuggets are mainly created in the AUFLADEN project. In addition to imparting knowledge, the BIM Game creates a high level of motivation among all participants through its playful, competitive atmosphere and fascinates through an intensive learning atmosphere. The BIM Game is part of a training structure, described in more detail below, which has already been tested and applied in various courses and formats.

Learning objectives and structure

The primary learning objective of the BIM Game is to understand and apply the BIM digital design methodology [1]. In a design competition, this knowledge has to be derived and evaluated from an own or predefined design. In direct collaboration with team members, participants plan and develop their ideas using BIM-certified tools.

The BIM Game is part of a four-part training structure divided into BIM Starter, BIM Basic Course and BIM Nuggets. The fourth and final part, the BIM Game, applies the digital skills learnt. The BIM Starter provides an overview of the training format and a quick introduction to the subject. The BIM Basic Course provides the necessary theoretical knowledge about digital design, while the BIM Nuggets are self-paced video and click tutorials that prepare participants for their role in the BIM Game and explain the applications relevant to their role. The programmes can be adapted to suit the learning pace of the participants. The modules are a prerequisite for participation in the role play. After successful qualification, participants are admitted to the game. Here they apply what they have learned to a concrete design task. Together with the different disciplines represented in each team, the model-based coordination process takes place. In direct interaction with the other team members and in exchange with the clients appearing in the game, the participants plan and develop their ideas using the digital tools provided. An overview of the learning objectives is given below:

Role Architecture:

Professional skill in object-oriented CAD application for planning construction projects.
Professional skill in visualisation

Role Structural Design:

Professional skill in object-oriented CAD application for planning construction projects
Knowledge in the field of model-based structural analysis

Costing role:

Skilled in model-based construction costing
Role BIM coordination
Professional skill in CAD organisation, for the interdisciplinary application of BIM

All roles:

Methodical skill in structuring models for interdisciplinary IFC data export
Methodical skill in the use of BCF applications
Methodical skill in BIM-based workflow between BIM management, architecture, structural design and costing
Methodical knowledge of the submission process in a planning competition
Ability to work effectively under pressure and stress

Boundaries and equipment

Participants can choose to work together from home, on-site or in a hybrid format. Several videoconference rooms are available for use during the game. In addition to a computer with webcam and microphone, the following software applications are part of the players' basic equipment: Modelling and visualisation software, web-based data management/cloud/common data environment (CDE), costing software, model checking software, BCF application, IFC viewer. Participants are free to choose the software tools to implement each BIM service. They must ensure that the software tools used can generate or export the digital deliverables in the required data formats. The requirements for the software (BIM design tools, BIM visualisation and checking software, etc.) and hardware are determined by the required quality of the deliverables. The BIM game is controlled by a work portal [2]. It is an information management system that shows the players when and by whom they have to deliver which information. At the same time, the work portal provides an overview of what information has already been delivered and by whom. This increases the competitive pressure on all participants in the game, as the scores of all teams can be seen. For the teacher, it provides an overview of learning progress and makes it easier to identify individual support where needed.

The process

The BIM Game is introduced by the BIM Starter. This introduction is used to explain the game flow and organisation, and to provide an overview of the software applications used in the game. For this purpose, self-study courses called BIM Nuggets are provided. BIM theory is taught in the basic course, which is specifically designed for the game format. The project description, the competition exposé, the client information requirements, the design manual and the modelling guidelines are also provided to give participants an insight into the most important project documents. This concludes the qualification phase and a software check is carried out on all participants to ensure that the installations have been successfully completed and that the technical requirements for participation are met. The game itself basically follows the following structure, although there may be variations depending on the target audience.

Team division and introduction to the topic processing
Phase-1: Digital test workflow
Phase-2a: Design
Phase 2b: Structural verifications, calculation & visualisation
Clients Meeting
Phase 3: Design + structural concept + calculation
Clients Meeting
Phase 4: Preparation of the presentation
Presentation to the jury
Debriefing

Didactic means

The didactic concept of the "BIM Games" is based on the constructive alignment method, a learning goal-oriented didactic according to John Biggs [11]. Biggs suggests aligning learning objectives, assessment forms and teaching and learning activities. In this respect, all formats of the BIM game essentially take into account pre-defined learning objectives, assessments in the form of a presentation of results within the competition process, and teaching and learning activities - based on instructions, handouts, short tutorials, coaching discussions, discussions with builders, but also mutual help among participants - located in the game setting.

Despite the variety of methods, the BIM Game has a clear game structure, clear rules and a process landscape that requires automated results. Discussions, teamwork, activating questions and client meetings are formats in which participants apply their knowledge, think it through independently, repeat it and adapt it to the situation, so that information is cognitively consolidated. Repetition options built into the work portal serve to reflect on one's own performance. Participants receive feedback from the regular builder-owner meetings. Here, the teachers can give feedback in the form of a role play, check the learning objectives through a performance check, request additional services if necessary and make demands on the planners. Outside of the client meetings, the teachers act as 'coaches', looking over the shoulders of the students. In this role they help and advise, motivate and listen. This dichotomy leads to a clear understanding of roles in working with students in order to differentiate between different forms of educational support in terms of content and concept.

Events held

The BIM Game has been used several times as a teaching and training tool. The experience gained has allowed the game to be continuously developed. It can be organised in an interdisciplinary way with different disciplines, across universities and even internationally. It brings together young and old, as students and professionals work together in a team. It appeals to all those involved in construction. Not only in higher education. There is also great interest from the building industry, planning offices, the construction industry, administration and government. Below is a selection of courses that have taken place.

PING PONG BIM Game
The "PING PONG" course was the first BIM game developed for architecture students in April 2021. It was a decentralised business game and took place over a weekend to test and experience the key BIM technologies in operational use. The decentralised cooperation and communication of the teams took place using the 3D model and in a direct competitive situation with the competing teams. The competition was controlled by a work portal that gave each team the same tasks and automatically requested the results for a pre-defined period of time [5].

JADE WORK" BIM Game
The "JADE WORK" education and training event has been integrated into the "Oldenburg BIM Day", a national conference on digitisation in the construction industry, in 2021 and 2022. The participants will be students of architecture and civil engineering as well as visitors to the BIM Day. In two and a half days they designed a workshop building on the campus of the Jade University in Oldenburg in interdisciplinary planning teams. Key BIM technologies used included BCF applications and IFC Viewer, as well as modelling and visualisation software, BIM-based software for structural analysis and dimensioning, costing software and collision checking tools. The results were presented at the conference [6,7].

BIM Game "CRAFTER"
Unlike the previous business games, this BIM game was aimed exclusively at craft companies and took place in January-February 2022. Participants from companies were able to test key BIM technologies from the perspective of BIM users. Using a specially developed building model, the various trades worked together to solve tasks placed on the model, to identify and document errors in the model and to coordinate the construction process of the respective trades in the model [8].

BIM Game "KULTURFORUM Oldenburg (KFO)" as a semester course
This event was carried out in cooperation with the Faculty of Civil Engineering and transformed the previously limited workshop offer from a two or three day learning offer into a semester course. The course was interdisciplinary, bringing together students from the Architecture Bachelor's programme with students from the Civil Engineering Bachelor's programme. The didactic project was interdisciplinary in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Thomas Kirsch and Prof. Dr. Sebastian Hollermann (both from the BGG department). It was funded by the Lower Saxony "Innovation Plus 22/23" programme and was successfully completed in January 2023.

BIM Game "digital DECATHLON"
The teaching and learning format BIM Game forms the basis for the ERASMUS+ project "digital DECATHLON", organised by Prof. Dr. Gregor Grunwald and Prof. Dr. Sebastian Hollermann and now funded as a KA220 project by the European Commission. The project plans to play the BIM game twice (winter semester 2023/24 and 24/25). In cooperation with the Universities of Karelia Ammattikorkeakoulu Oy, Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Bergische Universität Wuppertal and Politechnika Warszawska, the project idea and implementation corresponds to the BIM Game, but this time with international teams consisting of students from the respective partner universities. Each university represents one discipline in the interdisciplinary teams in order to practice interdisciplinary work on a European level [4,9].

BIM Game "Student Cafe in Bangalore"
The BIM Game teaching format was tested internationally for the first time at the BMS College of Architecture and the Impact School of Architecture in Bangalore, India. Students learnt 3D modelling and visualisation of models, deriving plans from the model, enriching the model with information, creating and working with IFC files, performing collision checks and communicating on the model. Coordination processes were simulated and approval processes studied in order to present the final design to all stakeholders [3,10].

Conclusion and outlook

As a new learning and teaching format, the BIM Game shows that the playful structure promotes learning, initiative and the willingness to share expertise across teams. This is due to the aroused ambition of the participants to win the competition. In a protected scientific environment (research and teaching), students practise the application of digital planning. In this way, the participants will happily acquire the skills that used to be taught through theo-retical lectures and had to be painstakingly learnt through self-study. The training structure is to be established as a qualification offer at the university. The structure will serve to adapt and develop the curricula within the university in order to embed BIM even more firmly in the various modules of the respective training and will serve to strengthen the internationalisation of the university.

References

Grunwald, G., Heins, C.: BIM Game: a testing ground for specifying, modeling, evaluating and visualising information in IFC formats. ICCEA 2022 Conference Paper, 5th International Conference on Civil Engineering and Architecture, December 2022, ISBN 978-981-99-4048-6
Heins, C., Grunwald, G., Helmus, M.: Gamification and BIM - The didactic guidance of decentralised interactions of a real-life BIM business game for higher education. ISARC 2021 Conference Paper, 38th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, November 2021, DOI: 10.22260/ISARC2021/0126
Bhat, V., Grunwald, G., Hanke, T.: “Understanding BIM through a Simulation Game - Case study of Indian Students subjected to this course”. ISARC 2023 Conference Paper, 40th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, July 2023
Grunwald, G., Hollermann, S., Heins, C., Kawasaki J.: BUILD DIGITAL. BUILD BETTER. The “digital Decathlon” a European Erasmus+ project, Conference Paper, 71th JSEE Annual Conference, 2023
https://ihjo.de/55-stunden-spielen-ping-pong-ein-digitales-planspiel/
JADE WORKS Filmzusammenschnitt https://ccs.jade-hs.de/s/xLxDrwiFN8AiYcD; Passwort: 7ycjnPYd4y
https://ihjo.de/bim-game-jade-work/
https://ihjo.de/bim-game-crafter-ein-digitales-planspiel-fuer-handwerksbetriebe/
https://newsroom.jade-hs.de/magazin/kickoff-zum-digital-decathlon-an-der-jade-hochschule
https://newsroom.jade-hs.de/magazin/bim-game-in-bangalore
John Biggs, Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment, in: Higher Education 32 (1996), 347–364