KoLiBRI (Cooperative Learning in Civil Engineering Studies Using Digital 3D Representation of Complex Information)

The ability to communicate and cooperate across disciplines is an increasingly indispensable skill for engineers. With the increasing complexity of projects and the interdisciplinarity of stakeholders, the challenge to communicate transparently and efficiently and to bring together subject-specific information in a targeted manner is growing. Even though the Building Information Modeling method supports the actors, for example by representing digital 3D models, and thus makes essential technical information visible to all participants, the communication that takes place beyond this has been poorly researched, and even in civil engineering studies, students have not yet been adequately prepared for the communication and cooperation skills required for the cooperative coordination of different perspectives in the digitally supported planning of construction projects. One aspect of investigation within the KoLiBRI project are internal cooperation scripts. These describe people's assumptions about how to interact in collaborative situations to achieve a desired outcome. Studies show that internal cooperation scripts need to be specifically practiced to be effective.

In addition, KoLiBRI is developing and evaluating a digital subject concept for the civil engineering program to specifically prepare students for future professional challenges in terms of their communication and collaboration skills. The digital subject concept is based on verified findings on the learning supportiveness of external cooperation scripts and group awareness tools in digitally supported cooperative teaching-learning situations for the acquisition of effective internal cooperation scripts.

The research results will not only be used in learning situations in the field of civil engineering studies, but also interdisciplinary in other engineering study subjects at the Ruhr-University Bochum. Furthermore, the use in other further education areas can be considered.