Interprofessional Learning in an Online Programme: A SWOT Analysis

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has forced educators individually, and educational institutions collectively, to rethink their teaching and assessment modes. Several universities have seen a sudden shift from traditional face to face teaching and learning to online approaches. The aim of this case study is to share the authors’ experience in the design, coordination, delivery and evaluation of a fully online post-registration programme. Now in its twelfth year, this is an interdisciplinary course and caters for qualified health professionals from various sectors and with various levels of experience seeking a baccalaureate qualification. The paper uses the SWOT analysis technique to highlight the programme’s strengths and weaknesses, and to reflect on its opportunities for, and threats to, further development. In so doing, it discusses some considerations underpinning the shift from a face to face to an online, mainly asynchronous, mode of delivery for this post-registration academic top-up programme. The paper explains the challenges encountered and the lessons learnt through feedback from the students, stakeholders, and external examiners. The good practices that were developed as a result, including strategies to foster a community of learners, may be of interest to, and applied by, educators in other settings.

Tri-Design: Coordination between Healthcare, Design, and Regulatory Communities

This paper discusses the approaches undertaken by organizations, coordination between healthcare, design, and regulatory communities, to respond to the needs for the crisis and bring about models for agile innovation and of disease mitigation. The COVID-19 Design Innovation was born at the core of a major university to operate as a hub for innovation. In an effort to connect designers, makers, and healthcare professionals, the initiative converged with the main motivation is to be organized in collective efforts with the crisis and deliver creative design innovations. Several products were brought about through the initiative efforts: off the shelf solutions and community driven, hybrid prototyping (reutilizing parts), distributed manufacturing, material investigations, and rapid prototyping for turning labs as manufacturing facilities. As solutions reached refinement, healthcare called for volume, solutions were brought to the community as a rapid response to the crisis. While challenges imposed by time and production, the crisis help coordinate efforts to be agile networks of stakeholders working towards a common goal, hacking the crisis by design.

MANIFESTATION OF OPTIMAL ROUTE ALIGNMENT SELECTION OF RURAL ROAD USING GIS AND LEAST COST PATH (LCP) MODEL WITH ENGINEERING AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUITABILITY PERSPECTIVE: A CASE STUDY IN NEPAL

For the economic growth and sustainable development of any country, the road networks play a pivotal role. Hence, the selection of best route alignment for the road networks becomes even more significant. The Geographical Information System (GIS) integration with the Least Cost Path (LCP) model is used to determine the optimum route to address sustainable road development. In this study, Dupcheswor Rural Municipality, Nuwakot, Nepal and part of Langtang National Park was taken as a study area; and engineering and environmental parameters were selected to create a cost layer. Using the Least Cost Path (LCP) model, fifteen routes were generated in the GIS. All the generated fifteen routes were compared based on cost, and the optimum route was selected based on the least cost. The optimum route in this study was derived from the hybrid theme of engineering and environmental perspectives. This study suggests further research can be done to improve preliminary to detailed road alignment planning and design coordination by considering other factors.

Diffusion of Building Information Modeling in Building Projects and Firms in Singapore

Building information modeling (BIM) implementation has been mandated in building projects in Singapore, but a wider adoption is still desired. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing BIM diffusion and examine how the factors influence firms with different project roles, firm sizes, and BIM implementation experience. The results of a pilot study, a questionnaire survey with 89 professionals, and five post-survey interviews showed that hindrances related to inadequate multi-party collaboration (whether formal or informal), conservative mindset, limited skills, costly infrastructure and training, and multi-discipline model integration were the most influential, whereas drivers associated with project leadership team’s strategic consensus, multi-disciplinary design coordination, training, and government regulations were top-ranked. Subgroup analyses between pairs of firms with different characteristics revealed that while construction firms and less experienced stakeholders tended to underestimate BIM implementation difficulties, small-medium contractors might underestimate relevant benefits. The findings and managerial recommendations help different types of firms prioritize resources to overcome hindrances, seize opportunities (such as gaining a competitive edge from BIM practical experience), and obtain support from workers executing BIM daily. With major stakeholders’ recognition and implementation, BIM can be successfully diffused in building projects and firms. The Singapore government and other countries can refer to this study when further issuing BIM diffusion policies.

BIM-based building design coordination: processes, bottlenecks, and considerations

Successful management of the building design coordination process is critical to the efficient delivery of cost-effective and quality projects. The traditional setting of design coordination, however, is inefficient and error-prone. Building information modelling (BIM) has proven valuable for increasing satisfaction with the meeting process and decreasing arguments over issues. Despite the many advantages of BIM tools, however, many design coordination issues remain undetected, design issues are poorly documented, and coordination strategies are inefficient. The objective of this study was to develop a characterization of the BIM building design coordination process, identify the bottlenecks in the current process, and provide design considerations to alleviate the bottlenecks. The bottlenecks include: outdated BIM, disconnected trades, lack of terminology, insufficient documentation, inefficient transitions across views and artifacts, unavailability of design information, information discrepancy, unfit navigation tools, and office–site disconnect. The outcomes of this research is useful for future construction projects and the software development community.