Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.

Gamification has emerged in recent years as an application of game mechanics to improve learning processes through increased motivation and engagement. Civil engineering is a suitable field for gamification because it encompasses a variety of areas involving both management and fieldwork tasks. To gain insight into the use of gamified approaches…

Ranking systems are readily available and offer a simplistic way to differentiate among universities. However, end-users are not informed about the criteria and methods used to develop the ranking systems. Whereas ranking systems are used by prospective students, their lack of reliability and transparency outweigh their benefits. There are a few…

Despite the need to prepare engineers for leadership in the workforce, the civil engineering curriculum lacks formal leadership education. The limited focus on leadership in the curriculum raises questions of how and where students are developing leadership competencies. Social capital, the resources embedded in an individual's social network, may…

This paper describes a teaching innovation project that adopts the project-based learning approach to introduce civil engineering students to their future professional roles and tasks throughout the infrastructure life cycle. The successful development of the whole process and completion of the infrastructure in the best technical and sustainable…

In civil engineering and construction management programs, student collaboration is important for their skill building, but its relationship with student engagement remains elusive. This study explored this relationship by examining the structure and characteristics of student collaboration networks. The results underscore the significance of…

This article introduces eight instructional modules designed to create aha moments for students and help them gain clear insights on how geotechnical engineering principles are applied in the real world. Each module consists of (1) an interactive class demonstration using a physical model, (2) a whiteboard-style animation that provides the…

The American Society of Civil Engineer's "Body of Knowledge" versions 2 and 3 (BOK2 and BOK3) explicitly describe the knowledge expected in each category (outcome) of those entering the civil engineering profession. The goal of this study was to determine the extent that the BOK2 and BOK3 outcomes align with undergraduate civil…

Civil engineering and construction (CEC) are among primary higher education programs preparing the next generation of subject experts and decision makers working on different aspects of infrastructure resilience, which is a key component of community resilience. However, in the curriculum of most CEC programs, there is no well-established approach…

Civil engineering students in the United States rarely receive instruction about how their work affects social inequities. Indeed, research reveals that most engineering students lack critical consciousness and fail to recognize and analyze real social inequity challenges as they arise in engineering contexts. As history demonstrates, this can…

Traditionally, civil engineering infrastructures have been represented through two-dimensional (2D) drawings, which can lead to interpretation errors and jeopardize engineers' understanding of complex projects. However, with the development of building information modeling (BIM) methodology, civil engineering projects can now be virtually modeled…

The ability to self-assess is a key component of learning and particularly of life-long learning. Knowledge surveys (KS) are a self-assessment tool where respondents rate their ability to answer a question or perform a skill rather than answer directly with knowledge content or by solving a problem as they would on an exam. KS were implemented in…

Civil engineers and project managers must control and manage the project management discourse with the client and other stakeholders or risk slippages to time, cost, and programs. This paper explores how communicative choices and the representation of project requirements and engineering issues are intrinsic to effective civil engineering work.…

Two-dimensional (2D) drawing is one of the most common communication approaches in the civil and construction engineering domain. However, there are limits to the traditional classroom setting for training in 2D drawing and interpretation skills. New visualization techniques exist for integrating the third dimension (depth) to 2D drawings,…

Engineering and engineers are considered central to maintaining global competitiveness and the workforce needs of any nation. Media shapes public opinion, and the image of a profession can affect the way the public views that profession and professionals in the field. Very little research can be found which analyzes media portrayal of engineers…