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…

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…

A major focus of teaching and learning in undergraduate civil engineering is the enhancement of student performance. Feedback is vital for the improvement of students' performance. However, relatively few studies were conducted specifically to establish the relationship between feedback and student performance in engineering education, especially…

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…

Background: Civil engineers design systems that have the potential to impact existing oppressive societal conditions. Critical action--the ability to recognize and act against oppressive conditions--is an obligation for civil engineers committed to building a more just world. Purpose/Hypothesis: History reveals that civil engineers often do not…

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 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…

Due to its positive results, active learning has spread to most areas of knowledge of Civil Engineering. Many of these studies used only one technique, which is limiting given the diverse learning styles that the students may have. The road geometric design is the area that has been the least explored in Civil engineering. Therefore, the objective…

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.…

Background: Engineers' identification with their profession is crucial for persistence among engineering students and career professionals. Significant research has been conducted on various dimensions of identity in the engineering field. However, little is known about the ways students negotiate these dimensions as they construct professional…

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,…

The transportation engineering field is currently experiencing a profound transformation driven by technological evolution, which highlights the importance of preparing students for the types of careers that will be available to them in the future. Although transportation engineering programs in the United States are typically at the graduate…