BLCN14041 - Construction Project Planning

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit leads you to learn major areas of planning of a construction project including construction planning and scheduling; the role of the construction planning consultant; developing an initial job using labour, materials, plant and time units from design documentation; estimates and/or Bills of Quantities; using construction planning methodologies and tools such as bar charts, critical path methods, line of balance, cash flow projections; least cost optimization; flagging approval and detailed schedules of sub-contract activities. The choice of software for scheduling and network analysis will be examined as a further added learning experience.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 4
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-requisites:

  1. BLAR11049: Built Environment Communications and Skills or
  2. COMM11003: Professional and Technical Communication or
  3. ENEG11005: Fundamentals of Professional Engineering

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Online

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 20%
2. Written Assessment 35%
3. Online Quiz(zes) 10%
4. Written Assessment 35%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 16.67% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Student feedback
Feedback
The recommended textbook was not the most recent edition.
Recommendation
The recently updated edition was made available mid-term through the CQU library and will be included for 2023 in the e-reading list.
Action Taken
The new edition of 2021 was recommended, but the 2013 edition was included in the e-reading list as it was the only available edition library at the time.
Source: Studnet Feedback
Feedback
Overall the unit was great and the quiz was very hard but I learned a lot from it.
Recommendation
Additional practice for the quiz will be provided during the recorded tutorials.
Action Taken
The teaching team continued giving additional support during the teaching sessions to prepare for the quiz.
Source: Lecturer
Feedback
Student engagement fluctuated throughout the term.
Recommendation
Engagement will be encouraged by incorporating essential knowledge and resources in the recorded tutorials.
Action Taken
In class, more practice examples were discussed to improve the engagement. This action was taken according to pedagogical understanding and by consulting the teaching team and educators. The unit needs to engage with mathematics and flow diagrams related to construction scheduling; hence, the lecturer experienced students asking many questions related to these practical examples. For example, they argued the construction situations when the float of a task is zero or two. Teaching team believes this approach really improved the student engagement along with unit learning and teaching.
Source: Lecturer
Feedback
Low student engagement
Recommendation
Engagement will be encouraged by offering a review of assignments before final submission, creating a direct student-lecturer relationship.
Action Taken
All the assignment feedback was provided in advance, targeting any remaining connected assignments. Continuous discussion of assessment questions was performed during the teaching sessions to improve student engagement with the unit.
Source: The lecturer and the Built Environment Team
Feedback
The current unit name does not reflect the actual learning delivered by the unit. It has now become more confusing as Project Management has a unit with the same name—PPMP11002. Hence, a new unit name is proposed as ' Construction Project Planning'.
Recommendation
An Update Unit Proposal will need to be actioned to change the unit name.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: An email from a student
Feedback
One student informed that the online session time is clashing with another unit. So, the student can only make the unit session every other week.
Recommendation
It is recommended to arrange the unit timetable minimizing clashes with other units. The unit teaching team will collaborate with the Head of Course - Built Environment and the college administration team to successfully perform the timetabling task.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Outline the role of the construction planning consultant
  2. Develop an initial job using labour, materials, plant and time units based on design documentation, estimates and/or Bills of Quantities
  3. Explain construction planning methodologies and tools
  4. Prepare detailed schedules of sub-contract activities and perform cash flow projection using scheduling and network analysis computer software.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Written Assessment • •
2 - Written Assessment • •
3 - Online Quiz(zes) • • • •
4 - Written Assessment • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Communication • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • • •
6 - Information Technology Competence • • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10