Using Primavera in the Classroom

Oracle Academy Tech Chat

How students can develop career-ready, hands-on skills within the construction management field

In this episode, Tyra Peirce chats with Dr. Aziz, Associate Professor, University of Washington, a construction management industry expert, who discusses teaching and learning of construction management, including project methods and the benefits a robust software like Oracle Primavera P6 can offer.

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Episode Transcript:

00;00;09;03 - 00;00;34;12 Welcome to the Oracle Academy Tech Chat. This podcast provides educators and students in-depth discussions with thought leaders around computer science, cloud technologies and software design to help students on their journey to becoming industry ready technology leaders of the future. Let's get started. Welcome to Oracle Academy Tech Chat, where we discuss how Oracle Academy helps prepare our next generation's workforce. 00;00;34;14 - 00;00;57;07 I'm your host, Tyra Pierce. In this episode, I speak with Dr. Aziz, a professor in construction management at the University of Washington. Dr. Aziz and I speak about how learning P6 is helping prepare his construction students for careers. Welcome, Dr. Aziz. Thank you. To start off, can you give me a bit about your background and the class you teach at University of Washington? 00;00;57;14 - 00;01;17;26 But I thank you for having me again. It's a pleasure to be with you. I have a doctoral degree in civil engineering majoring in construction, engineering and management, and I'm an associate professor with the University of Washington. Before joining the academia, I used to work for a civil infrastructure company in Calgary, Alberta. But I had two roles to do. 00;01;17;26 - 00;01;45;11 A project analyst for mega projects and the project control engineer responsible for the development of construction schedules, for the company of projects which mainly were bridges and highways. So that was my main job with the company. In 2003 I joined the University of Washington to teach and research in construction management. Where now I am an associate professor along with teaching the university. 00;01;45;14 - 00;02;11;12 I prefer that we keep in touch with the industry. And so, to convey the latest information and this knowledge to our students of the classes and that's where I have a little bit side work for consulting and training on construction management training and Primavera and other software applications. I get to know Primavera, you could say, since the 1980s, the late 1900s, it is a very long time. 00;02;11;14 - 00;02;33;15 And that was during my studies in Egypt. And then later I used Primavera for several professional and training jobs. And when I joined UDAP, I started to work with Primavera through the Oracle Academy. I teach a number of classes UDAP. So, my first one is the planning and control, and that's for planning and control and scheduling of construction projects. 00;02;33;17 - 00;03;01;17 This is mainly the principles and practices of the critical Path method, the major method that we use in construction management. I also teach the construction computer applications. It's a hands-on lab for software use in the planning and control of construction. And then I also teach the certificate program classes, which also hands on technology is a software application for planning and construction. 00;03;01;20 - 00;03;24;14 Then I have a set of graduate classes for project economics and risk analysis and for the heavy construction estimating. So, you could see that the university keeps me busy with teaching mainly in the construction management area. So, that is a really interesting and unique background. I like how you are still involved in industry in making sure that you're keeping abreast of what is going on. 00;03;24;16 - 00;03;54;14 And so, which is I think while you're very qualified to give an answer to this next question that I have. What are some essential skills that construction management students need to learn? A great question. Construction management students are practical type of students. They are hands on students or learners. And so, in our department, to try to give them the skills that they need to be qualified was in order to practice and do the job quite well in the industry. 00;03;54;16 - 00;04;21;24 As you could see that there is kind of four essential categories of skills that they need to have. First one is to create cost estimates, construction schedules, safety plans. They should be very well and excellent in communication. The management side of the industry. Another one is to ability to have the ability to analyze construction documents, analyze construction methods and materials and equipment so that you will be able to select the proper ones for construction tasks. 00;04;21;27 - 00;04;47;13 You should be able to apply the electronic based technology to manage construction processes and tasks. And that's where the major software used by the industry. We teach them at the of the art department in our classes. And then finally, to be able to understand the construction accounting project control, risk management, our quality assurance, all these types of work that they will be working with in the industry once they graduate. 00;04;47;15 - 00;05;18;16 And that is so interesting that there's all these different types of skills, whether it's accounting or scheduling or project management or even time management that is just kind of really essential to construction management, which kind of leads onto my next question How does studying software packages and maybe in particular Primavera help to teach students these skills? Well, as I mentioned, the construction management in our program uses in several classes a suite of software applications to teach our students various disciplines. 00;05;18;17 - 00;05;40;01 We have planning and control, we have cost estimating, we have virtual reality. And so, applications like the Revit for BIM on the screen and blue beam for quality take off Comfortline for cost Estimating Primavera and Project for planning control. Several other applications. We have to get them be ready for that. And so, in some of my core classes primavera the focus. 00;05;40;01 - 00;06;13;28 And so, in my undergraduate construction computer applications, the professional certificate classes and in the capstone graduate class, they need to work with the software to do the work of planning, scheduling and so on. The and the CM, the construction management field. The students need tools to help them with hands on practice. And so specifically on the planning and control area, the students need to have software application that can implement the technical rules of the critical path method CPM as the main measure method that we use in the management of project. 00;06;13;28 - 00;06;46;16 And so, they need to be able to work with the software that implement to that. They need to be able to generate construction schedules and reports, facilitates updating of projects, generate progress reports, major performance like using the earn it value analysis method and carry out risk analysis. We also need to have a resilient application that can communicate with other software application such as Excel and Project and many of those other applications that are used by the industry as well are Primavera and the add ins provided that to me as an educator. 00;06;46;18 - 00;07;14;01 And so, since 2005, after two years from joining the university, I started to contact with the Oracle Academy, where I received the 100 of licenses of Primavera. That was like a grace for me to have Primavera where to be used in the classes since I used to work with it in the industry. And so, it becomes very a great opportunity to get them to learn a software that's being used by the industry as an educator. 00;07;14;01 - 00;07;40;10 Also, I then more than the technical, the scheduling capabilities that the students need to know, which is managed by the software itself, but they also get to work with the Enterprise project, the structure and the organizational structure. These are constructs in Primavera I use them to develop a structure for my classes, so I develop work areas for my students who are each student in a class. 00;07;40;10 - 00;08;02;14 I have access to one specific work area to create projects, to create resources separate from all other students. At the same time, I have an instant access to all that the students do in the work areas so I can interactively fix errors that might have in their projects and I keep the integrity of the class so no one would copy the work of others. 00;08;02;20 - 00;08;36;15 And so, the enterprise project, the structure and the OVS allowed me to generate that. It also allowed me to generate and create collaborative areas where multiple students could actually work on the same project. This collaboration is great when we do capstone projects and join a project, and it also allowed me to create quizzes and exam areas. Many are working in an exam setting and then you have your own specific area that you are working in Primavera, and the next students are also working on the same software, but they cannot copy from each other and shoot using the apps and the ops. 00;08;36;15 - 00;09;02;07 I was able to create that environment where everyone is responsible about the project that they do without having to work or to deal with any other student in that class. I think that's really interesting because it's kind of giving them that real world feel that they're actually seeing in their classroom where they're where collaboratively, but then they're working separately and being able to work together, I think is really a unique opportunity, which kind of leads into my next question. 00;09;02;10 - 00;09;33;24 What are some career paths for construction management students? The essential industry for us is the construction industry, and so the serious students can work in a construction and also in related construction industries. The main employer is the construction industry, which include public and private sectors government agencies, private corporations, general contractors, specialty contractors like homebuilders, consulting firms, even real estate developers and construction material suppliers. 00;09;33;26 - 00;09;56;07 Students can also work in the related industries. What do I mean by that? It's like the oil and gas industry, like the aviation and aerospace industry. Many of these companies that work in these industries also use the planning and control software. And so, CM students with the knowledge of this planning and control and these technology-based software can work in these industries. 00;09;56;07 - 00;10;24;21 And in fact, some of my Graduates work at Boeing and in Blue Origin. Many of these mega companies that do aerospace and aviation same students will be seeking positions like field supervision, site engineering, management, construction and schedulers, project controls and so these are the major jobs that they will be searching for. But later on in their career, they will move into construction project management, project managers and senior managers. 00;10;24;21 - 00;10;49;24 And they could also reach the CEO of a company. And in fact, some of our CEO's around in the companies that we have here are based in Seattle and in neighboring states are graduates from our graduates, from our classes in the in the program. And so, it's a career, a career full of position that they have something to look at, some goals to look at, not just to be a site engineer, but they could also reach the top level in a company. 00;10;50;00 - 00;11;15;15 And that's really interesting to see that there's different types of places to work, whether you're working for a homebuilder or for the government or for a big builder, and then they can actually progress on to management levels and even up to the end into the C-suite, which I think is super interesting. So how have knowing software, software packages like P6 or others as well helped your students in their internship or job searches? 00;11;15;17 - 00;11;42;11 Well, thanks. That's a great question. Just to give you a bit of a background, our construction management department has all of its students almost 100% to placement in the industry. So while we are learning our classes, our program, they have to be in an nternship. And so we have almost 100% a placement for our students and most of them, nearly all 100% of them receive return offers after they graduate. 00;11;42;14 - 00;12;06;24 And so, the knowledge of technology-based software application is crucial in the CM practice. As I mentioned, construction management is a hands-on field and that's why we offer our students exposure to several applications, including Primavera. So, they are ready to join the workforce. Primavera is one of the leading applications for planning and control and having it in our in their toolbox over the students is a plus, as is essential. 00;12;06;27 - 00;12;33;11 And so, Primavera again helps all of those students to get to know how to implement planning and control, not just at the school sitting outside again during their internships. It helps them to lay down good jobs as well as the with the industry. Usually, we have interviews coming to be done by the major construction companies as well as from the government. 00;12;33;11 - 00;12;56;18 And so, during these interviews, most of our students gets to be placed with these companies. And then onto my very last question. If you could give one piece of advice to faculty, your students, what would it be? Another good question. Teaching is essential, right? And so, t has an impact on the students learning specific subjects, specifically construction management. 00;12;56;18 - 00;13;27;16 As I mentioned, it's a practice, it's a hands-on environment, discipline. And so, students need to learn by doing. And so, it's imperative that when we teach them planning and control and the use of technology, because the application again, such as Primavera, we use real projects and we use a hands-on approach to learning. We need a small project to allow students to understand the concept, create a project and its activities, dependencies, resources and costs, and generate proper schedules and deliverables. 00;13;27;18 - 00;13;59;20 And so having a large obscure project will not be helpful as the students will be overwhelmed with the details that will obscure the learning and the essential skills that they need to know. And so, showing students menus and commands without practice, without hands on. Will not be sufficient. And so, my advice is for educators and for students is to work with the small size projects and work with a software that allows you to practice how to plan, how to schedule, how to control the project. 00;13;59;25 - 00;14;26;14 It's not just opening menus and see what's going on. You have to practice by your hand using a small project. This has been very successful with me and all of my classes. They have real construction projects. We have the hands-on training for probably over multiple quarters, and so students get to be very much hands on they are becoming very much ready to join a university, join the workforce once they graduate from the program. 00;14;26;14 - 00;14;46;06 And so again, my advice is to use a small-size projects with hands-on approach for learning. I think that is honestly one of the best pieces of advice, as I've heard lately, is to start small, get comfortable with that small set of skills and then increase and get more and more and more knowledge so they're not overwhelmed. 00;14;46;06 - 00;15;07;03 I honestly was sitting there thinking, as you’re answering like this is really, really good advice you can take to other aspects of learning as well, not just in construction management or construction scheduling, but any kind of project planning like or any kind of learning in general, like getting comfortable with a small set of skills and then doing more and more and more as you get as you get more proficient. 00;15;07;03 - 00;15;32;10 I really, really like that. That's some of the best advice I think I've heard as going through what I've been talking to educators. So, thank you very much. And thank you to Dr. Aziz for speaking with me about his class, at the University of Washington, and the skills students need to pursue a career in construction management. To learn more about Oracle Academy and our resources, visit Academy dot Oracle dot com and subscribe to the podcast. 00;15;32;11 - 00;15;40;06 Thanks for listening. That wraps up this episode. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for the next Oracle Academy Tech Chat podcast.