Implementing a general purpose framework using multi-agents for construction management education

The need for contextually rich educational experiences in construction education has led researchers to explore alternatives using gaming and simulation environments. The work done so far has concentrated on special and general purpose simulations of construction operations with limited interactivity. We claim that it is necessary to have an extensible general purpose framework, for developing a wide variety of situational simulations of construction management processes, that can be used to create interactive environments for training managers. We have introduced such a framework and developed it using multiple autonomous agents. The Virtual Coach is an implementation of the developed framework. It was tested on a class of 19 construction management senior students, and proved to be a useful educational tool.