An Innovative Software Application for Surveying Education HAZAR DIB, 1 NICOLETTA ADAMO-VILLANI 2 1 Computer Graphics Technology/Building Construction Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 2 Computer Graphics Technology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN Received 22 February 2011; accepted 18 September 2011 ABSTRACT: We present an innovative educational computer application for undergraduate students enrolled in a Construction Surveying Fundamentals course. The application includes an Interactive Virtual Environment for learning surveying concepts and practices, and an e-assessment tool that measures the indi- vidual student’s cognitive and practical abilities. Results of a pilot study with 31 undergraduate students and 2 faculties showed that the software was perceived as easy to use, useful, and effective at measuring the individual student’s performance. ß 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.20580 Keywords: surveying; virtual learning environments; e-assessment tools; engineering education; computer graphics technology INTRODUCTION Surveying is ‘‘...the science and art of making all essen- tial measurements to determine the relative position of points and/or physical and cultural details above, on, or beneath the surface of the Earth, and to depict them in a usable form, or to establish the position of points and/or details...’’ [1]. In addition to determining the three dimensional character- istics of the earth’s surface by the measurements of distances, directions, and elevations, surveying also involves staking out lines and grades needed for the construction of buildings, roads, dams, and other engineering structures. Furthermore, surveying is used for the computation of areas, volumes, and other quanti- ties, as well as the preparation of maps and diagrams. Surveying has many industrial applications including set- ting equipment, assembling aircrafts, and laying out assembly lines. Engineers, architects, foresters, and geologists use survey- ing for their projects. In large-scale mapping, adjustments are made to the curvature of the earth; this is referred to as geodetic surveying. On small areas, plane-surveying concepts are applied. In plane surveying the earth is considered flat and both simple plane geometry and plane trigonometry are used. Surveying requires the use of many specialized tools and instruments including levels of several types—mechanical and optical; transits—pocket transits as well as optical and laser styles; the plane or map table with different alidade types; theo- dolites—both optical and laser; electronic distance measuring equipment, global positioning system (GPS), electronic data collectors, hand-held calculators; computer and satellite radio and GPS interfaces; prism and mirror reflectors; rods and stadia boards; surveyor’s measuring tapes; plumb bobs—including low-light or miner’s plumb bobs as well as laser plumb devices, and a variety of recording equipment. Other commonly used tools are slide rules, mapping tools, and text or paper-based media when the machines fail for one reason or another. Com- puter hardware and software are becoming more and more prevalent in surveying and it is not uncommon to see instru- ments with Bluetooth wireless enabled interfaces. In general, in a surveying course students learn the theo- retical foundation of surveying, as well as how to operate the instruments. They learn to think logically, work with accuracy and precision, and record the work in a neat and orderly fash- ion. They develop a good understanding of proportions and ac- quire essential habits of checking numerical calculations and measurements. In this article, we describe an innovative software applica- tion for undergraduate surveying education. The application focuses on plane surveying in the context of construction lay- out, where angles, distances, and elevations are used to set up the building footprint at the correct location, establish level elevations, and plumb vertical surfaces. Correspondence to H. Dib (hdib@purdue.edu). ß 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1