Educational Interventions for Civil Engineering Students: Thematic Review and Future Opportunities

Civil engineers play a pivotal role in addressing key societal and global issues. Accordingly, civil engineering educators are tasked with equipping their students with multi-disciplinary skill-sets that empower them to evaluate and solve critical challenges - which include sustainability, safety, transportation, housing, and other infrastructure needs. To accomplish these educational goals, much research has focused on designing, delivering, and testing educational interventions that immerse civil engineering students into relevant learning experiences. The knowledge gained from these research efforts is largely dispersed and fragmented - which is currently a barrier to the development of a robust and proven civil engineering curriculum. The current research summarizes some of the educational interventions that have been developed and tested with students pursuing a civil engineering career to answer questions such as: what problem areas does the developed interventions seek to tackle, what are the characteristics and elements of the interventions, what problem areas have the educational interventions not addressed? The primary objectives of the article were accomplished through a comprehensive review of literature across areas including construction engineering, environmental engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering, geotechnical engineering, and others. Apart from examining the gaps in the broader literature, the article will serve as a concise resource that can help engineering educators and university administrators develop a robust learning experience for their civil engineering students.