2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Construction projects require tools such as cost estimating to effectively control and manage them. Cost estimating is required at all phases of a project irrespective of the project delivery methods. Students enrolled in construction-related programs must be trained on how to quantify, price, and bid projects just the same way that practitioners do in real life. This requires crafting, designing, and teaching students hands-on and immersive construction cost estimating course(s). The main objective of designing and teaching a hands-on and immersive cost estimating course is to get the students ready from day one, by exposing them to the fundamentals of cost estimating. A review of cost estimating syllabi indicate a lack of consistency or standardization in the content covered. The literature on cost estimating as published in ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education) conference papers provide little or no examples of the typical cost estimating and bidding process. In addition, there are no samples from ASEE conference papers on the scope of work for quantity takeoff (QTO) and pricing assignments, or samples of the quantity takeoff templates, the pricing templates, and the criteria for grading students’ work. This paper is written with all of that in mind and includes the estimating and bidding workflow, as well as the applicable templates. This paper presents a description and discussion of the approach for teaching construction cost estimating for both building construction projects and heavy civil construction projects. It is also hoped that other faculty in the construction-related programs could benefit from the description and discussion presented in this paper and aid them in implementing hands-on and immersive cost estimating courses in their programs.