Applying Minecraft Education as a Simulation Tool for Teaching Construction Management

The construction and education sectors are facing the growing need for Construction 4.0 and 5.0 competencies, where traditional teaching methods fail to capture the dynamic nature of real construction projects. A method for achieving this is simulation-based learning, which is an experiential pedagogical approach that uses interactive scenarios to engage students in realistic decision-making experiences. For this reason, this study presents an innovative educational approach using Minecraft Education as a simulation tool for teaching construction management to undergraduate civil engineering students. In this research, three workshops were implemented at the university during autumn 2025, involving 89 undergraduate civil engineering students. The simulation enabled students to learn interactively competencies such as decision thinking, 3D building design, 4D time management, 5D cost control, and sustainability concepts. A pre-experimental design was carried out, and the posttest results differed significantly from the pretests results for the six questions related to the learning objective, with p-values less than 0.05 for both experimental groups. The Minecraft construction simulation has demonstrated its effectiveness as a simulation tool for teaching fundamental construction management concepts. This initiative can be considered a novel and a creative effort for construction management education.