STUDENT REVIEWS OF COURSES IN THE CERTIFICATE IN CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES

Student Reviews

Read on to learn why you should consider this certificate in building and construction online programs!

ADVANCE YOUR CAREER WITH ONLINE LEARNING

Students enrolled in the Certificate in Construction Practices are able to pave their own career path with the knowledge they learn in this particular certificate in building and construction online. This certificate lays the groundwork for potential careers in estimating, assistant project management, project coordination, and administrative assistance.

The classes selected for this certificate in building and construction online introduce students to construction materials, estimating, planning and scheduling, construction productivity and green construction. All the classes in this certificate can be transferred to other certificates in building and construction online programs. Read what our past and current had to say about their experiences below.

For more student reviews, click the link to each course page.

Student Review
“Your insights and anecdotal stories proved to be as valuable as some of the information in the book! I wish you all success in your future endeavors. I’ve feel as though I’ve learned an entire set of skills and acquired knowledge that can literally be used anywhere in the world! This will complete my construction practices certificate here at SDSU. “

100 SERIES

"I really appreciated the fact that it is self-paced and this helped me study real fast to help me catch up with the rest as I joined the class late."

"Great intro course to estimating. I will use this material as a baseline to estimating."

"This is my second course with Harry and I really appreciate his presentation of the subject matter. Very accessible, engaging, and provides enough depth while not getting stuck in the weeds. I highly recommend him as an instructor and will gladly encourage anyone else who expresses any interest in estimating to give this course a try!"

"Everything was great. from the start, to self-pace, to the response from the tutor. all great."

"This course provides a firm footing to build a sound understanding of construction cost estimating. Looking forward to the next course."

"The course was precise and to the point, I think it was just the right amount of time needed to understand and take away all that was offered."

"I think the course was structured very well for people who are working full time plus jobs. You were able to go at your own pace as long as the work was done by end of week. I really appreciated that because thins time of year, work is somewhat overwhelming and not having homework assignments due everyday made it manageable. I really enjoyed this class and feel like I learned a lot of information that I wouldn’t have learned at work."

"I appreciated the structure of the discussions to gain insight from others in their field. Everyone’s perspectives gave me important tools to understand the steps to take to process and find answers. I appreciated Harry’s Weeks in Review to find out the details I had missed. I think the self-tests helped with implementing muscle memory and practice in drilling down into the plans to try to solve the change orders."

"I really like this course. It has definitely improved my blueprint reading skills. The self test, I liked the most because it wasn’t graded and helped me in understanding my mistakes by reviewing the plans and reasoning behind the answers."

"Having come into this program with zero construction experience, I have learned a lot. The most beneficial, I think, is the language. Also, I have a great start to a solid foundation in reading blueprints."

"I found this course to be helpful! The most helpful aspect to me was probably the practice quizzes and the homework assignments. I learn best by doing, so simply reading a chapter is not going to suffice. I am excited to take what I have learned back to work and see it unfold by performing site visits. The most relatable portion of this class for me was probably all of the foundation/concrete work. I hope to learn more specifically focused in those areas, however, as we only scratched the surface of all there is to learn."

"By far the most useful thing I’ve learned this course is how to setup and create both the QTO and estimate. Equally as important is how to analyze and look at each estimating situation with careful eyes. Prior to this course I didn’t realize the amount of detail and accuracy that went into estimating. I’m fascinated by the fact that an estimate on large construction can be bid and estimated with precision."

"I have been using what I learn every week and incorporating into my job at work which has made me a better estimator."

"This was a great class, and I appreciated the way the class was laid out. I think the lectures were broken down nicely as well as the homework. The homework resources that were provided were also a great help. I will definitely be able to take what I have learned from this class and utilize it in my workplace."

"I think that the delivery of the information, and the ability to go back and reference the materials in the future is was what is most important. The lectures, lessons, and the textbook will all be used as tools in the future. Some of the most useful or interesting pieces of information we learned in this semester was some of the fundamental concepts."

"This has been a perfect course for my needs.it is remote and flexible by being offered online. Taylor made for busy adults with jobs and family. thank you."

"Works perfectly for my workload at work and schedule. The content: it’s our every day life in the construction world. I could apply my knowledge right away at work."

"I’ve been in the field for 11 years and have been around almost everything that we covered in class and found it so fascinating to read something in class and have it click because I’ve seen it and just didn’t know the exact purpose or reasoning behind it. I recently transitioned to the office a little over a month ago as an estimator. This was the final class for me to complete and get the construction estimator certification! I enjoyed all 6 classes and it has helped me so much with my move to office and it’s nice to have a basic comprehension and understanding of everything that I can apply to estimating and not be at ground zero, lost and confused. I felt so confident in times that while doing estimates and saying to myself “oh I remember this from class” or able to estimate specific task and learning from class roughly how long it’ll take by understanding what exactly it takes to finish said task."

"I really enjoyed the class, there was a lot for me to learn but it has been great. I have been having weekly discussions with the guys at work on what the topics are and it has been a lot of fun going over what they know and the new things I am being exposed to.Concrete was definitely my favorite, not to be bias but when you touch on a subject you are most familiar with it was exciting for me to dig in and get more into details than what I have been exposed to in the past."

200 SERIES

"I really really liked this Certification Program. I just started a new job in San Diego and I think the certification really helped with landing the new gig."

"At work we currently have a few projects that are going on. Currently, I am able to follow and understand the various project schedules that are distributed a lot better than when I first started. Although I may not fully understand each activity in the project schedule, I’m glad I can at least look at the gantt chart and be able to see the relationships between them. I have not had a chance to create a schedule from scratch recently, but it helps that I was able to make some formatting changes and also time scale adjustment to an existing schedule."

"Proper documentation is key for all aspects of the job. If there is a dispute of any sort you have it covered. This chapter has shown me how much more I could do each day to track progress and how little I have been doing. I am always taking what I have learned in class and bouncing it off of my PM the next day. I even recommended to the higher-ups that contractual training from the more experienced Supers and PM’s would be very useful to the Company. This course opened my eyes to how important it is to fully understand the contract that you are bound to."

"I now have a deeper understanding of how schedules are created, modified, and most importantly, communicated. This class has allowed me to speak up during our internal scheduling meetings and make suggestions about how to better communicate the 3 week look ahead and the master schedule so that our weekly subcontractor meeting runs more smoothly and efficiently."

"It was nice to be able to get the book on Kindle. Where as all the other classes were still using physical books. Online was also helpful since I had responsibilities with work and family."

"It was a real eye opener for me. I see myself referring back to this section many times in the future in order retain money on projects that otherwise would be lost. This section alone is worth the cost of the entire supervisory training program. This is my last course in the program. It has far exceeded my expectations."

"Getting to know cost control strategies got me thinking in how I want to apply it on the area that I am working and to come up with solution that will be beneficial and adaptable on different kind of projects. We went over different factors that goes into controlling the budget and factors that can impact it as well. This topic is one I will reread including other modules like module 7 that talk about productivity in which they go hand in hand since in the AEC industry this is still an area on much improvement and I want to apply it and come up with the best solutions to keep save the budget, at the end the budget is the main element to keep it safe and always we give 100% to not go over budget. Cost control is one area that is not a point of talk at the beginning of the project and in my opinion it should and if a firm doesn’t have one I want to be the one to help them to create the correct strategies based on the firms workflow."

"This course overall did help me understand costs on the job site and how they are managed. It also got me wondering how well my company plans and budgets each project and uses this to information to successfully run each project and the company. When things start to slow down a bit, I want to take the time to talk over with our PM the cost and productivity side of the projects."

300 SERIES

"I have been in construction almost 25 years and so many things were new to me in this class. Learned a lot."

"You always here about things going green, and this course really detailed what it means to go green, and the large impact on the environment that one building can make. It gives great hope to the future of construction and how buildings and infrastructure are made going forward."

"I really enjoyed this class because it was very applicable to the project I am on. I was able to directly apply what I learned into my day to day operations. I have been handling the LEED requirements on my project so this was very helpful. I appreciate you taking time to teach us in this course. It has inspired me to get LEED certified!"