A Teaching Aid Website for

Reinforced Concrete Design

Courses
http://concweb.lcc.ufmg.br
Glucia Nolasco de Almeida Mello
Federal University of Minas Gerais
Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Plan

Introduction
Motivation
Purpose
Methodology
Findings
Future

International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

Introduction
Implementation of Virtual Learning
Environment (VLE)
Joomla!
Java Programming Language
Adobe Flash
Camtasia Studio

Hypermedia Paradigm
International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

Introduction
Environment content
Text pages with basic concepts on the
behavior and design, examples, glossary
Computer applications that allow apprendices
to check their numerical solutions
Simulators to visualize the structural element
provided by 3D model
Video programs, television reports and news
about important concrete structures
worldwide
International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

Introduction

International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

Motivation
Studentsdifficulty in visualizing the main
aspects of behaviour, design and detailing
of structures

International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

Purpose
To improve the teaching and learning
systems of our graduate programs with
computacional resources
Computers are daily life tool of college
students
They can be in touch with internet resources
all the time and everywhere by computers,
tablets and mobiles
International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

Methodology

(1/4)

97 Civil Engineering students and 30

Architectural students had complete
access to the website
The VLE system architecture allowed to
control of all information about students:
Users identification
User performed task
Reports about particular access to the
website
International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

Methodology

(2/4)

All the generated data was used to

predict the students learning process
development
Questionnaire and interviews about the
environment
Metrics for software quality evaluation
International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

10

Methodology

(3/4)

Metrics for software quality evaluation

Pedagogical aspects
Usability
Performance
Functionality
Reliability

International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

11

Methodology

(4/4)

Questionnaire
18 affirmatives
For each one they could select one of for
options:

I
I
I
I

totally disagree
disagree
agree
totally agree

International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

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Findings

(1/5)

Figure 1: Results issues related to the pedagogical aspects of ConcWeb

International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

13

Findings

(2/5)

Figure 2: Results issues related to the functionality characteristics of ConcWeb.

International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

14

Findings

(3/5)

Figure 3: Results issues related to the reliability of ConcWeb.

International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

15

Findings

(4/5)

Figure 4: Results issues related to the usability characteristics of ConcWeb.

International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

16

Findings

(5/5)

Figure 5: Results issues related to the performance of ConcWeb.

International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

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Future
How does ConcWeb affects the students
performance in reinforced concrete
design courses

Another investigation
International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

18

Future
The research consists of a comparative
study between two groups of students: a
control group and an experimental one
The comparison is based on the quantitative
analysis of the answers of three exactly
equal written exams taken by students of
both groups. For the quantitative analysis,
the Rasch model and a longitudinal multilevel
study procedure are being used
International Conference on Engineering Education Research 1 July - 5 July 2013, Marrakesh

19

Thank you!
Glucia Nolasco de Almeida Mello
gnamello@yahoo.com.br