A NEW AUTOMATIC ON-LINE EVALUATION FOR GRAPHICS APPLIED TO BUILDING STRUCTURES

This article presents a new automatic evaluation for on-line graphics, its application and the numerous advantages achieved applying this developed correcting method. The software application developed by the Innovation in Education Group “E4”, from the Technical University of Madrid, is oriented for the online self-correction of the graphic drawings that students carry out as continuous training.

The adaptation to the European Higher Educational Area is an important opportunity to research about the possibilities of on-line education assessment. In this way, a new software tool has been developed for continuous self-testing by undergraduates. Using this software it is possible to evaluate the graphical answer of the students. Thus, the drawings made on-line by students are automatically corrected according to the geometry (straight lines, sloping lines or second order curves) and by sizes (depending on the specific values which define the graphics).

The software tool developed in this work has been implemented in MOODLE (Modular Objet-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). This standard platform is supplied by the Technical University of Madrid and it has been chosen for its relative novelty as educational tool. It is expected not only to maintain some degree of uniformity but also to spread to other subjects and universities. Furthermore, it is a generic platform with open software which allows for the development of small applications that improve its performance and facilitate their adaptation to the specific requirements of each subject.

This work presents illustrative examples of this on-line application for graphical questionnaires applied to building structures but this new application can be used for many other purposes. These examples are based on real cases from the last academic course (2012-2013) of Structures Analysis, i.e. “Draw the shear diagram of the structure” and the correct answer on-line drawn by a student in which the geometrical graphics define the internal forces of building structures.

Applying the blended learning developed in this work, several benefits have arisen for educational purposes. For instance, a considerable speeding of the evaluation process, and more than this, a massive input by the students are achieved.

The success on the use of the software developed in this work have demonstrated to be very useful for the learning process and therefore for the improvement of the student’s skills and abilities.