NEW TECHNOLOGIES IMPLEMENTATION IN STRUCTURES’ TEACHING OF CIVIL ENGINEERING DEGREES INSIDE THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA

The achievement of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is not a simple revision of the university’s degrees. This process towards EHEA is currently being developed at Universities of more than forty European countries. Besides the modifications made on the syllabuses of the degrees, a deeper change is expected to take place in the way students may approach each different knowledge. In this context the new technological resources available today should be embraced. As a consequence a better education will be offered.

This paper is intent on reviewing some innovations made in Civil Engineering Degree at the University of Alicante. Specifically, the changes related to Basic Structural Analysis teaching within the second year of Civil Engineering degree. Once the students have successfully passed a subject regarding solids mechanics during 1st year, two different structures’ subjects have been scheduled for 2nd year. Actually, these two are the first real approach to structural analysis for the future civil engineers.

Traditionally, teaching these subjects was only concieved of theoretical and practical lessons. The former lectured on all the basic principles , while in the latter some analytical examples were solved by the professor. As a higher participation of the students is demanded nowadays, a third type of class is proposed. Full-scale laboratory experiments and informatics sessions are being held in order to take into practice the knowledge acquired during the traditional-like lectures. Furthermore alumni learn to use some commercial software to design and calculate engineering structures.

Moreover, some technological advances have been implemented to ease the student/professor feedback on the class, or to create interactive materials which allow a permanent and full time accesibility to students. And finally, the students can achieved a more complete structural formation during their Civil Engineering degree.