Abstract:

Since 1989, when the ECTS system was set up in order to facilitate studies’ recognition periods of students within the European Erasmus programme, several steps have been made to achieve the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This process, also known as the Bologna process, is currently being developed at Universities of more than forty European countries. Not only the overall organization of higher education’s degrees is being changed, but also the approaching each different knowledge by the students.
This paper is an early report of the first results obtained in Structures teaching at the University of Alicante. Within the second year of Civil Engineering degree two different subjects have been scheduled. They are the first approach to structural analysis for the future civil engineers. Previously, they should have successfully passed another subject regarding solids mechanics.
The traditional way of teaching these subjects included both theoretical and practical lessons. In the former all the basic principles were explained, while in the latter some numerical problems were solved by the professor. The new proposal includes a third branch, where a higher participation of the students is demanded, in contrast with the passive role which prevailed among students of the last years.
During the first semester, in the Structures I subject a full-scale set of laboratory experiments has been developed. Therefore the students can take into practice the knowledge acquired during the traditional-like lessons. Among the laboratory sessions different aluminium cantilevers (under different loading conditions, uniaxial, bending, torsion) can be mentioned. Also, different material’s behavior curves are achieved in uniaxial tension tests on small specimens up to rupture. In the second semester, the Structures II subject includes informatic sessions, where the students learn to use some commercial software to design and calculate engineering structures.
Moreover, the main improvement of this new approach is the ratio students/professors. As the implication of the students is increased (i.e. theoretical, problems and laboratory), the amount of students per group is decreased. Thus, allowing a more fluent student/professor feedback on the class. And consequently, the professor is able to make a more careful evaluation of students’ knowledge. And the most important of all, the students can achieved a more complete structural formation during their Civil Engineering degree.