Abstract:

The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credit definition takes into account the workload – lectures, experiences and study activities – the students need for achieving the learning outcomes.
The spreading use of portable personal computers among university students, the availability of wireless internet connection on campus, the developments on computer graphics and the most recent parallel software implementations offer a new framework for learning many subjects using efficient self training activities everywhere.
Architrave® project is an initiative of the Universitat Politècnica de València for providing its students with a powerful tool that allows them for testing their knowledge and skills about the behaviour of many types of building structural systems. It combines well known CAD applications with efficient parallel solvers for grid computing and the latest algorithms for computer graphics.
On Architrave® platform the students learn from personal experiences performed on a virtual laboratory based on realistic structural models. This framework is composed of video lectures, self assessment tests and laboratory experiences. The activity of the student is recorded and progress achieved is taken into account to evaluate its learning outcome.
A description of Architrave® project, the results of this experience and the improvement of the students involved on it are presented on this paper.

Keywords:

Virtual Labs, Architecture, Structural systems, Architrave®.