1 Didactic Tools for Learning Structural Design of Buildings based on Autonomous Apprenticeship

Abstract For improving the quality and efficiency of their teaching activities, in 1993 the team of professors in charge of the subject Estructuras I at the Faculty of Architecture of Valencia have incorporated a set of innovative experiences on their teaching methods. As a result, some didactic and evaluation tools have been developed. All of them are based on e-learning principles and oriented to the autonomous apprenticeship. Some experiences like those associated with the projects entitled: “The study of Structural Design and the computer classroom as Virtual Laboratory ” and “Didactic Resources Classroom oriented to the apprenticeship of Structural Design on Building Science ” have been developed during the last seven years. The Didactic Resources Classroom contains a Virtual Laboratory on Structural Mechanics, a pool of Tests with automatic checking and a collection of Interactive Didactic Units. All of them are implemented into the computer classroom. There is also a set of real reduced models of structural systems and joints. Finally, a great number of computer based models of structural joints have been implemented. At this moment all those teaching tools are being applied to the students training and evaluation. In the near future an interactive book and an on-line course on Structural Mechanics applied to Building Science will be implemented into the local area network of our University. Probably the course will be offered trough Internet be means of the Open University department. Index Terms didactic resources, e-learning, structural analysis, virtual laboratory. SUMMAR