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Summary and Suggestions: David Johnson" (Johnson, 2004)

The document discusses recommendations and findings from surveys of textbooks and computer-aided learning resources for structural analysis courses. It finds that there is no clear favorite textbook and students prefer other learning methods over textbooks. Few approximate analysis textbooks are recommended and CAL packages are also not widely used formally in courses despite development budgets.

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22 views

Summary and Suggestions: David Johnson" (Johnson, 2004)

The document discusses recommendations and findings from surveys of textbooks and computer-aided learning resources for structural analysis courses. It finds that there is no clear favorite textbook and students prefer other learning methods over textbooks. Few approximate analysis textbooks are recommended and CAL packages are also not widely used formally in courses despite development budgets.

Uploaded by

bagmass
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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the student who replied The only book I have found useful is Linear Structural Analysis by

David Johnson (Johnson, 2004).

Summary and suggestions

A wide range of analysis textbooks are recommended, there being no clear favourite in
any of the three categories surveyed.

There is little enthusiasm for the use of textbooks, especially from students. As indicated
in Table 9, students consider textbooks to be the least interesting learning approach,
although they can be found moderately useful for success in assessments (by reference to
worked examples?).

In a number of cases, local loyalty plays a part with a text authored by a past or present
university member being recommended at the institution. It may be, therefore, that a text
prepared by a group of academics from a range of institutions and offering, in particular,
a wider range of problems for student solution might be more successful than current
texts.

Few texts on approximate analysis are recommended.

Computer Aided Learning (CAL)


Table 11 : Citations for use of CAL packages

CAL package Citations


CALCRETE 8
STEELCAL 3
DEFLECT 1
DrBeam 1

Four CAL packages were cited as being available for students at different institutions, but, as
shown in Table 11, only CALCRETE was at all reasonably widely utilised. In no case was it
stated that CAL was formally integrated into a course. Indeed, in a number of instances it was
specifically made clear that while CAL material was available its use was left entirely to
student discretion. Contact details of the cited packages and selected others are provided in
Appendix 5.

Summary and suggestions

Despite the large budgets that have sometimes been devoted to the production of CAL
material, there is very little enthusiasm for its formal adoption within courses.

Academic views on the nature of analysis courses

Innovative/distinctive features

The pressure that analysis courses currently experience from competing topics was
graphically illustrated by one response in this category which considered that the distinctive
feature of the course was that we still teach it at all levels. More generally, the claims made
in this category tended to mirror the ethos of particular institutions, so that engineering
science based courses, such as those at Aberdeen and Exeter, tended to emphasise the benefits
of cross-discipline working while older institutions, such as Cambridge and Glasgow,
tended to concentrate on theory or were deliberately analytical. Others cited a

14

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