Web-based Course Materials for Engineering Statics

Computer-based learning materials eventually forming an entire online course in Statics are presented. The course, developed as part of the Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative (OLI) and available to individual learners and institutions, draws upon the authors’ ongoing work to reorganize Statics instruction to better address the conceptual challenges students face. Comprising approximately twenty modules, a full semester course, each based on a set of carefully articulated learning objective, the course materials reflect broadly relevant lessons from the learning sciences. Objectives are pursued through a combination of expository text and various interactive exercises, including interactive simulations, which are leveraged to help learners to connect calculations and numbers with physical representations, video demonstrations of procedures, and exercises that permit assessment at multiple levels. Initial evaluation of learning is presented from one field study. Gathering of time-stamped data on virtually all user interactions, will permit more detailed evaluations in the future.