TEMAS - Materials and Structures

TEMAS will develop an online repository of learning objects of techniques, tests and norms concerning building structures (concrete, steel, timber, etc.). Each object will be centred around an experimental test on the mechanical characteristics of materials and structures (for example a bending test of a concrete beam). It will include a commented video clip of the test, integrated with a theoretical introduction, annexes concerning norms and, finally, a self-evaluation test.
The learning objects will be available to students in Mechanics, Civil Engineering, and other related cycles in Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS), Universities and Technical Universities. Structure and materials are an important component in these programs, and TEMAS offers a multimedia support for a deeper understanding of concepts by seeing experiments that can rarely and often only partially be replicated in a lab. Moreover, they will be able to consult norms about structural tests. In these courses, TEMAS will be used in a blended-learning scenario, where the teacher e.g., introduces the subject and then assigns materials for self-learning and a final test. However, TEMAS can be used also for fully on-line programs and to prepare laboratory sessions. Thanks to the learning object repository developed by the eLab, teachers will easily select the relevant learning objects and embed them in a LMS (for example Moodle).
Advantages of TEMAS include the possibility of showing to students a much larger palette of tests, and very significant savings of laboratory costs (the cost can go up to 50.000 CHF).
The project partners (SUPSI-DACD Lugano, HES-SO EIA-Fribourg et Yverdon, USI - Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio) have a well-established teaching tradition in these areas, and each of them has special lab facilities (different from each other´s) in which some tests and experiments can be filmed and stored as learning objects.
As no other similar tool is known about covering this topic, it is expected that the project can reach a wide use all over Europe, in all kinds of higher education institutions with programs in this area.