Sights Inside the Virtual Engineering Education - Web-Based Engineering Education: Critical Design and Effective Tools - page 172

This chapter emphasizes on the power of virtual
tools for engineering subjects. The aim of devel-
oping these e-tools is enhancing the understand-
ing of concepts taught in the undergraduate and
graduated Mechanical, Material, Civil and many
other engineering branches. To exert such a virtual
environment, the authors' suggestion is to develop
and/or employ purpose-oriented small software
along the professional software. The idea of this
chapter is to show that even light software which
is focused on a particular subject can be used as a
key for engineering education. The specifications
of this approach can be counted as:

ize the material properties and behavior. Students
can use the purpose-oriented small software to
verify the assumptions of the theories they have
learned. It can also be employed to illustrate the
influence of the change in assumptions and to
realize the limitations and boundaries. Hence
the students will be able to simulate mechanical
behavior connecting their theoretical knowledge
to the virtual experiments.
With the same idea of the virtual laboratories,
the purpose-oriented software discussed above is
being developed with the goal of making them
a useful tool to enhance the understanding of
theoretical concepts taught in the engineering
courses. The virtual environment of these e-tools
would positively impact the learning experience
of the engineering students and make learning an
enjoyable experience.

• purpose-oriented small software has a clear

thought behind of it, it is concentrated on
the subject and is directly pointing to the
problem;

• it is easy to develop and implement;

• the students can effortlessly communicate

with it, therefore it is practically appropri-
ate to be utilized in the subjects and cours-
es that have to be taught in one semester
and according to the curriculum;

rEfErEncES

Anzelotti, G., Nicoletto, G., & Riva, E. (2008).
Heterogeneous microscopic strains in a cast Al-Si
alloy by digital image correlation. Paper presented
at the Symposium on Advances in Experimental
Mechanics, České Budějovice.

• visuals and motions can be combined in a

single format so that complex or abstract
concepts can be illustrated through visual
simulation (the old apothegm: “a picture is
worth a thousand words”);

Baker, A., Navarro, E. O., & van der Hoek, A.
(2005). An experimental card game for teach-
ing software engineering processes. Journal of
Systems and Software , 75 , 3-16. doi:10.1016/j.
jss.2004.02.033

• it is easy to make it adapted with different

operating systems, so that the students can
use it with no trouble even at home or at
school;

Burnely, S. (2007). The use of virtual reality tech-
nology in teaching environmental engineering.
Engineering Education . Journal of the Higher
Education Academy Engineering Subject Center ,
2 (2).

• it can be joined and employed by novel

education systems such as e-learning or
generally distance education;

• it is cost effective;

• it is effectively a motivative, inspiring tool.

Cloete, E. (2001). Electronic education system
model. Computers & Education , 36 , 171-182.
doi:10.1016/S0360-1315(00)00058-0

The virtual environment is expected to enhance
the understanding of how and why one phenom-
enon happens, why a material behavior differs
from the other, what is the optimum design for a
device or a structure and help the students to real-