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Peer Review

MecMovies

Reviewed:
Apr 13, 2006 by Engineering
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.3 stars
Content Quality: 4.5 stars
Effectiveness: 4.0 stars
Ease of Use: 4.0 stars
Overview:
This learning tool, with impressive graphics and animations, provides extensive
examples, some theory, and engaging activities, such as games to assist teachers
to teach and learners to learn "Mechanics of Materials", a basic course in
civil and mechanical engineering.
Type of Material:
Visual demonstration of various concepts related to stress, strain and
deformation with interactive calculations.
Recommended Uses:
Students will be able to use this web-based tool as supplemental study material
Teachers may use the examples to demonstrate the movies in class. Students
can also be assigned exercises that would involve the use of interactive
calculations.
Technical Requirements:
Browser must have the Macromedia "Flash" Plug-in installed.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
The learning objectives are to (a) use animated illustrations and three
dimensional effects to help learners visualize basic concepts, and (b)
provide opportunity for learners to apply concepts in a wide variety of
real-world situations using interactive activities that allow immediate
feedback.
Target Student Population:
Undergraduate students in Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Engineering.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Knowledge of "Statics", which is usually a prerequisite to "Mechanics of
Materials".

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:
This learning tool presents an impressive collection of examples that are useful
in understanding the concepts in Mechanics of Materials. MecMovies covers all
of the major concepts of mechanics of materials

Its major strengths are the impressive visualizations and animations included in
the examples. Students can improve their skills by engaging in interactive
exercises and games. A large number of assignments are availabe for practice.
Concerns:
Most major textbooks on "Mechancics of Materials" have a chapter on "Columns"
that deals with bucking of compression members. Since Mechanics of Materials is
a prerequisite to structural analysis, "columns" are often included in mechanics
of materials courses. Inclusion of bucking of compression members would improve
the quality of the contents.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:
The animations/movies included in the learning tool are well suited for
classroom demonstration. The three-dimensional visualizations are excellent for
visual learners. The calculations are interative and engage the learners. It can
be used in review classes for Professional Exams (PE) for licensing as well.

The author has expended a great deal of effort to make engineering learning fun
in an environment of virtual reality. MecMovies is potentially useful in helping
students grasp the fundamentals of Mechanics of Materials with or without a
traditional classroom.
Concerns:
One concern is that in the "Concepts" section the answers are immediately
available to the user after the first trial. If the user had the opportunity to
try again before seeing the correct answer, it might help him/her to be more
persistent in finding the right answer. This could be done simply by adding a
new "Correct Answer" button.

Other concerns are that 1) it is not clear whether this object is for self
learning or classroom assistance in addition to instructor's lectures and 2)
students may be "disoriented" of step-learning process if they start randomly
clicking on the available buttons.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:
This learning tool is quite easy to use. The instructions and animations are
presented in a familiar way in terms of menus and forward/backward buttons. The
use of the internet has made this tool very effective in terms of accessibility
to the users.
Concerns:
The crowded menu in the left is a bit overwelming - mixing main subjects with
sub-menus. One cannot see, for example, all of the games available that are
related to a given topic. Instead, the user must go page by page to see what
other games are available. An improved version would have overlapped TABS for
the main menu items along with pull-down sub-menus. I understand the
limitiations of the software that was used to develop this instructional tool.
Other Issues and Comments:
One idea would be to add a counter at the top of the screen to record and add
the "points", similar to conventional computer games. This might encourage the
user. However, it might be difficult to implement. Overall, this is a great
teaching and learning tool. Congratulations to the authors for the fine work
done.
Creative Commons:
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