Teaching structures in the cloud: a mooc experience

Resumen

This paper ponders over internet-based teaching of structural engineering, based on the authors recent experience in two MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses): “Structural Project: learning through practical cases” and ‘Earthquake-resistant structures”, launched at the Technical University of Madrid. A discussion of both courses is first presented, including a description of their academic context, relevance of their subject, choice of content, teaching staff and difficulties or problems found during elaboration. Results of the evaluation surveys carried outbetween students and teachers are then presented, highlighting the main items and comments that were raised. From this experience, the paper proposes an open discussion on several issues, regarding in particular the relationship between student and teacher in online courses, the weaknesses and strengths of MOOCs compared to conventional classroom courses, and their suitability for hard-tolearn complex disciplines