Structural Materials Booklet and Tutorial CD-ROM

The tutorials are the product of a multi-year effort, funded partially by the National Science Foundation, to produce an alternative to traditional classroom lectures for an introductory course in Engineering Materials. The objective was to free up the classroom time so that it could be used for answering student questions and elaborating on the parts of the course that students typically do not grasp as easily as others.
 Click for sample chapter on Skeletal MuscleThe motivating factor was that it was found that students learned much more in the review sessions before exams than they did in traditional lectures. The decision was then made to transform the classes into review sessions and let the lectures be given beforehand by CD-ROM. After this change was instituted, surveys consistently showed that the students felt that they had learned more with this format than with traditional lectures. The only common complaint was that it forced them to prepare for classes!

One advantage that the tutorials have over a traditional lecture is that the pace is controlled by the student; sections that seem unclear can be repeated. Also, the student is less likely to drift off if the student is actually controlling the delivery. The integration of animations and videos into the audio presentation in many cases greatly enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of the teaching.

Once an instructor becomes comfortable answering the kinds of questions that students ask in this subject, the lecture-free classroom sessions are much more stimulating than giving the same lectures year after year. Therefore, the optimal way to use the tutorials is to let them replace the lectures and to supplement them in the classroom in a kind of seminar-type setting.

The tutorials can also be used as a backup to the textbook, particularly for students who do not absorb written information so easily. (It has been estimated that as many as one student in five may have at least some degree of dyslexia.)

Finally, the tutorials have been successfully used for independent study for students who need to prepare for advanced-level courses without having had the opportunity to take introductory-level materials science.