ABSTRACT
Engineering students are best able to understand theory when one explains it in relation to realistic problems and its practical applications. Teaching theory in isolation has led to lower levels of comprehension and motivation and a correspondingly higher rate of failure. At QUT, a number of innovative teaching and learning methods have been introduced recently to improve the teaching and learning of steel building design. In the basic steel structures unit, a project-based teaching and learning method involving the analysis, design and building of the most efficient steel column and a design assignment involving simple steel structures were introduced. For all steel building units, advanced technology videotapes consisting of computer and laboratory simulations of building components were introduced. In the advanced steel design unit, a steel portal frame building model was used to illustrate the building and its components, load paths, and overall building behaviour. This paper presents the details of these innovative methods that improved greatly the students’ understanding of the steel structural design process.
