Innovation Use of Computer Tools in Teaching Structural Engineering Applications

35
Institution of Engineers Australia, 2010 Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol 16 No 1

* Paper D09-077 submitted 23/09/09; accepted for
publication after review and revision 13/04/10.
Corresponding author Dr Khaled El-Sawy can be
contacted at k.elsawy@uaeu.ac.ae.
1 INTRODUCTION
Matrix Structural Analysis and Finite Element
Method: Theory and Applications are technical
elective courses offered by the Department of Civil
and Environmental Engineering in United Arab
Emirates University (UAEU) at the undergraduate and
graduate levels, respectively. The Matrix Structural
Analysis course covers the analysis of different two-
dimensional (2D) structures using the stiffness matrix
method; namely 2D spring systems, trusses, beams
and frames. It also covers some special topics in the
structural analysis, including inclined supports, fast
reduced analysis of rectangular frames, the solution
of stiffness equations using banded matrices and the
modelling of temperature loads on structures. As a
result of the nature of the covered subjects, students
are requested to pass two main courses before being
eligible for registering in the Matrix Structural
Analysis course. These prerequisites are Structural
Analysis I and Introduction to Programming. The
former prerequisite covers traditional techniques
for solving simple statically determinate structures
using manual calculations. It also includes infuence
lines of moving loads, deflection analysis using
geometric and energy approach, and introduction
to indeterminate structures using slope defection
and moment distribution methods. Meanwhile, the
latter aims at providing the concepts of programming
with Visual Basic language using VB 6.0 compiler.
The Matrix Structural Analysis course subjects are
covered in about 15-16 weeks with two sessions per
week. Each session is about 110 minutes composed
of 20- to 30-minute mini-lectures followed by student
problem-solving activities on the learned concepts.
At the graduate level, the Finite Element Method:
Theory and Applications course is considered as a
continuation of the basic concepts of stiffness method
offered in the Matrix Structural Analysis course. In
other words, no specifc prerequisites exist for that
course given that all basic concepts of structural
analysis and programming have been offered at the
undergraduate level. The course covers the principles
of theory of elasticity along with the compatibility
equations and constitutive relations. It also introduces
the virtual work approach and its application to
conduct fnite element formulation of various basic
and advanced elements such as: bar, beam, frame
and isoparametric solid elements, in addition to plate
and shell elements. Most of the graduate students of
the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department
are full-time practitioner engineers and therefore the
graduate course topics are covered in weekly single-
sessions for about 15-16 weeks. The typical session
is about 180 minutes composed of 50- to 60-minute
Innovative use of computer tools in
teaching structural engineering applications
*
KM El-Sawy
and AMI Sweedan

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, United Arab Emirates
University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
SUMMARY: This paper reports on using Microsoft Excel coupled with Visual Basic for
Application (VBA) in teaching two courses for the students in the Civil & Environmental
Engineering Department in United Arab Emirates University. The frst course covers the use of
the stiffness matrix method for the analysis of 2D trusses, beams and frames. The latter has a more
advanced content by focusing on 2D solid elements, plates and shells. Throughout the offering of
both courses, the authors, with the aid of hands-on sessions and multimedia, guide their students
to develop different user-defned VBA functions in Excel, which are used to derive the solution of
different structural and stress analysis problems. The paper also proposes a new method in Excel
that may be used to eliminate possible cheating (e-cheating) when students exchange fles using
email, Bluetooth or any other means. The proposed method has been utilised by the authors to
minimise potential e-cheating and copying among students.
36 Innovative use of computer tools in teaching structural engineering applications El-Sawy & Sweedan
Australasian Journal of Engineering Education Vol 16 No 1
mini-lectures, followed by student problem-solving
activities and applications on the covered material.
The teaching and learning environment and
infrastructure in the Faculty of Engineering at UAEU
played a signifcant role in the teaching approach
implemented in this study. Since every student
in the Faculty of Engineering is required to buy a
laptop (an admission requirement), there is no need
to reserve PC labs for such courses. A classroom
equipped with wireless network, an LCD projector,
a projection screen and tables is typical. Blackboard
(Electronic Course Management System) is used
by the instructors to publish the course material, to
receive students solutions for the assignments and
exams, and to communicate with the students.
It should be noted that the main learning aims of
the two courses are to help the students to learn and
use the matrix structural analysis and/or the fnite
element approaches to perform the structural and
stress analysis of structures. To employ Excel and
Visual Basic for Application (VBA) tools to analyse
realistic large-scale problems in contrast to abstract
ones used mainly for teaching. Nonetheless, any
tools that may be used by the instructor or by the
students to aid the students learning process are to
be used without losing the focus on the main target
outcome and mistakenly concentrating on the aiding
tools themselves.
Generally, and as implied by the two courses titles,
matrix operations (multiplications, transpose and
inversion) are the basic operations that are used
extensively throughout the courses to perform the
involved matrix structural analyses, which are,
by nature, numerically demanding. In this type
of courses, two approaches may be followed. The
frst limits the complexity of the course practice
problems and requests the students to solve selected
abstract problems manually using handheld
calculators. With this approach it may be diffcult
for the students to develop the link between the
abstract problems they practised and the analysis of
structures in the real world. The second approach
requires the implementation of any available user-
friendly tools to facilitate the matrix operations.
That, accordingly, enables the students to solve
more complex and realistic practical problems
without losing the focus on the target outcome in
the understanding of the structural analysis and
fnite element procedures. This paper considers the
second approach since it provides the students with
the required computational skills and engineering
experience in solving real-life structural and stress
analysis problems.
Several commercial software products (eg. SAP2000,
STAAD Pro, Robot Millennium, ANSYS, ADENA,
etc.) are available to analyse stresses in structures
and solids using the stiffness matrix method but,
unfortunately, they provide the fnal answer and
cannot replace the need of students to visualise
the different analysis steps that will build their
comprehension and understanding of the subject.
Therefore, they are not suitable for teaching basic
concepts to the students. This software may still help
train the students to enter the job market. Different
commercial software products (SAP2000, Robot
Millennium, ANSYS and ADENA) are currently
licensed for the UAEU, and are used interchangeably
to train the students on using commercial structural
and stress analysis software. Other free and
commercial tools that may help to show the
intermediate calculations have been reported in
literature and have been used by many instructors.
Examples of such instructional tools are CAL-91
(Wilson, 1991), Excel (Chandrupatla & Belegundu,
2002; Malasri & Syed-Mohammad-Ridzuan, 1987),
MathCAD (Nirmal, 2002; Parametric Technology
Corporation, 2010), MATLAB (Chandrupatla &
Belegundu, 2002; Arfadi & Hadi, 2002; Shahnam
& Nirmal, 2002; The MathWorks, 2010), MAPLE
(Waterloo Maple Inc., 2010) and MATHEMATICA
(Wolfram Research, Inc., 2010), in addition to C,
FORTRAN, QBASIC and others (Chandrupatla &
Belegundu, 2002; Martini, 2001; 2006).
The current study proposes an innovative method
to aid the teaching/learning of the matrix structural
analysis and fnite element method courses using
Excel and VBA. The paper also reports on a
new procedure that may be used to eliminate
possible cheating (e-cheating) cases where students
exchange/copy solution fles for assignments or
exams by direct copying, e-mail, Bluetooth or any
other means. Finally, the paper presents the results of
a survey that was conducted to explore the students
feedback on the proposed teaching/learning method.
One sample of the VBA functions used in the analysis
of trusses is listed in the Appendix. Illustrative
examples of the Excel template fles with their VBA
functions are provided in this work to demonstrate
their use in the analysis of 2D truss problems. These
examples of the Excel template fles are available at
http://beam.to/amr_sawy_edupaper (El-Sawy &
Sweedan, n. d.).
In addition to face-to-face hands-on teaching
sessions, digital multimedia is provided to help
students understand the development process of
the VBA functions used throughout the two courses.
Illustrative multimedia is available at http://beam.
to/amr_sawy_edupaper (El-Sawy & Sweedan, n. d.).
2 LITERATURE SURVEY
A literature review is conducted to provide some
information about tools used (or may be used) to
improve the teaching and learning of a typical matrix
structural analysis and fnite element method courses.
Prior to the evolution in computer technology and
the advancement in the computational capabilities
of newer generations of personal computers along
with noticeable reduction in their prices, traditional
teaching techniques of these type of courses used to
be the only feasible teaching method for a fairly long
time. Traditional techniques depend mainly on using
calculators to calculate the structural stiffness matrices
and imposed load vectors. Furthermore, and once the
governing equilibrium equations are assembled in a
matrix form, calculators are needed again to conduct
the matrix manipulation operations that yield the
unknown nodal degrees of freedom and/or support
reactions. It is worth mentioning that the involved
matrix operations constitute the basic operations
that are employed extensively to achieve the major
objective of performing structural analysis. Given the
fact that these operations are numerically demanding,
this imposes stringent limitations on the size and
complexity of problems that can be handled in the
course. As a result of the aforementioned calculations
complexity and execution time constraints, especially
during exams, students will be able to handle simple
problems that tackle basic concepts only. Such
limitations motivated instructors to incorporate
more computer tools and capabilities in teaching this
special type of courses to enable students to handle
more complicated and realistic practice problems.
A recent textbook by Chandrupatla & Belegundu
(2002) provided different computer tools, in different
programming languages, to facilitate the calculations
involved in the structural analysis.
2.1 Special purpose structural
analysis software CAL
CAL-91 (Wilson, 1991) is a relatively old educational
computer program that is written in FORTRAN
by Ed Wilson (Wilson, 2010) at the University of
California, Berkeley, in 1978 specifcally to teach
matrix structural analysis. The program and other
versions, built on its original structure, are used
by several teaching institutions. CAL is used to
introduce the students to the stiffness matrix method
and solve several analysis problems in the subject.
CAL is free, has a small size and can be acquired by
all students. It needs an instruction fle written using
special pseudo-code. The pseudo-code is composed
of a number of keywords or commands used to
describe the geometrical and physical properties of
the structure, to process the solution and to post-
process the results.
Later, several general-purpose mathematical
software programs started to appear providing
possibilities for more suitable tools. Some of these
mathematical software packages may be better than
others depending on the way they handle variables,
matrices and their operations. Examples of such
software are MathCAD, MATLAB, MAPLE and
MATHEMATICA. The students usually have access
to the software through computer laboratories in
their educational institutions (which is the case in
most of the educational institutions). On the other
hand, students may hardly get access to the software
at home or after graduation.
2.2 General-purpose spreadsheets
Historically, VisiCalc (Bricklin, 2010) was the frst
spreadsheet program ever available for PCs. Soon,
more powerful clones of VisiCalc were released,
including SuperCalc, Microsofts MultiPlan, Lotus
1-2-3 and the spreadsheet module in AppleWorks.
With Microsoft Excel for Windows 2.0 in 1987, a new
generation of spreadsheets was born. Since 1993,
Excel included VBA, a programming language based
on Visual Basic, which adds the ability to automate
tasks in Excel and to provide user-defned functions
(UDFs) for use in worksheets. These capabilities,
in addition to others, make Excel an attractive and
affordable tool to solve a number of engineering
problems, including ones in civil engineering
applications and in particular structural analysis
problems (Chandrupatla & Belegundu, 2002; Casas
& Oppenheim, 1987; Cooke & Balakrishnan, 1985;
Hadi, 1996; Malasri, 1987; Smith & Warner, 1992;
Wenzel, 1987).
Based on the previous discussion and due to the
signifcant popularity and availability of Excel relative
to other software, a decision is made by the authors to
use Excel, and empower it with VBA in the teaching
and learning of structural engineering courses.
3 BASIC CAPABILITIES OF EXCEL
Before discussing the various computational
capabilities of Excel, it is essential to present a basic
feature that is relevant to the development discussed
in this study. This feature is related to assigning
a reference name for a range of cells that is used
extensively in this study (fgure 1).
The assigned name can be used later in all the
Excel formulae, which signifcantly enhances the
readability and tracking of the formulae.
3.1 Built-in matrix manipulation
functions in Excel
The current version of Excel (version 2003 or 2007)
provides a number of built-in matrix manipulation
functions. It is important to note that these functions
are range-functions, where the function returns a
range and not a single value. To execute this type of
range-functions in Excel, the user should type the
formula and then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter, rather than
pressing the Enter key as in regular single-valued
functions.
Using the previously described range function
capabilities, addition and subtraction of matrices
can be performed simply by adding or subtracting
values in ranges and displaying the result in a third
range. Figure 2 shows an example of matrix addition.
The range of cells for Matrix [C] (ie. B11:D13) has the
formula =Matrix_A+Matrix_B, where Matrix_A is the
name for the range B1:D3 and Matrix_B is the name
of the range B6:D8.
Table 1 shows the rest of the matrix manipulation
functions. Similar to Excel single-values functions
and formulae, the results of the matrix operation
functions (shown in table 1) are dynamic. In other
words, once a value in a matrix changes, all the
related cells including matrix manipulation functions
are recomputed instantly.
Figure 1: Defning the name of a range of cells.
Figure 2: Matrix addition example.
Table 1: Matrix operations.
Mathematical operation Excel formula
Addition: [A] + [B] = Matrix_A + Matrix_B
Subtraction: [A] [B] = Matrix_A Matrix_B
Multiplication: [A][B] = mmult(Matrix_A, Matrix_B)
Inversion: [A]
1
= minverse(Matrix_A)
Transpose: [A]
T
= transpose(Matrix_A)
Complex matrix operation: [A]
1
[B] = mmult(minverse(Matrix_A), Matrix_B)
4 DEVELOPED USER-DEFINED
VBA FUNCTIONS
As discussed earlier, one of the important features
in Excel is that a user can enrich the built-in Excel
functions with his/her own UDFs. This section
discusses the different user-defned VBA functions
that are used in truss analysis (Kassimali, 1999). A
complete listing of the UDFs used for conducting
truss analysis is summarised in the Appendix. These
VBA functions are also included in the sample Excel
template fles whose URLs are provided earlier.
4.1 User-defned functions for truss analysis
The function Truss_Ke(E, A, L) calculates the element
stiffness matrix in the local coordinates for a typical
truss element with material Youngs modulus E, area
A and length L. This matrix is denoted as [k
e
] and is
given by:
| |
0 0
0 0 0 0
0 0
0 0 0 0
e
EA EA
L L
k
EA EA
L L
(
(
(
(
=
(
(
(

(1)
Figure 3 shows the usage of the function Truss_Ke
in the developed Excel spreadsheet. It is clear that
this function takes three arguments (E, A and L) and
returns a 44 range (ie. stiffness matrix). It is important
to note that names _E1, _A1 and _L1 are used to refer
to the cells containing E
1
, A
1
and L
1
, respectively.
The other basic functions used in the analysis, at the
element level, are Truss_T_Mat, which is used to
calculate the transformation matrix for any inclined
truss element, and Truss_Kxy, which is used to
calculate the stiffness matrix of an element defned
in the global coordinates. These functions are used
to calculate two matrices denoted as [T] and [K
xy
],
respectively. Such matrices are defned by:
| |
cos( ) sin( ) 0 0
sin( ) cos( ) 0 0
0 0 cos( ) sin( )
0 0 sin( ) cos( )
T
u u
u u
u u
u u
(
(
(
=
(
(

(2)
[K
xy
] = [T]
T
[k
e
][T] (3)
where q represents the rotation angle of the truss
element measured counter clockwise from the
positive global x-axis to the element.
For completeness, another UDF, Kxy2S, is developed
to build the global stiffness matrix [S] of the entire
structure from its constituents (ie. matrices [K
xy
] for
the different elements). The entries of each of the
element stiffness matrices [K
xy
] are arranged in the
global stiffness matrix [S] based on the degrees of
freedom at the nodes of the considered element. For
each element, the degrees of freedom are defned
by an element location vector {LV}, which stores the
degrees of freedom at the start node followed by the
ones at the end node. The function Kxy2S takes an
element stiffness matrix [K
xy
] and returns a square
range of size (S_Size S_Size) with the contents
of the entries of [K
xy
] arranged in the proper places
based on a predefned element location vector {LV}.
The size, S_Size, of the [S] matrix corresponds to the
maximum degree of freedom of the structure. The
superposition of the different elements is performed
in Excel by writing a formula in the range allocated
for [S] as:
= Kxy2S(Kxy1, LV1, S_Size)
+ Kxy2S(Kxy2, LV2, S_Size) +
Figure 4 shows the [S] matrix after arranging two
element stiffness matrices [K
xy
]
1
and [K
xy
]
2
, for element
1 and 2, respectively, into it. The location vectors of
the two elements {LV}
1
and {LV}
2
are given in the
table, and are shown on the top and side of each of
the [K
xy
] matrices. To help in visualising the process, it
may worth mentioning that names _Kxy1 and _Kxy2
are used to refer to the matrices [K
xy
]
1
and [K
xy
]
2
, while
names _LV1 and _LV2 are used to refer to the location
vectors {LV}
1
and {LV}
2
.
4.2 User-defned functions for the analysis of
2D constant-stress triangular element
Application of the proposed teaching methodology
to solid elements is introduced in this section, which
pertains to the particular case of the 2D constant-stress
triangular (CST) element with constant thickness. As
discussed in the previous section, a key parameter
that is needed to be evaluated is the stiffness matrix of
the considered element. To overcome the complexity
in the calculations of the stiffness matrix of such
higher order element, the element stiffness matrix
in the global coordinates, [K
xy
] may be expressed in
terms of the strain matrix [B] and the constitutive
matrix [C] as follows (Malasri, 1987):
[K
xy
] = V
e
[B]
T
[C][B] (4)
In which, V
e
represents the volume of the constant
thickness triangular element.
Figure 3: Using Truss_Ke user-defned function to calculate [k
e
] for truss element 1.
The strain matrix [B] is evaluated in terms of the
element geometry as (Cook, 1995):
| |
1 2 3
1 2 3
1 1 2 2 3 3
0 0 0
0 0 0
b b b
B c c c
c b c b c b
(
(
=
(
(

(5)
where the elements b
i
and c
i
are related to the nodal
coordinates through the relations:

1 1
and
2 2
i j k i k j
e e
b y y c x x
A A

(6)
where A
e
is the area of the triangular element and i,
j, k = 1, 2, 3.
A UDF B_Mat is introduced for the calculation of
the [B] matrix. The B_Mat function varies with the
element nodal coordinates and the element type (2D
CST in this case) as shown in fgure 5.
Meanwhile, the constitutive relationship defned by
the element matrix [C] depends on the classifcation
of the element as being plane stress or plane strain
(Cook, 1995). This matrix is evaluated by using the
UDF C_Mat. As such, the element stiffness matrix
Figure 4: Building the structure global stiffness matrix [S].
Figure 5: Building the element strain matrix [B_Mat] where XY_Range refers to
the XY-coordinates of the element nodes.
[K
xy
] is obtained by employing the UDF Kxy_Mat
as presented in fgure 6. Once the elements stiffness
matrices are determined, the global stiffness matrix [S]
is assembled based on the degrees of freedom at the
element nodes and the corresponding element location
vector {LV} as explained in the previous section.
Finally, the stresses developed in each element {s
e
}
are readily obtained as:
{s
e
} = [C][B]{d
e
} (7)
where {d
e
} is the vector of nodal degrees of freedom
resulting from the fnite element solution.
One of the many benefits of the developed
spreadsheet is to explain the implementation of the
symmetry boundary conditions and the associated
time saving as a result of the signifcant reduction in
the number of active nodal degrees of freedom to be
solved for. For the plane structure shown in fgure
5, as a result of its symmetry about the vertical (Y)
axis, only half the structure needs to be modelled.
This reduces the number of elements into two rather
than four elements. In addition, the symmetry
boundary conditions allow for the elimination of
all the horizontal degrees of freedom along the
Y-axis. In order to verify this concept to the students,
the problem is solved twice. First by ignoring the
symmetry and modelling the four-element structure,
and once more by considering the symmetry and
modelling half the structure only. By comparing the
outcomes of both models, students can observe that
the full model results in zero values for all the vertical
displacements along the Y-axis, which is in agreement
with the symmetry boundary conditions. In addition,
all other degrees of freedom are found to be identical
based on both models. This simple case illustrates
the advantage of using the analysis spreadsheet in
producing various models for the same problem
which allows for cross-checking the various sets of
numerical results to gain better understanding of the
physical problem and the symmetry concept.
A sample Excel template fle that is developed and
used by the students in the solution of the 2D CST
problems is given at http://beam.to/amr_sawy_
edupaper (El-Sawy & Sweedan, n. d.).
5 INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY
The instructional strategy adopted in the current
study is primarily based on the eight-step ExCEED
model instructional strategy outlined by Welch
et al (2005) to facilitate students learning of major
concepts. Such eight-step strategy is based on the
learning process methodology developed by Apple
et al (1995), which aims at enhancing self-learning
skills of students. In general, the main framework of
this model instructional strategy aims at increasing
the possibility of learning through encouraging the
engagement of students to allow for faster learning
and achieving better levels of understanding. The
application of the adopted eight-step ExCEED model
instructional strategy in the current study can be
summarised as follows:
1. Provide an orientation the instructor communicates
why the topic is important and how it relates to
other topics that students already understand in
the course or other previous relevant courses
2. Provide learning objectives to increase the
effectiveness of the learning process, the instructor
defnes what students will be able to do upon
successful completion of the learning process.
In addition, students should be aware of the
standards by which their achievement of the
objectives will be evaluated.
Figure 6: Calculation of the element stiffness matrix [Kxy_Mat].
3. Provide information for the two courses,
information is provided by the instructor in a
series of mini-lectures followed by discussions
and/or short quizzes to ensure that students
have acquired the necessary information before
the learning process is continued.
4. Stimulate critical thinking the instructors
stimulate critical thinking by asking conceptually-
challenging questions that may be solved through
student-instructor discussions, collaborative in-
class work or homework problems.
5. Provide models the instructor model the
problem-solving process by guiding the students
to solve representative example problems in
class. This task should involve training students
to think in a logical manner, make reasonable
assumptions and make key decisions as they
work through the problem.
6. Provide opportunities to apply knowledge applying
knowledge that takes the form of problem-solving
of in-class exercises, homework assignments
and projects, since successful application of the
concept is the best way to ensure understanding
it (Chickering & Gamson, 1991).
7. Assess performance and provide feedback the
instructor assesses the students solution of
both the in-class and out-of-class assignments to
identify possible shortcomings in the students
learning. Feedback is provided regularly to help
improve their learning.
8. Provide opportunities for self-assessment to foster
the development of students assessment skills,
in the presentations of the term-project, the
instructor requests students to critique oral
presentations of other students before receiving
feedback from the instructor.
5.1 Details of the instructional method
The proposed teaching/learning method is based
on mini-lectures describing the important concepts
followed by brainstorming discussions, problem-
solving exercises or development of Excel template/
UDFs. In the latter, students are requested to design
an Excel template file to enter the data for any
given problem and show the calculated results (eg.
deformations, element forces, element strains and
stresses). This process continues for a couple of
weeks until the fnal template design is completed,
verifed against textbook solved examples and ready
to be used to solve assignment problems. As the
students progress through this process, the instructor
through face-to-face hands-on sessions helps them
to write the previously discussed user-defned VBA
functions in Excel; namely Truss_ke, Truss_Kxy,
Truss_T and Kxy2S for the Matrix Structural Analysis
course, and B_Mat, C_Mat and Kxy_Mat for the
fnite element method course. Multimedia describing
the development of the VBA UDFs are also used to
provided to aid the students self learning process.
The students may struggle and encounter some
problems while writing their frst VBA function. But,
gradually they overcome such diffculties, and their
logic and programming skills improve. Once the
students complete the development of the template
fles, they submit them for grading and receive a
similar error-free version of the template that has
been designed and checked by the instructor. The
VBA code, in the error-free version, is password
protected so that students cannot tamper with it by
mistake. It also includes some special VBA security
codes that will be discussed later in the plagiarism
detection section. The typical procedure outlined
above is employed while covering other topics
included in the two courses.
In-class and out-of-class assignments with varying
levels of diffculty are used to check the level of
understanding of the students. The diffculty may
range from problems with two or three members/
elements, which the students are asked to solve
using both manual calculations and Excel, to realistic
problems with higher number of members/elements.
The main objective of offering simple questions is to
allow students to practise manual calculations and
use their results to verify the developed computer-
based tools. Besides, simple manual calculation
checks that can be performed to verify the results
of complicated problems are taught to the students,
as discussed in the following paragraph. The
assignments questions vary in diffculty and transfer
the students smoothly from one level to another until
they reach the maximum diffculty where students
are required to solve complex practical problems and
report on their results.
Based on the authors experience with the proposed
teaching/learning method, it is found that most of
the students go smoothly through the Excel solution
steps but struggle in interpretation of results and
producing graphical presentation of the obtained
numbers into meaningful engineering results (eg.
deformed shape, bending moment, shearing force
and thrust diagrams, and strain and stress contours).
This typically requires special attention from the
instructor. Simple checks are discussed with the
students to make sure that the results they obtain
are correct and reliable. This is important since
students tend to accept any results obtained from the
computers under the impression that these results
are undoubtfully 100% correct. Such simple checks
may be performed using engineering inspection and
handheld calculators. For example, the deformed
shape of the structure under consideration should be
compatible with the applied external loads. Another
type of quick check that can be conducted is to ensure
that bending moments in a multi-span beam do
not exceed the bending moment for the same beam
when simply supported. Combining manual and
computer-based calculations is intended to satisfy an
essential objective of the courses that aim to help the
students to analyse both abstract models and realistic
large-scale structures without losing the focus on the
main target outcome and mistakenly concentrating
on the aiding tools only.
To add a practical aspect to the courses, two
commercial software packages available in the Civil
& Environmental Engineering Department are
introduced, one for each course, and the students are
requested to resolve some of the previously-assigned
complex problems using the relevant software.
Comparison between the two sets of results is held to
verify the numerical procedure previously developed
and employed by the students to tackle the same
problems. This, in addition to the simple checks using
handheld calculators, adds more confdence in the
obtained solution.
Submission of the assigned problems includes two
basic parts. The frst part provides the fgures that
show the degrees of freedom (free and restrained
nodes), elements and nodes numbering, element
directions, and diagrams showing deformed shapes,
bending moments, shearing and thrust forces, and
strain and stress distributions. Meanwhile, the
second part of the submission is the digital Excel fles
that hold the input data and corresponding results.
The students digital fles are submitted through
any learning management system (Blackboard in
this case).
6 PLAGIARISM CONTROL
Plagiarism and cheating, in general, have a very
long history. Some instructors and researchers
prefer not to tackle the issue since it may not refect
a good image of their institutes. On the contrary,
others acknowledge the need to clearly identify
copied assignments, proctor exams, and to adopt
strict policies to prohibit students misconduct
and cheating. As a result of the recent signifcant
technological advancement that has affected higher
education, instructors may also prefer to use any
available online plagiarism control means (eg.
SafeAssign in the Blackboard Learning Management
System) or design their own plagiarism control tools.
In the traditional teaching style and before applying
the proposed method presented herein, few cases
of possible plagiarism were noticed by the authors
(mainly in the undergraduate course, Matrix
Structural Analysis) through direct comparison
between assignments submitted by different
students. In these few cases, the same mistakes
(eg. using wrong equations, inadequate solution
procedure, spelling mistakes, missing/wrong units,
etc.) were observed. In such incidences, the instructor
of the course held private meetings with concerned
students, on an individual basis, to discuss the
details of the technical procedure that the student
adopted in solving the assignments. In the majority
of the suspected cases, the student could not show
a reasonable level of understanding of parts of
the submitted solution of the assignment(s). This
motivated the authors to develop a new technique
as an attempt to control plagiarism and to ensure
a reasonable level of fairness when evaluating
students work.
The development of new communication tools
and digital nature of the students work has given
the plagiarism and cheating another dimension. It
has made copying the work of others much easier,
simply by cutting and pasting parts of a fle or even,
in some cases, copying the whole fle. The Faculty of
Engineering at UAEU expects intellectual honesty
from its students. Intellectual honesty demands
that the contribution of others be acknowledged.
Intellectual dishonesty undermines the quality of
academic activity and, accordingly, the Faculty
of Engineering has adopted severe penalties for
student misconduct with respect to plagiarism and
cheating. The charge of plagiarism and cheating may
have severe consequences, including suspension
or expulsion from the program, not to mention a
students loss of credibility.
In the same line of using cheating control aids, a
method was developed for potential control of
electronic copying (e-cheating) between students.
To the best of the authors knowledge, no evidence
of e-cheating incidences was observed after the
plagiarism control method was adopted. This
observation has been verified based on direct
comparison between submitted assignments and
after holding one-on-one technical discussions with
random sample of students where the students
showed very good understanding of their submitted
solutions. Moreover a good match is observed
between the students marks in the assignments and
their marks in the exams.
The proposed e-cheating control method depends
mainly on three tricks that can be achieved using
VBA in Excel, which, as discussed earlier, is the
selected software to be used by the students in
solving assignments, quizzes and exams. The
following subsections describe these tricks in details.
The security code is available as part of the sample
Excel template fle provided at http://beam.to/
amr_sawy_edupaper (El-Sawy & Sweedan, n. d.).
6.1 Hiding a sheet in Excel
A user can hide a sheet in Excel simply by going
to the VBA Editor screen and adjusting the visible
sheet property to xlSheetVeryHidden. Figure 7 shows
the process of hiding Sheet1 by changing its visible
property, and it is clear that it does not show in Excel
after this property is changed.
If the VBA code is protected by a password, the user
will not have access to such sheet properties and,
therefore, any information written in this sheet will
be hidden in a safe place from the Excel user. Figure
8 shows this scenario.
Using this method, a sheet named Security Data
is created in the Excel template fle and is used to
hide the student name and ID in two cells named
_Student_Name and _Student_ID, respectively.
6.2 Disabling simultaneous
access to two workbooks
It is intended, as part of the plagiarism prevention,
that students cannot open any other workbooks
simultaneously with the template fle. This is to
prevent copying and pasting between the different
fles. This can be achieved by adding VBA codes for
the Workbook in the events WindowActivate and
WindowDeactivate. This code is triggered when the
user tries to activate the workbook (ie. opens the
template fle) or deactivate the workbook (ie. opens
another fle besides the template). Figure 9 shows the
code for the two workbook events WindowActivate
and WindowDeactivate.
6.3 Collecting student information at start-up
The Excel template fle includes a VBA code that
collects the students information once the fle is
opened. This is usually written in a subroutine with a
special name Auto_Open. The code in that subroutine
(refer to fgure 10) simply checks the content of the
cell _Student_Name in the hidden sheet Security
Data. If the cell contains data, this implies that the
student has already entered his name and ID, and
the code displays this information to the student.
Otherwise, the code requests the student to enter
a name and ID, and stores them in the proper cells
(ie. _Student_name and _Student_ID) in the hidden
sheet Security Data. In both cases, the code unhides
the sheet Detailed Calculations that contains all of
the template design.
If a student fails to provide name and ID (eg. did
not enter any value and clicked OK for the blank
Figure 7: Hiding Sheet1 in Excel.
Figure 8: Protecting Sheet1 and its content from being visible.
17
Public Quiet_Close As Boolean
'==========================================================================
Private Sub Workbook_WindowActivate(ByVal Wn As Window)
Dim WB As Workbook, Answer As Integer
On Error GoTo Err_Handler
' Get the name of the current Excel workbook
If Current_WB_Name = Empty Then
' Get the current workbook name
Current_WB_Name = Application.ActiveWorkbook.Name
End If
' Check for another active Excel workbook
For Each WB In Application.Workbooks
If WB.Name <> Current_WB_Name Then
' Case of opening another Excel workbook
Answer = MsgBox("Activating " & Current_WB_Name & _
" would close all other" & _
" Excel workbooks. Accept?", vbYesNo)
If Answer = vbNo Then
' User decided to close the Excel Template
Quiet_Close = True
Application.Workbooks Current_WB_Name).Close SaveChanges:=False
Quiet_Close = False
End If
' User decided not to open any other file
WB.Close SaveChanges:=False
End If
Next WB
Err_Handler:
On Error GoTo 0
End Sub
'=========================================================================

Private Sub Workbook_WindowDeactivate(ByVal Wn As Window)

Dim WB As Workbook

If Quiet_Close Then Exit Sub

On Error GoTo Err_Handler

' Check for another active Excel workbook
For Each WB In Application.Workbooks
If WB.Name <> Current_WB_Name And Current_WB_Name <> "" Then
MsgBox "No workbook is allowed to be opened with " & Current_WB_Name
WB.Close SaveChanges:=False
End If
Next WB
Err_Handler:
On Error GoTo 0
End Sub

Figure 9: Plagiarism Prevention VBA Code

Figure 9: Plagiarism prevention VBA code.
18

Public Current_WB_Name As String
'=========================================================================
Public Sub Auto_Open()
Dim Student_Name As String, Student_ID As String
' Check for the Student_Name and the Student_ID in the security sheet
If Range("_Student_Name") = Empty Then
' Student name has not been entered. Ask user to input his/her
' name and ID
Student_Name = InputBox("Enter your name)
Student_ID = InputBox("Enter ID:")

' Check that user entered some strings
If Student_Name = "" Or Student_ID = "" Then
MsgBox "Enter both your name and ID - Application will close"
Application.ActiveWorkbook.Close SaveChanges:=False
End If
' Place name and ID in the security sheet
Range("_Student_Name") = Student_Name
Range("_Student_ID") = Student_ID
' Unhide the "Detailed Calculation" sheet
Sheets("Detailed Calculations").Visible=True
Sheets("Detailed Calculations").Select
Else
' Student name has been entered already. Display this information
' to the student
Student_Name = Range("_Student_Name")
Student_ID = Range("_Student_ID")
MsgBox "Welcome " & Student_Name & ":" & Student_ID
' Unhide the "Detailed Calculation" sheet
Sheets("Detailed Calculations").Visible=True
Sheets("Detailed Calculations").Select
End If
End Sub
Figure 10: Plagiarism Detection VBA Code

7. ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE

The assessment covers both individual and team work. Individual work assessment is simply
carried out through grades assigned to class participation and assignments in addition to
progress, midterm and final exams. The design of the exams is a difficult task since both the
manual calculation skills and practicality of the problems should be reflected in the
examination questions. Therefore, the exams contain simple questions that require manual
calculations and even sometimes no calculations but the understanding of the basic concepts.
Figure 11 shows a sample of the exam questions that requires simple calculations in addition
to a through understanding of the analysis procedure.

The major part of a typical exam (about 60% to 70%) consists of practical questions that
require significant involvement of using Excel and the provided course template. Figure 12
gives an example of such practical questions.

In the last two to three weeks of the course, students are divided into teams (groups). Each
team is assigned one of the advanced topics to conduct a research and present the major
outcomes to the rest of the class. To stimulate participation in the discussions and
brainstorming after each group presentation, grades are assigned to the appropriate students
participation. Following each presentation, the instructor usually reviews the main concepts
Figure 10: Plagiarism detection VBA code.
cells), the sheet provides an error message and
closes automatically. Some students may think that
they can bypass the VBA code by disabling macros,
and bypassing the plagiarism detection process. To
overcome this possibility, the Excel template fle
is designed to contain 3 sheets: Sheet1, Detailed
Calculations and Security Data. Initially, the blank
sheet Sheet1 is set to be visible while the other two
sheets are hidden. If the student disables macros,
he/she can see the empty Sheet1 but neither gets
access to the Detailed Calculations sheet nor to the
VBA functions. If the student follows the instructions
and enables macros, the macros will request his/her
name and ID, and inserts them in the hidden Security
Data sheet.
7 ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT
PERFORMANCE
The assessment covers both individual and team
work. Individual work assessment is simply carried
out through grades assigned to class participation
and assignments in addition to progress, midterm
and fnal exams. The design of the exams is a diffcult
task since both the manual calculation skills and
practicality of the problems should be refected in the
examination questions. Therefore, the exams contain
simple questions that require manual calculations
and even sometimes no calculations but the
understanding of the basic concepts. Figure 11 shows
a sample of the exam questions that requires simple
calculations in addition to a thorough understanding
of the analysis procedure.
The major part of a typical exam (about 60% to
70%) consists of practical questions that require
significant involvement of using Excel and the
provided course template. Figure 12 gives an
example of such practical questions.
In the last two to three weeks of the course, students
are divided into teams (groups). Each team is
assigned one of the advanced topics to conduct
research and present the major outcomes to the
rest of the class. To stimulate participation in the
discussions and brainstorming after each group
presentation, grades are assigned to the appropriate
students participation. Following each presentation,
the instructor usually reviews the main concepts
and adds any missing information. The group
assessment is evaluated based on a group project
and its accompanied presentation and discussion.
The distribution of the total grades is shown in table
2. Weighting the assignments grade, relative to the
course overall grade, is still an unresolved issue. If
the weight is to be increased, more effort should be
devoted to observe and minimise possible e-cheating.
Although e-cheating is prohibited, discussion among
students is encouraged and allowed even during
class activities. To verify individual contribution
of the students in solving the assignments, the
instructor may selectively discuss with students their
submitted answers. In few cases, a student who fails
to explain his/her answers reported that they have
been working in groups. After such incidents, it has
been made clear to all students that collaboration
is something and reporting the answer blindly is
something else.
8 SURVEY FOR STUDENT SATISFACTION
In the past, the course Matrix Structural Analysis
had been offered and taught using the traditional
manual calculation method. Over the last four years,
19
and adds any missing information. The group assessment is evaluated based on a group project
and its accompanied presentation and discussion. The distribution of the total grades is shown
in Table 2. Weighting the assignments grade, relative to the course overall grade, is still an
unresolved issue. If the weight is to be increased, more effort should be devoted to observe and
minimize possible e-cheating. Although e-cheating is prohibited, discussion among students is
encouraged and allowed even during class activities. To verify individual contribution of the
students in solving the assignments, the instructor may selectively discuss few students of their
submitted answers. In few cases, a student who fails to explain his/her answers reported that
they have been working in groups. After such incidents, it has been made clear to all students
that collaboration is something and reporting the answer blindly is something else.

The shown truss has been analyzed and the following results have been obtained:

3
1
2
4
3
1 2
4
5
20 ft 20 ft
18 ft

{ } { } , kips
0
167 . 4
0
167 . 4
, kips
0
167 . 4
0
167 . 4
2 1
= F F

{ } { } { } kips
5 . 17
167 . 19
25 . 17
167 . 19
, kips
0 . 6
0
0 . 6
0
, kips
75 . 3
167 . 4
75 . 3
167 . 4
5 4 3
= F F F

a) Calculate and show magnitudes and directions of the reactions at the supports
b) Check the equilibrium of member 3

Figure 11: Sample of the Exam Questions that Requires Manual Hand Calculations

Figure 11: Sample of the exam questions that requires manual hand calculations.
the course has been offered several times using the
reported teaching method; three of them have been
anonymously surveyed for students feedback.
The course Finite Element Method: Theory and
Applications has been offered and anonymously
surveyed for two times over the past two years. The
average results of surveys that are conducted are
reported herein. Each survey is conducted to collect
the students opinion about the new teaching/
learning method. Unfortunately, the results of
these surveys cannot be compared to any other
surveys conducted on other student population who
have been taught using the conventional manual
calculation method. This is due to the signifcantly
different instruction styles, and different complexity
of the example, assignment and exam problems
in the two cases. In the conventional teaching
technique, all examples and problems had to be in
the form of simplifed abstract models with reduced
level of complexity. With the implementation of the
proposed teaching technique, more realistic models
with signifcantly higher level of complexity could be
tackled. With regard to the enhancement in students
understanding and capabilities when implementing
the proposed technique, the achievements outlined
below are considered as evidence of the usefulness
of the proposed methodology:
20

For the shown truss:
a) calculate the deformation vector {d} and draw the deformed shape
b) calculate the member forces in the truss members
c) calculate the support reactions, and
d) calculate the elongation/shortening in member 5.

Figure 12: Sample of the Exam Questions that Requires the Use of Excel

Table 2: Distribution of the Grades between Course Activities

Activity
% of Total
Grade
Class participation 5%
Assignments 25%
Quizzes 10%
Group Presentation 10%
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 30%

8. SURVEY FOR STUDENT SATISFACTION

In the past, the course "Matrix Structural Analysis" had been offered and taught using the
traditional manual calculation method. Over the last four years, the course has been offered
several times using the reported teaching method; three of them have been anonymously
surveyed for students feedback. The course Finite Element Method: Theory and
Applications has been offered and anonymously surveyed for two times over the past two
years. The average results of surveys that are conducted are reported herein. Each survey is
conducted to collect the students opinion about the new teaching/learning method.
Unfortunately, the results of these surveys cannot be compared to any other surveys conducted
on other student population who have been taught using the conventional manual calculation
method. This is due to the significantly different instruction styles and different complexity of
the example, assignment, and exam problems in the two cases. In the conventional teaching
technique, all examples and problems had to be in the form of simplified abstract models with
reduced level of complexity. With the implementation of the proposed teaching technique,
1 4
2
3
1
5
2
3
4
Figure 12: Sample of the exam questions that requires the use of Excel.
Table 2: Distribution of the grades between
course activities.
Activity Percentage of total grade
Class participation 5%
Assignments 25%
Quizzes 10%
Group presentation 10%
Midterm exam 20%
Final exam 30%
Signifcant change in nature and complexity of
examples and problems.
Ability to attain better physical understating of
the structural behaviour through conducting
detailed parametric analysis to assess the
infuence of various design parameters on the
overall structural behaviour and response.
Being exposed to large-scale practical problems
that are similar to real-world situations
encountered by engineering graduates. This
assists in familiarising students with sample
practical situations that are vastly different from
the abstract models that could be studied using
the conventional teaching approach.
Attainment of such skills and capabilities is
confrmed by the outcomes of questionnaire survey
that was tailored to enable measuring them. The
survey includes 12 questions. The response for
each question ranges from 1 to 5 with 1 assigned to
Totally Disagree and 5 assigned to Highly Agree.
The questions and their average response, among a
students sample of 37 students (26 students for the
course Matrix Structural Analysis and 11 students
for the course Finite Element Method: Theory and
Applications), is presented in table 3.
In addition to the questionnaire presented in table 3,
the surveys allowed for written feedback from the
students. Usually few interested students provide
their written feedback. The following lists the most
common positive and negative feedback received:
Many students reported their satisfaction with
the course contents and presentation.
Few students reported that the course topics
were diffcult, especially that the interpretation of
numerical results needed deep understanding of
the subject. Based on the students comments, the
instructors revised their instruction, and devoted
more time and put more emphasis on tackling this
issue in the example problems solved in class.
Table 3: Survey questions, students responses and authors comments.
Please provide a response to the following statements:
(Totally Disagree = 1, Disagree = 2, Agree = 3, Moderately Agree = 4, Highly Agree = 5)
Average
response
Q1: Using laptops (not PC labs) is essential for the success of this course.
Authors comments: The students response does not give a clear cut answer. The authors believe that using laptops
does not essentially have advantages over using PC labs. However, It may add extra fexibility and convenience
for the students.
2.7
Q2: Using Excel capabilities in designing the course template is simple and is clearly introduced.
Authors comments: During offering the courses, the authors noticed that the students were very receptive to using
advanced features of Excel to design their course templates, which is refected in the high score of this question.
In addition, few students informed the instructor that they have used their newly learned skills in other courses,
especially senior students in their graduation project.
4.5
Q3: Programming using VBA (in Excel) is introduced gradually until the concepts become straight forward.
Authors comments: It is clear that the students feedback refect some inconvenience in programming using VBA.
Although all the students have passed the course Introduction to Programming using Visual Basic, they showed some
inconvenience when starting to use VBA in Excel. By the help of the instructor, this barrier is overcome gradually. At
the end of the course, the students succeeded to add their own VBA user-defned functions to handle the advanced
topics they were requested to research.
3.9
Q4: Using Excel did not distract you form understanding the basic concepts
Authors comments: Based on the high score shown by the students response, it is clear that they feel that Excel
did not distract them from understanding the main concepts. This is also validated by the authors after looking
at the good grades achieved in specifc assignments and exams questions that are designed to measure students
understanding of main engineering concepts through either manual calculations or interpretation of Excel results.
4.6
Q5: Manual calculations represent an essential component of the course exercises.
Authors comments: The relatively low student response refects the diffculty associated with performing tedious
manual calculations of small problems and/or interpretation of the Excel output of large problems. After using Excel
to get the numeric output, many students struggled to relate the problems numerical output to their corresponding
physical values (eg. draw the deformed shape, shearing force and bending moment diagrams). In the authors
opinion, this represents a basic diffculty that requires a special attention from the instructor.
3.1
Q6: Some questions in the assignments and exams are practical and, mostly, cannot be solved using manual
calculations
Authors comments: The high student response to this question reveals that the students, after solving some small-
scale simplifed problems manually, realised that many other problems in the assignments and exams are practical,
but complicated, and required signifcant amount of calculations that is made possible by using the Excel template.
4.6
Q7: Using programming to automate the calculations is an effcient time-saving approach.
Authors comments: Although the students response to Q3 shows that the students were not fully receptive to writing
programs using VBA, their high response to Q7 indicates their high appreciation to the signifcant time saving achieved
when using the developed programs in solving complicated applications that refect real life engineering problems.
4.5
Q8: Automation of involved calculations helps in achieving higher levels of physical understanding by allowing for
quick and effcient parametric analyses.
Authors comments: The high agreement shown by the students feedback confrms the achievement of a major
objective intended from utilisation of the Excel/VBA tools in teaching the course. The authors believe that
implementing the Excel/VBA tools allows the instructor to provide better explanation of physical structural behaviour
through conducting in-depth parametric analyses of complex real life models.
4.5
Q9: Using commercial software adds an extra skill that is highly required by the job market.
Authors comments: The authors believe that any course, if possible, should add practical experience to the students.
This is achieved in the considered courses by training the students on using one of the commercial software, which
is highly appreciated by the students, especially those who have used the software later in their graduation projects.
4.6
Q10: Team research of a new subject improves your team-work skills and self confdence.
Authors comments: The high agreement between the students refects their appreciation to being exposed to the
teamwork environment. In addition, the authors believe that the team projects and their accompanied research on
topics, which have not been discussed in class, add other aspects to the teamwork skills and students self confdence.
4.3
Q11: Using the security option in the Excel template provides good grounds for fair evaluations of the students work.
Authors comments: The student response refects high agreement. Although few students may illegally beneft from
e-cheating, many others would like to receive fair evaluations for their work. Most probably, those students voted
positively for the security option in the Excel template. The authors believe that the security option has controlled
the e-cheating since no cases have been observed after using the plagiarism control method.
4.0
Q12: Distribution of grades among course activities is reasonable and appropriate.
Authors comments: The relatively low student response reveals that some students may disagree with the adopted
marks breakdown. As previously mentioned, some students may expect assignments to have higher weight since
they consume most of their time. On the contrary, the authors believe that although e-cheating was controlled, it is
still possible that a student gets help from others without understanding the basic concepts. This has been observed
in very few cases through discussion of technical contents of assignments with students.
3.5
Many students reported that their skills in using
Excel have been improved signifcantly. They
also reported that without Excel they may have
not been able to solve the complex realistic
problems that refect real-life situations they may
face in practice.
Very few students who were not competent
in using Excel, and computer software in
general, preferred to solve simple problems
using a handheld calculator, although they
acknowledged that making a simple mistake in
manual calculations requires signifcant time and
effort to fx the generated errors in all subsequent
steps, which is not the case for the Excel solution.
Although commercial software was only
introduced with no emphasis on its design aspect,
most of the students liked using it in solving
in-class problems, and for verifcation of their
manual and Excel solutions.
None of the students provided any written
comments on the security measures taken in
Excel VBA to minimise cheating, although few
students were anxious to know how this has been
programmed in VBA.
It should be noted that some senior students, who
have successfully passed the courses one or two
semesters earlier, have showed gratefulness to
the instructors for helping them acquire useful
knowledge at both conceptual and application
levels that helped them later in their graduation
projects. Based on this and in addition to the
above comments, the authors believe that the
majority of the students have grasped the main
concepts of the courses and were able to apply
them in realistic graduation project problems.
9 EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF THE PROPOSED METHOD
Since a good match was observed between the
students marks in the assignments and their marks
in the exams, the exam grades are considered
a reasonable measure of the students overall
performance. A comparison between the exam
grades, based on both the traditional and newly
proposed teaching/learning methods, is utilised to
evaluate the effectiveness of the new technique (table
4). It should be noted, however, that the proposed
method has new features that have no counterpart
in the traditional method and therefore are denoted
as N/A in the comparison table. Since the Finite
Element Method course was introduced very recently
in the Masters Program and was not taught earlier
using the traditional teaching style, the comparison of
grades is performed for the course Matrix Structural
Analysis only and is summarised in table 4.
In general, the comparison presented in table 4
indicates a slight improvement in the students
comprehension of the subject relative to what
was achieved based on the traditional teaching
style. However, this cannot be considered a real
signifcant improvement as a result of the small
student sample size, which may increase the noise
in the analysed data. Comparison item 1 reveals a
slight improvement in the level of understanding
of basic engineering concepts. This confrms that
the proposed teaching/learning technique does not
overlook this essential engineering component by
focusing only on programming and applications.
Meanwhile, students performance in manual
calculations of abstract structures remained almost
unchanged as shown by comparison item 2 in table 4.
Table 4: Comparison between traditional and newly proposed methods of teaching/learning.
# Field of comparison
Average grade
traditional method (based on
grades of 3 years)
Average grade
proposed method (based
on grades of 4 years)
1
Solving questions targeting
understanding of main concepts
(sometimes with no calculations)
75% 77%
2
Analysing abstract structures requiring
manual calculations
73% 72%
3
Analysis of structures requiring
moderately long manual calculations
74%
N/A
(Excel is used instead, see
comparison item #4)
4
Analysis of realistic structural systems
requiring long computer calculations
N/A
(not valid due to the associated
high level of complexity)
76%
(Calculations are
conducted using Excel)
5
Effect of changing geometrical
parameters on load transfer mechanisms
of realistic structural models
N/A
(not valid due to the associated
diffculties and time constrains)
75%
(Calculations are
conducted using Excel)
6
Analysing realistic complicated
structures using commercial software
(eg. SAP2000)
74% 76%
Comparison items 3 through 5 imply that a major
advantage is achieved by implementing the proposed
technique to handle problems with high level of
complexity. In addition, the technique allows for
assessing the influence of various geometrical
parameters on the load transfer mechanisms and
their associated load paths. It should be noted
that questions targeted by comparison item 5 also
measure the comprehension level by requesting the
students to discuss and comment on the results and
fndings of their conducted parametric analyses.
The students are also required to provide their
engineering recommendations related to structural
system effciency. Finally, the comparison in item
6 shows slight improvement in using commercial
software in structural analysis.
In general, comparison items 1, 2 and 6 indicate
that the new approach did not degrade the original
outcomes of the traditional teaching method. In
addition, the new approach certainly adds new
learning outcomes for the students as depicted by
comparison items 4 and 5. Despite the general slight
improvement shown by the comparison provided in
table 4, it should be emphasised that this comparison
is not intended to prove the superiority of the
proposed technique over the traditional style. It just
highlights the fact that the new method introduces
new learning outcomes represented by computer
usage as an integral part of the course (either in using
Excel or the commercial structural analysis software).
This is in addition to the improved students ability to
solve large-size realistic problems that are impossible
to handle using the traditional manual calculations.
It is also important to notice that learning Excel as a
computational tool is considered a positive addition
to the students skills, not only in the structural
analysis feld, but also in many other computational
areas in engineering.
10 CONCLUSIONS
The study reported herein provides some insights
that may help other instructors and researchers to
improve their teaching of similar courses. In view
of the learning technique presented, and its related
discussions and evaluations, authors observations,
students feedback provided and evaluation of the
students grades throughout the paper, the following
conclusions may be highlighted:
Comparison between the students performance
before and after implementing the proposed
teaching method reveals that the original
outcomes of the traditional teaching method have
not been degraded.
The introduction of computer-based tools to be an
integral part of the structural and stress analysis
courses adds a new learning outcome. This helped
the students in solving realistic engineering
problems with higher complexity level than
the simple abstract models that are typically
considered in similar courses when taught
using traditional manual solution methods. This
experience is expected to help the students after
graduation when they need to analyse realistic
complex structures. This has been supported by
the good students grades in analysing complex
structures after the implementation of the newly
proposed method.
The students feedback and authors observations
reveal that many students are very receptive to
using advanced features of Excel to assist them
in solving complicated structural engineering
problems in a quick and effcient manner.
Monitoring of students performance and the
level of complexity in solved problems reveal that
using computer tools to automate the solution
assists in achieving better levels of physical
understanding by allowing the students to
conduct detailed parametric analysis (eg. different
solution scenarios of the same problem).
Based on the authors experience, instructors
should give special attention to the fact that using
computer tools should not result in losing the
focus on the essential objective of understanding
the basic concepts of structural analysis and fnite
element technique.
From the experience gained by the authors
through implementing the proposed methodology
over several semesters, it can be concluded that
improving the students skills in programming is
not a real barrier and may be overcome gradually
with instructors effort and patience.
This study reports on an attempt that may
be applied to control electronic plagiarism
(e-cheating) if Excel/VBA is decided to be used
for calculations purposes.
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APPENDIX: LISTING OF VBA UDFS USED IN THE ANALYSIS OF 2D TRUSSES
29
Appendix 1: Listing of VBA UDFs Used in the Analysis of 2D Trusses

Function Truss_ke(E As Single, A As Single, L As Single) As Variant
' This function calculates the element stiffness matrix [ke]
' defined in the local axes and based on the element's Young's
' modulus E, cross-sectional area A, and Length L.

' Define variables
Dim arr(1 To 4, 1 To 4) As Single, Tmp As Single, _
I As Integer, J As Integer

' Check for correct length
If L = 0 Then
Truss_ke = "Member has zero length"
Exit Function
End If

' Initialize the matrix [arr]
For I = 1 To 4
For J = 1 To 4
arr(I, J) = 0#
Next J
Next I

' Calculate the stiffness matrix [ke] defined in local axes
Tmp = E * A / L
arr(1, 1) = Tmp
arr(1, 3) = -Tmp
arr(3, 1) = -Tmp
arr(3, 3) = Tmp

' Return the truss stiffness matrix [ke]
Truss_ke = arr
End Function
'========================================================================

Public Function Truss_T_Mat(Theta As Single)
' This function calculates the transformation matrix of the truss
' element based on the element inclination angle "Theta" measured
' in Radians counter-clockwise from the global +ve horizontal x-axis

' Define variables
Dim arr(1 To 4, 1 To 4) As Single, Pi As Single, Angle As Single, _
I As Integer, J As Integer

' Initialize the matrix [arr]
For I = 1 To 4
For J = 1 To 4
arr(I, J) = 0#
Next J
Next I
' Define Transformation matrix [T]
arr(1, 1) = Cos(Theta)
arr(1, 2) = Sin(Theta)
arr(2, 1) = -Sin(Theta)
arr(3, 4) = Sin(Theta)
arr(4, 3) = -Sin(Theta)

' Return the transformation matrix [T]
Truss_T_Mat = arr
End Function
30
'========================================================================

Function Truss_Kxy(E As Single, A As Single, L As Single, Theta As Single) _
As Variant
' This function calculates the element global stiffness matrix [Kxy]
' based on the element's Young's modulus E, cross-sectional area A,
' Length L, and inclination angle "Theta" measured counter-clockwise
' from the +ve horizontal x-axis.

' Define variables
Dim T As Variant, ke As Variant

' Check for correct length
If L = 0 Then
Truss_Kxy = "Member has zero length"
Exit Function
End If

' Get the local stiffness matrix [ke]
ke = Truss_ke(E, A, L)

' Get the transformation matrix [T]
T = Truss_T_Mat(Theta)
' T
' Calculate [kxy] = [T] [k] [T]
With Application.WorksheetFunction
Truss_Kxy=.MMult(.MMult(.Transpose(T),ke), T)
End With
End Function

'=========================================================================

Public Function Kxy2S(Kxy As Range, LV As Range, S_Size As Integer) _
As Variant
' This function fills the global structural stiffness matrix [S]
' with values of the given element stiffness matrix [Kxy] based
' on it location vector {LV}. The size of the global stiffness
' matrix is S_Size.

' Define variables. Note that [S] is a dynamic array
Dim I As Integer, J As Integer, S() As Single

' Re-dimension [S] matrix with the right size
ReDim S(1 To S_Size, 1 To S_Size)

' Zero the [s] matrix
For I = 1 To S_Size
For J = 1 To S_Size
S(I, J) = 0#
Next J
Next I

' Fill the [S] matrix with [Kxy] entries
For I = 1 To Kxy.Rows.Count
For J = 1 To Kxy.Columns.Count
If LV.Cells(I)<>0 And LV.Cells(J)<>0 Then
S(LV(I), LV(J)) = S(LV(I), LV(J)) + Kxy.Cells(I, J)
End If
Next J
Next I

' Return [S]
Kxy2S = S
End Function

KHALED EL-SAWY
Dr Khaled M El-Sawy joined the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) in August 1997 as
an Assistant Professor in the area of Structural Engineering. He is currently an
Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
and the Director, Unit of Research Support and Services. Khaled earned his
PhD in the area of soil-structure interaction from the Department of Civil
Engineering, University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 1996. He received
his MSc from the same university in 1992 in the area of structural dynamics.
Before joining UAEU, Khaled worked as a senior civil engineer in ENPPI, Cairo,
Egypt. During the period of 1992 to present, Khaled has authored/co-authored
about 40 technical research publications and technical reports in the areas of
trenchless rehabilitation, stability of steel members and plates, and education.
He has taught many engineering and civil engineering courses. His teaching
interests include the teaching of Introduction to Programming, Computer Aided
Drawing for Civil Engineering, Statics, Mechanics of Materials, Reinforced
Concrete Design, Design of Steel Structures, and Matrix Structural Analysis.

AMR SWEEDAN
Dr Amr MI Sweedan joined the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) in August 2005 as
an Assistant Professor of Structural Engineering. He earned his PhD in Structural
Dynamics from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in October 2003. He
received his MSc and BSc degrees in Structural Engineering from Ain Shams
University, Cairo, Egypt in 1998 and 1992, respectively. Before joining UAEU,
Amr held the position of a Senior Engineer at the head offce of Rowan Williams
Davies & Irwin Inc., Consulting Engineers and Scientists, in Guelph, Ontario,
Canada. Amr is an active member of several professional associations, including
the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario, the American Society of
Civil Engineers and the Structural Engineering Institute. He is a recipient of
several research awards from Natural Science and Engineering Research Council
in Canada, Ministry of Training in Canada, Colleges and Universities in Canada.
He is also the recipient of several research grants from the Research Affairs
Sector at UAEU. Amr authored and co-authored over 30 technical publications
in refereed journals, conference proceedings and project reports on structural
dynamics, fuid-structure interaction and fnite element modelling of steel,
masonry, and cardboard building and non-building structures.

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Institution of Engineers Australia, 2010 Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol 16 No 1

and AMI Sweedan

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