Location
Arlington, Virginia
Date
15 Aug 2008, 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Abstract
Case studies are widely used in civil engineering research but not in education and training. Case studies are important in the teaching of various subjects in the field of civil engineering. Site visits can also help to facilitate the students in recognizing and understanding the behaviour of structures and systems, especially when the students do not have any idea about them. The field of civil engineering covers a wide range of structures ranging from small to mega structures. Usually, small structures are seen regularly by the student and their behaviors are easy to comprehend. But mega structures such as dams are located far from the students and most of the students do not have any idea about their real configuration and their problems after and during construction. The Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia in applying the Outcome Based Education (OBE) addresses many programme objectives, one of which is life long learning. In the present study, the authors’ experiences in incorporating case study and site visits concerning earth dams in teaching two courses, namely Earth Structures and Hydraulics and Hydrology in order to address the life long learning objective is discussed. The feedback of the students on using case histories including data and site visits were analyzed and showed improvement in the student performance including their understanding on the materials covered in the lectures. Also, the students requested to continue such practices in teaching complex subjects in the field of civil engineering in order to enhance their interest and experience.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
6th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2008 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Thamer, A. M.; Aziz, A. A.; and Huat, B. B. K., "Incorporating Case Study and Site Visit for Teaching of Earth and Hydraulic Structures at Universiti Putra Malaysia" (2008). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 7.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/6icchge/session11b/7
Incorporating Case Study and Site Visit for Teaching of Earth and Hydraulic Structures at Universiti Putra Malaysia
Arlington, Virginia
Case studies are widely used in civil engineering research but not in education and training. Case studies are important in the teaching of various subjects in the field of civil engineering. Site visits can also help to facilitate the students in recognizing and understanding the behaviour of structures and systems, especially when the students do not have any idea about them. The field of civil engineering covers a wide range of structures ranging from small to mega structures. Usually, small structures are seen regularly by the student and their behaviors are easy to comprehend. But mega structures such as dams are located far from the students and most of the students do not have any idea about their real configuration and their problems after and during construction. The Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia in applying the Outcome Based Education (OBE) addresses many programme objectives, one of which is life long learning. In the present study, the authors’ experiences in incorporating case study and site visits concerning earth dams in teaching two courses, namely Earth Structures and Hydraulics and Hydrology in order to address the life long learning objective is discussed. The feedback of the students on using case histories including data and site visits were analyzed and showed improvement in the student performance including their understanding on the materials covered in the lectures. Also, the students requested to continue such practices in teaching complex subjects in the field of civil engineering in order to enhance their interest and experience.
