Teaching civil engineering course with videoconference and blackboard

The World Wide Web has become a hub for accessing and sharing information. From an educational point of view, it can be used as a platform for centralizing information pertaining to a given topic. If planned and carried out wisely, this centralization can be very useful in education. When combined with interactive two-way videoconference system technology, a real impact on education can be achieved by connecting students in various locations in real time. This is especially true when one is dealing with engineering course such as Structural Analysis in which students in various locations are trying to learn new analysis concepts and techniques. This paper describes an effort to complement classroom instruction Structural Analysis with educational tool called Blackboard and with learning environment technology of videoconference-delivered subjects. The author's findings are corroborated by the results of a survey that was administered to the students through the Blackboard system itself.