Enhancing traditional classroom instruction with web-based Statics course

A web-based Statics course is being developed by the authors as part of the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University. OLI seeks to create and sustain freely available, cognitively informed learning tools designed to provide a substantial amount of instruction through the digital learning environment. This paper highlights the potential opportunities of online learning materials to enhance a traditional lecture-based course. We also identify the challenges that online materials face in promoting learning in an engineering course in which problem solving is intimately tied with drawing, and with writing and solving equations. Examples that illustrate the potential benefits of online materials, and that address the challenges associated with learning engineering courses, are presented. Finally, user studies and initial experience in blending these materials into an ongoing Statics course are summarized.