Author(s): Stefan Walder; Peter Rutschmann
Linked Author(s): Peter Rutschmann
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: In this contribution a “Virtual Hydraulic Laboratory” and its integration into hydraulic engineering education is presented. It consists of two main parts, namely the web-based platform “Virtual Hydraulic Laboratory” and New Media technologies. Both of them are applied to improve hydraulic engineering education and to analyze the possibilities of innovative technologies especially by using online tools. The core of the platform consists of two and three dimensional numerical simulations of hydraulic experiments and films of physical models, which where integrated into a fully didactical concept. The simulations and films were used to explain descriptively difficult mainly transient hydraulic tasks to students. In practical use the dynamical interpretations of such problems have a lot of advantages, which are also pointed out in this contribution. As a further part the application and evaluation of New Media technologies, namely Wikis and other online tools, summarized in Web 2.0 technologies for hydraulic engineering education, are presented. Different scenarios for integration are shown and assessed for their use in hydraulic engineering education. The results show that the application of New Media technologies provides a great potential for practical engineering utilisation as well as for the application as teaching/learning medium. The results of the user evaluations also show that the implementation of the produced content in a fully didactical concept, like the presented “Virtual Hydraulic Laboratory”, is very important to improve teaching and learning.
Year: 2009