eQUILIBRIUM – an interactive, web-based learning platform for structural design

e-QUILIBRIUM is a comprehensive, web-based e-learning environment for teaching structural design in D-ARCH at ETH, and available to a wider audience for self-study.
e-QUILIBRIUM will approach structures teaching in an exciting and engaging manner using interactive drawings based on graphical methods, such as graphic statics, through which students can intuitively explore the relation between form and forces in structural systems and learn how to design efficient and expressive structures.
The e-QUILIBRIUM website will provide theoretical background about structural design and engineering corresponding to the students› curriculum at D-ARCH (and maybe later also D-BAUG), interactive drawings that illustrate the theory, and references for further reading.
It will feature tutorials about graphical methods to teach the students the techniques used in the interactive illustrations so that they can make their own drawings for class assignments or to explore structural form in their design studio projects.
e-QUILIBRIUM will provide forums for students to post questions or take part in discussions about the material covered on the website, and databases of user-contributed drawings and projects that serve as reference or source of inspiration.
The e-QUILIBRIUM project aims at becoming the reference for structural design teaching and graphical methods in the world.

The eQUILIBRIUM platform is in its current implementation self-sufficient, flexible and robust. Improvements could particularly be made in the «topics» section, which should be further developed. This section could become the main browser through all the material on the site. In general, more, and more explicit, connections between different sections should be established
Another improvement would be to provide a different way for students (and other users) to have meaningful interactions with each other and the teaching team about the content of the website, and the interactive drawings in particular. A discussion/comment system, similar to that linked to blog posts, related to the publicly available interactive drawings is currently under investigation.
The inclusion of the planned parametric CAD tool for graphic statics, GeoStat, will be an important addition to the platform as it will allow the users to create, save, post and exchange their own interactive drawings, and hence have them even more (inter)actively learn graphic statics, to design expressive and efficient beautiful structures.

Students have expressed their appreciation of having a fully integrated platform through which they have web-based access to all (passive and (inter)active) material related to the courses Structural Design I+II. Also, the availability of all this material in digital format, thus no longer requiring an abundance of paper, was greatly appreciated.
Students found the platform clearly structured and easy-to-use.
The constant availability of all this material and the low threshold for use has allowed them to work more independently and better organize their work according to their own schedule and needs.
Some students have requested more introductory interactive graphic statics drawings, particularly in preparation of the exam. This request has to some extent already been addressed by some of the latest additions to the drawing repository.
Students especially liked and used those drawings that specifically addressed a difficult topic in their course material, or that could be used directly in an exercise or project. Because of this, the drawings about beams and frames (moment diagrams) and trusses were the most popular.

Flexibility is key – It is impossible to plan ahead for all possible aspects of your project. Therefore, having a setup or framework (digital or otherwise) that offers the greatest possible flexibility is indispensable.
Plan for updates – As a natural consequence of the previous remark, time for making changes and performing updates should be integrated in the project schedule. Since these changes and updates will almost certainly be necessary, failure to include them in the projects timetable will unavoidably results in the missing of deadlines and goals.
Continuous feedback: Providing the time and means for updates and modifications is obviously pointless if there is no feedback to work with.
Technical robustness – When developing a web-based learning environment, do not underestimate the difficulty of dealing with different operating systems, browsers, platforms, internet connection speeds, but also skill levels of users. Issues with e.g. compatibility can quickly cause frustration, resulting in the immediate loss of motivation of the user.