Assessment of Engineering Mechanics Instructional Multimedia in a Variety of Instructional Settings

1 Abstract Students from ten schools, representing seven countries, used interactive multimedia as a part of their engineering statics classes. The software consisted of four modules, which focused on: Mohr’s Circle; Centroid and Moment of Inertia; Stress Transformation; and Structural Analysis. The students completed on-line surveys about their experience with the software. Analysis of the results indicated that students rated their knowledge of the subject matter covered in the software as increasing significantly as a consequence of using the software. However, this increase was substantially more pronounced for students in U.S. schools. Students rated the software as significantly more effective than their class textbooks, and, again, this effect was substantially stronger for students in the U.S. The analyses also indicated that the software differed little in its impact on males versus females. Ratings on a number of additional outcomes were consistently positive with respect to student opinions of the software.