Gamifying structural analysis assessments for first-year architecture engineering students

The structural analysis module is a challenge for both teachers and students. The module content is usually presented to students in the form of a set of equations when solved, the structure of internal forces is obtained. Usually, the assignments adopted in such modules are paper-based exams. Such a strategy may assess the capacity of the students to employ different sets of equations to solve a problem. However, this is not enough for a vivid educational atmosphere. Transforming these equations into a digital simulation is the best solution for the education process. Digitalization is more appealing to nowadays students and it gives the teacher a wide spectrum of discussions without the hindrance of calculations time. It is also a mitigation for the online teaching process during the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper presents a digital simulation of different structures using a simple tool that enables students to visualize the simultaneous interaction between geometry, loading, boundary conditions, and internal forces. Furthermore, transforming this tool into an offline mobile app helps both the teacher and the student to gamify the investigation of any structure.