Peer Review

Strength of Materials Supplement for Power Engineering

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: The open textbook is a complement of a general Applied Strength of Materials open textbook. It covers all the topics required by the Power Engineering curriculum. The current work complements the open textbook through end of chapter summary and highlights of the fundamental concepts, problem solving hints and procedures, and new chapter questions relevant to Power Engineering
Type of Material:: Open (Access) Textbook
Recommended Uses:: The best use of this material is for practice/reinforcement of topics from this course and to explore further topics in detail. This text is best used for a student to supplement in-class learning but can be used by others to explore some niche topcis.
Technical Requirements:: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers were used to access the material. It seems that all facilities are active for any browser.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The purpose of this text is to supplement the Applied Strength of Materials for Engineering Technology textbook and additional concepts/example problems are complied in this text to reinforce topics.
Target Student Population:: College General Ed, College Lower Division
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Need some basic knowledge of statics, physics, and mechanics of materials background.

Rating:
Strengths:: At a basic and practical level, the structure of contents is correct. The book contains the basic core concepts in the discipline. The course continues developing the engineering foundation set in Principles of Statics and Applied Mechanics. A set of proposed exercises are included at the end of each chapter to help the understanding of concepts. Numerical solutions of the proposed problems are given at the end of the book. The problems were developed in such way that they are relevant to Power Engineers. A limited, short list of open-link references is included for interested readers. The open textbook present links to external sources of information.
Concerns:: The links of references need periodical update as internet addresses can change at any time. The book is mostly a collection of formulas that can be applied to practical problems. For effective comprehension of engineering concepts, the book needs to use simultaneously a general textbook on Strength of Materials, as equations and definitions are simply presented as facts to be accepted with little accompanying foundational explanations. The list of references is quite short for an interested reader. More detail/derivations would be appreciate but considering this is a companion text it is not appropriate.

Rating:
Strengths:: Very effective text for learning/practicing concepts. The addition of example problems in this text will be great for student learning. Learning objectives are presented at the beginning of each chapter. The concepts are built progressively and based in prior concepts. Relations between concepts are easily stated by means on internal links of the book.
Concerns:: As a standalone text I would say it is too terse/concise and needs to expand but it goes along another text which is more comprehensive in the background provided. The material does not allow the measure of learning outcomes.

Rating:
Strengths:: Ease of use as e-book. Downloadable in epub, digital pdf, printed pdf and MOBI format. Textbook usable directly on the website. Web links to external sites for background and/or extended information.
Concerns:: Visual design could be improved with drawings and schemes.