According to the Universitat Politècnica de València School of Architecture (ETSA-UPV) web page, “The Degree in Fundamentals of Architecture provide the basis, foundations and tools to train professionals capable of creating architectural projects that satisfy the aesthetic demands and the techniques and requirements of their users, within the limits imposed by budgetary factors and construction regulations”.

This degree allows access to the Master's Degree in Architecture, which is the qualification that, according to the Spanish Building Act (Act 38/1999 of 5th November 1999) enables the professional practice as an architect.

The structure of this degree consists of 5 years in which the students have to complete 300 ECTS credits (60 credits each year) and where the Structural Design modulus accounts for 15% of the total workload in years 3 and 4 (9 ECTS credits), and 7.5% (4.5 ECTS credits) in the last year.

Structural Design III course is focussed on the Analysis and Design of steel structures according to the Spanish Code DB SE A (CTE) being the main goal of the subject that, at the end of the course, the student will be able to design and calculate all a whole steel structure: columns, beams, trusses, bracing systems, joints and base plates.

The teaching activity is developed during the 9th semester (year 5). The students are enrolled in six different groups of about 60 members. Four of the groups are taught in Spanish, (Two in the mornings, and two in the afternoons). One group is taught in English language and another in Valencian language, both in the mornings.

Considering that the workload of this course is barely 45 face to face hours, it is intrinsically assumed that, to reach this goal, the students have a robust background in structural design after taking Structural Design I and II. However, the reality is that, because the university policies allows the enrolment of the students in Structural Design III despite having failed Structural Design I and II, the scenario that professors face every year is quite heterogeneous.

The main goal of this paper is to share the challenges and issues that the professors of structural design III have to face each year, and in particular during the last academic year (2024-25). With this purpose, the student’s results of the last four years have been analysed, detecting the main weaknesses in the resolution of the practical part of the exam. The diagnosis of the problem has been completed with the responses of the students of the 2004-25 academic year to a survey designed for this objective.

Considering the results of this analysis, different strategies have implemented to improve the student’s performance in the last Structural Design course of the degree before the Master's Degree in Architecture. Focus on the problem-based learning, self-study tests have been designed, combined with one-minute paper at the end of each unit for formative assessment reasons and to provide feedback from the students. Additionally, being essential to know where each student is in his or her learning process as an individual, but also where he or she stands in relation to the group, the use of rubrics and peer assessment has been implemented.

Keywords: Structural design, steel structures architecture students.