The major of civil engineering (structural engineering) requires graduates to have adequate knowledge concerning structural design and a certain level of engineering practical application ability. For students minoring in civil engineering, there are issues such as tight schedules, heavy tasks, and high learning difficulty. An academic investigation on the difficulties encountered in minor course teaching has been conducted and solutions are proposed. During the investigation, the concrete structure course, which values both theory and practice, is taken as an example. It is shown that the theoretical foundation of students taking minor courses are weak, the teaching time for students from different majors is difficult to arrange, prolonged class may lead to fatigue of teachers and students, and it is difficult for students to catch up if they fail in the exam. Therefore, lecturers should pay attention to the vividness and retrospectivity of theoretical knowledge teaching, which can be realized through experiments, animation videos and online courses. Moreover, the cultivation of practice ability should be highlighted. The teaching time for theoretical knowledge and engineering practice should be reasonably planned. Case study of engineering application examples and accident cases can be carried out to develop the problem-solving ability and professional responsibility of students.