Experiencing the Transition to Remote Teaching and Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted universities around the world. In the two weeks following a shelter–in-place order, all the actors of the educational system were forced to transition to remote education. This shift required a new reliance upon technologies that these individuals might never have adopted at all, often with significant difficulties. In this paper, we present a qualitative study on a university-wide survey dataset describing student and faculty experiences of abruptly transitioning to remote teaching and learning during the spring 2020 semester at the Pennsylvania State University. We performed an inductive thematic analysis to identify the challenges and opportunities that arose during the transition. Our findings contribute to building better tools, curriculum, and supports for remote education, particularly during an unexpected crisis

Selected aspects of IBL in STEM-education

This article focuses on an important category of modern education in contemporary society based on innovation as well as SMART, and analyses Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL), inquiry-based science education (IBSE), problembased learning and project-based learning in the context of STEM education. “At the third millennium in the midst of the digital age, it is expected that emerging technologies will be able to accelerate scientific literacy and enable the majority of citizens to enjoy the blessing of STEM.“ (Chen, 2017: XV) Additionally, the authors analyse advantages and some aspects STEM education, contemporary trends in modern professions and present several examples of good practice. The article also presents the results of research carried out among academic staff, teachers and students on educational trends and technologies. The survey showed a huge gap between the students’ needs and the proposals for organizing the educational process put forward by teachers and academic staff. Interdisciplinarity - an important concept related to STEM-education is highlighted. The authors describe and compare educational technologies, IBL, PBL, PrBL. The stages of IBL provide an opportunity to analyse and implement educational technology in the educational process. In particular, the authors offer instruments for IBL. One of them is the creation of an inquiry learning space Go-Labs that allows for connecting different applications to organize activities at all stages of the research process

Learning from the Voices of Faculty: An Analysis of the Impact of Shelter-in-Place on Faculty at San Jose State University in Spring 2020

This is a research paper based on an in-depth study conducted in Spring and Summer 2020 at San José State University College of Engineering that focuses on the students and faculty experiences during the shelter-in-place due to COVID-19. There were four parts to this study. In this paper, we focus on the interviews of 23 faculty members that taught in Spring 2021 (18 lecturers and five tenure-track and tenured faculty members). Seven women and 16 men were interviewed and they worked in almost every department in the College. The interviews were conducted via Zoom in Summer 2020. The faculty members had a variety of years teaching at SJSU: nine faculty members taught for 0-5 years, six faculty members taught from 6-10 years, two faculty members taught from 11-15 years, and six faculty members taught for more than 15 years. The interviews asked open-ended questions of the faculty members and used a thematic analysis approach to analyze the transcripts. The results of the interview analysis indicate that there were commonalities of experience in Spring 2020 after the unexpected shelter-in-place. Most of the faculty members had never taught online before and they struggled with switching to remote instruction. This paper gives a detailed analysis of the faculty voices about their experiences and present recommendations based on this analysis

Faculty perceptions of online learning in engineering education

textResearch indicates there is a gap in the implementation of online courses and programs in engineering education compared to other academic disciplines (Allen & Seaman, 2008, 2011, 2013). Using a mixed methods approach, this study collected both quantitative survey and qualitative interview data to identify which factors engineering faculty members perceived influence the implementation of online engineering courses. The survey items, based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Model (UTAUT) (Davis, 1989; Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003), included important factors specific to engineering education as indicated the literature. The interview instrument was developed based on the significant results of the survey portion of the study. The initial survey was sent to every engineering faculty member at all 31 institutions and 125 ABET accredited engineering programs in the state of Texas, with a final response population of n=266. The findings identified three major factors that influenced the implementation of online engineering courses: online teaching experience, course development issues, and implementation of technical aspects particular to engineering in an online format. The results are discussed within the context of the literature and recommendations to address the identified factors and barriers to implementation of online engineering are provided.Curriculum and Instructio

Learning Mechatronics Using Digital Live Labs

Practical skills training in laboratories are important elements and learning outcomes in engineering education, where leaners, through exploration, experimentation and reflection engage in inquiry-based learning that stimulate the acquisition of deep conceptual domain knowledge and inquiry skills. Traditional lab environments are very costly to maintain, partly unsafe and often require proximity of instructors and/or students that is in conflict with the Covid-19-driven need for physical/social distancing. In this paper, we describe and evaluate a course in logic control that used online labs both in pure online and in hybrid format. Students reported very high satisfaction with all three formats and achieved similar learning performances. However, qualitative analyses indicate that student learning is deeper and more authentic in the on-campus and hybrid formats compared to the pure online format. Teacher reflections show an overall positive impression of online labs. In conclusion, we recommend the hybrid format as it combines the benefits of online and physical labs, i.e., the flexibility of online laboratory work and realism of hands-on physical laboratory work

Learning Mechatronics Using Digital Live Labs

Practical skills training in laboratories are important elements and learning outcomes in engineering education, where leaners, through exploration, experimentation and reflection engage in inquiry-based learning that stimulate the acquisition of deep conceptual domain knowledge and inquiry skills. Traditional lab environments are very costly to maintain, partly unsafe and often require proximity of instructors and/or students that is in conflict with the Covid-19-driven need for physical/social distancing. In this paper, we describe and evaluate a course in logic control that used online labs both in pure online and in hybrid format. Students reported very high satisfaction with all three formats and achieved similar learning performances. However, qualitative analyses indicate that student learning is deeper and more authentic in the on-campus and hybrid formats compared to the pure online format. Teacher reflections show an overall positive impression of online labs. In conclusion, we recommend the hybrid format as it combines the benefits of online and physical labs, i.e., the flexibility of online laboratory work and realism of hands-on physical laboratory work

Pandemic-induced course and assessment changes for undergraduate engineering education: The Development of Graduate Attributes

Educators constantly need to make adjustments to their pedagogy and learning activities to reflect the fast changes in society, the economy and industry. This has been clearly demonstrated throughout the world in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic required fully remote delivery of tertiary education. The aim of this study was comparing the experiences and perceptions of tertiary students in a fully online and a blended delivery mode, particularly in response to their laboratory skills and development of graduate attributes. Pedagogical aspects were kept consistent across delivery modes to minimise the differences in learning activities across cohorts. A comparison was made between the 2020 fully online cohort and the 2021 blended delivery cohort. The students were asked about their perceptions of how well they thought the course developed their graduate attributes; how authentic they thought the course was; and how easy the content was to navigate and understand. A mixed methods approach was used, where both quantitative and qualitative data was gathered. The blended delivery mode students appeared to benefit from having a specific reflective task, which allowed them to see their learning in a broader context. The paper discusses the blending and online learning from the students’ perspectives of developing graduate attributes and experiential learning. Specifically, where hands on skills are required, students need further guidance in “learning how to learn” or metacognition. A key challenge for future blended learning is getting the balance right between achieving efficiency in online learning and lack of social and dynamic interactions aspect of the online community

Teacher Candidates’ Conceptions and Practices of Computational Thinking for Equity

This study documents novice science and math teachers’ developing pedagogical approaches to integrating computational thinking (CT) and data into their courses to support educational equity and social justice. The 10 novice teacher candidates (TCs) studied were part of an urban teacher residency program that empowered them with an asset-based pedagogy we describe as “CT for Equity.” Drawing on coursework and interviews as data, we asked three questions: What are teachers’ conceptions of CT? What are their CT instructional practices? And how did their students respond to those practices? To explore conceptions of CT, we used Kafai et al.’s (2020) articulation of three frames of CT – cognitive, situated, and critical approaches – and found that the TCs’ conceptions do not narrowly fit into one of the three frames, but rather they mix and match components of the perspectives to support a range of student outcomes, from transferable skills to preparing youth to explore social justice issues. We also identified a small but powerful set of core practices that the teachers used to support learning outcomes, including integrating data on locally and socially relevant issues. We present group-level trends and three classroom stories, or profiles of practice, to illustrate the generative ways TCs blended priorities from the three frames in instruction. The diversity in the TCs’ conceptions and practices deepens understandings of asset-based pedagogies in CT by shining light on the rich and varied ways that math and science teachers meet the needs of their minoritized students