Shekh-Abed, A., & Barakat, N. (2022, August), Changes of Project Based Learning Effectiveness due to the COVID-19 Pandemic  Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40402

\bibitem{asee_peer_40402}
  Shekh-Abed, A., \& Barakat, N. (2022, August), \emph{Changes of Project Based Learning Effectiveness due to the COVID-19 Pandemic}
  Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Minneapolis, MN.
  10.18260/1-2--40402

Aziz Shekh-Abed and Nael Barakat.  "Changes of Project Based Learning Effectiveness due to the COVID-19 Pandemic".  2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN, 2022, August.  ASEE Conferences, 2022.  https://peer.asee.org/40402 Internet.  13 Mar, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_40402}
  Aziz Shekh-Abed and Nael Barakat.
  "Changes of Project Based Learning Effectiveness due to the COVID-19 Pandemic".
  \emph{2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Minneapolis, MN, 2022, August}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2022.
  https://peer.asee.org/40402 Internet.  13 Mar, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_40402
author = "Aziz Shekh-Abed and Nael Barakat"
title = "Changes of Project Based Learning Effectiveness due to the COVID-19 Pandemic"
booktitle = "2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2022"
month = "August"
address = "Minneapolis, MN"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/40402}
number = {10.18260/1-2--40402}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Project based learning (PBL) is an effective student-centered method to improve students’ understanding. However, most PBL learning techniques rely heavily on a sequence of activities which require interaction with other humans or components and equipment in the laboratory.  For many years, this method has proven effective and reliable particularly in STEM education.
During the year when COVID-19 hit the world, PBL based education was implemented in the same exact manner as previous years to teach a course in electronics to senior students in high school.  However, remarkable deterioration was observed in students’ performance within this STEM course during this unusual year of the pandemic.  The only change in educational practices was that all PBL steps were carried out using remote tools and in a social distance setting. The change in results raised many questions regarding the resilience of the used methods and techniques as well as its level of reliance on circumstances as significant factors in its effectiveness. These observations triggered this study where the target was of twofold: First, the study targeted understanding the factors influencing PBL effectiveness reflected by students’ performance deterioration and identifying the subgroup of factors which were altered by the COVID-19 situation. Second, based on findings from the first part, the target was to propose corrective strategies that will improve the resilience of current interventions or reduce its dependence on circumstances which might change, such as what occurred during the pandemic.  Students' performance was monitored and assessed in an electronics course at a high school during the pandemic using different assessment tools.  Results were compared to similar sets collected when the course was conducted before the pandemic time.  Results showed that students' performance in PBL decreased as instruction moved from face-to-face to remote mode. Timely interaction was mostly affected by this sudden change within a short time reflecting a need for better preparation, communication, and innovation to improve the independence of PBL from circumstances.

AU  - Aziz Shekh-Abed
AU  - Nael Barakat
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Changes of Project Based Learning Effectiveness due to the COVID-19 Pandemic
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/40402
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--40402
ER  -