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Reflection on Design Teaching Before, During and After Pandemic

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED) Technical Session 4

Tagged Division

Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED)

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44073

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44073

Download Count

268

Paper Authors

biography

Reem Roufail University of Waterloo

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Reem Roufail is a materials engineer that is interested in engineering teaching and applying new technologies to engage students in class. Reem believes that learning is a continuous process that does not end with earning a degree. This explains her willingness to explore different fields of engineering as opportunities to learn. She explored mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, petroleum engineering, systems design, and biomedical engineering in her career paths from an academic perspective.
Recently she has successfully led and supported Biomedical engineering and Systems Design engineering programs at the University of Waterloo to apply the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) graduate attribute and continuous improvement approach to the programs. That intrigued her to dig deeper into teaching-learning pedagogy. The abrupt changes that the pandemic brought to the education system, were a trigger for her to realize that change is coming to how we do things. However, before we jump into applying a change, we should understand the impact of the change from all stakeholders' perspectives.

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Lisa Lachuta

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Christine Moresoli University of Waterloo

biography

Rania Al-Hammoud University of Waterloo

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Rania Al-Hammoud is a lecturer and the current associate chair of undergraduate studies at the civil & environmental engineering department at university of waterloo. Dr. Al-Hammoud has a civil engineering background with research focusing on materials and the rehabilitation of reinforced concrete structures. She also has passion for engineering education and has published widely in this area. She cares about the success and well-being of her students, thus always being creative with the teaching methods in the classroom.

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Abstract

The pandemic caught the world by surprise. Everyone had to adapt in their own discipline to carry out their job tasks in a safe manner, mostly remotely if the job would allow it. Teaching and learning are no different. Instructors at all levels had to quickly learn and adopt tools that could allow remote online teaching. While online courses are not novel their use in Engineering undergraduate education has been quite limited in Canada prior to the pandemic. Traditionally, Engineering teaching relies on in-class communication and interaction with students. The need for in-class interaction and discussion is even more significant in design courses, which are mostly teamwork, project-based, and open-ended case studies. The online delivery of design courses generated concerns from students in regard to the quality of learning. At the University of Waterloo, the design courses in Systems Design Engineering and Biomedical Engineering programs are the backbone and signature of the two programs. Design core courses are taught in seven out of the eight academic terms from 1st year to 4th year. The level of complexity of the courses increases as the students advance in their academic paths. In this paper, the academic performance of students in design courses before the pandemic (in person), during the pandemic (online), and coming back after the pandemic (in person) is discussed. The comparison is based on the overall grades of the students and their learning achievements measured against the design graduate attribute (GA) as per the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) requirement. Students’ performance is also compared to the instructors’ perspective based on a general survey given to the instructors. The paper will discuss lessons learned, and tools introduced and utilized for online teaching that can be maintained for the future delivery of design courses.

Roufail, R., & Lachuta, L., & Moresoli, C., & Al-Hammoud, R. (2023, June), Reflection on Design Teaching Before, During and After Pandemic Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44073

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