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Remote Laboratory-Based Learning in A Thermal Fluid Course

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies Division Technical Session 1: Experiential Learning in Fluids, Structures, and Course/Lab Design

Page Count

16

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40425

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/40425

Download Count

195

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Paper Authors

biography

Mohammad Biswas The University of Texas at Tyler

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Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at University of Texas at Tyler. Interests in laboratory education, project based learning and renewable energy education.

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Ola Al-Shalash University of Texas at Tyler

biography

Nael Barakat The University of Texas at Tyler

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Dr. Barakat is currently serving as a Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Tyler. Dr. Barakat is a professionally registered engineer in Ontario, Canada, a Fulbright Specialist, and is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Dr. Barakat holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from McMaster University, Ontario, and a Master Degree from Concordia University, Canada. He is also the recipient of multiple awards including the ASME Edwin Church Medal (2020), ASME McDonald Mentoring Award (2014), ASME Dedicated Service Award (2011), and GVSU Distinguished Early-Career Award (2010). Dr. Barakat has served in many leadership positions for professional organizations such as ASME and ASEE. Dr. Barakat is also a program evaluator for ABET and a consultant for engineering programs development and evaluation under other systems. Dr. Barakat is an active consultant who is currently collaborating with international teams of professionals from academia and industry to build capacity and education programs in areas such as: Engineering Leadership, Engineering Ethics, Professionalism, Societal Impact of Technology, Curriculum Development, and Communication. Dr. Barakat expertise and interest include also the areas of Mechatronics, Control, Robotics, Automation, and Nanotechnology Education.

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Abstract

Most educators look for experiential learning elements to engage students through interactive concept practice, thus leading their students to reach improved levels of comprehension. The COVID-19 pandemic created a unique challenge for instructors forcing them to adjust their laboratory-based courses and to adapt to a new remote educational medium involving experiential learning. Many innovative ways came to light and were implemented by educators to overcome this challenge. This includes simulations, recorded experiments, and live experiments run by the instructor and watched by students remotely, to name a few.

Along the same line of efforts to alleviate challenges to experiential learning imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a remotely accessible experimental system was developed, tested, and employed to provide students an interactive and live hands-on learning experience. A heat exchanger system was built and tested with active involvement from students. The system was tested for remote access through an interactive computer interface to run an experiment and obtain measurements of various in-process parameters of the heat exchanger using a data acquisition system. After completion of the testing phase, the system was integrated over two academic terms in a thermal fluid laboratory course. Indirect and direct assessment of students’ comprehension and engagement as they used the remote laboratory activity was carried out to evaluate the experiential learning experience for the students. The student feedback regarding remotely operating the heat exchanger system was mostly positive and the direct assessment data shows that the learning experience for students was not impeded during the pandemic due to the utilization of the new device. The system will continue to be implemented in future course offerings. Such a remote laboratory experience has shown great potential to complement and even enhance experiential learning experience of students in a laboratory course. Future plans include building and integrating more similar experimental devices and setups to enhance our preparedness for the unknown.

Biswas, M., & Al-Shalash, O., & Barakat, N. (2022, August), Remote Laboratory-Based Learning in A Thermal Fluid Course Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40425

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