Baltimore , Maryland
June 25, 2023
June 25, 2023
June 28, 2023
Committee on Effective Teaching Presents: Teaching Mode Active-ated
Civil Engineering Division (CIVIL)
Diversity
11
10.18260/1-2--44603
https://peer.asee.org/44603
234
Dr. Ghada Gad is an Assistant Professor in Construction Engineering at Cal Poly Pomona. She received her PhD in Civil Engineering (Construction emphasis), from Iowa State University. Her main areas of research is in construction management focusing on con
Professor
B.S. Civil Engineering, University of Guanajuato, Gto, Mexico, December 1999.
M.S. Civil Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, May 2003.
PhD. Civil Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS , May 2008.
Dr. Palomo is currently a Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). In this position, Dr. Palomo is responsible for teaching courses such as Introduction to Civil Engineering; Hydraulics; Water and Wastewater Treatment; Groundwater Mechanics; Research Experience of Undergraduate Students; and Engineering Outreach Service Learning courses, among others. She is also a faculty advisor for the California Water Environment Association (CWEA), and Engineers Without Boarders (EWB) student chapters. Additionally, Dr. Palomo is the CE Water Analysis laboratory director and coordinates all teaching, research and safety training activities in the engineering laboratory. Dr. Palomo conducts research in surface water quality improvement via natural treatment systems, water and wastewater treatment processes, and water education. She is involved in outreach programs for K-12 students to increase the participation of Hispanic female students in STEM fields
Dr. Cheng received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University. His research focuses on highway safety, statistical modeling, traffic operation and management. He won the nationally recognized “2008 Young Researcher Award†presented by TRB Committee on Sa
During spring 2020, the world pandemic forced XX‘s CE program to move all its courses (both lectures and laboratories) to be delivered in a fully virtual mode. Starting March 2020 of the spring semester through the following academic year as well as during the summer of 2021, all the courses were offered virtually. The CE department student population includes 45% of underrepresented minority students (first generation, low income, adults, veterans among others) who pre-pandemic already had their own set of challenges of just attending school. This virtual learning mode exacerbated the students’ living conditions, by adding a new stress level of learning in a virtual environment. The objective of this paper is to investigate how the students adapted to this new virtual learning environment, the challenges they faced, and the new learning opportunities that emerged. To achieve this objective, two surveys were distributed to the ~1,200 undergraduate students of the CE department (Civil and Construction Engineering programs) for two consecutive years (spring 2020 and spring 2021). The two surveys received a 20% response rate representing 20% of the student population at large (250 students). The survey included questions related to the benefits and disadvantages of the virtual learning environment, the student preference for the learning modes for lectures and laboratories, their ability for virtual learning as digital learners, their need for hands-on experiences, and their overall preference for virtual vs face-to-face delivery modes. The survey results analyzed indicated that the majority of the respondents preferred the face-to-face and hands-on environment for the laboratory classes. However, it was also recognized that fully synchronous or asynchronous learning provided students some unprecedented opportunities for a better quality of life including less time while commuting and parking (compared to pre-pandemic) and more time to rest, exercise, and even study. In addition, some students expressed that they became more environmentally aware of their carbon footprint and that they would prefer to have lectures in fully synchronous, asynchronous, or hybrid modes to reduce their negative impact on the environment. Lastly, some senior students expressed that they would be looking for jobs that would allow them to do some work from home to preserve this new lifestyle. These results have led the XX CE department to evaluate the virtual and hybrid delivery of courses as potential instruction modes to support students in future semesters.
Gad, G. M., & Palomo, M., & Cheng,, W. (2023, June), Virtual or Face-To-Face Learning Mode: Is That the Question? Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44603
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2023 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015