WIP: Problems and Promises of Online Lectures for the Mechanics of Materials related Courses during and after COVID-19

Jayanta Banerjee

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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: Materials Division Technical Session 2
Page Count: 6
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40377
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40377
Download Count: 232

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Jayanta Banerjee University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus

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Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez (UPRM).

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Abstract

ABSTRACT

Since March 2020, when the COVID-19 problems started in teaching at the university level, I have been offering three courses, all related to the Mechanics of Materials, starting with elasticity, yield strength, plastic instability and fracture mechanics of some manufacturable solid materials, and the lubricants and coolants applied to their processes. Before the pandemics, I used to bring into my in- presence classes a lot of materials for demonstration and used to hand them over to the students for observation, and for touching and handling them to get some “feelings”. For example, in the Manufacturing Processes course, I would bring some products made of bamboo, such as a set of cutleries made in Thailand, and pass them over to the students as an example of “Green Manufacturing” for sustainable, pollution-free manufacturing processes. Similarly, during the course on Tribology, I presented cans of contamination-controlled industrial coolants and lubricants, as well as examples of chemically corroded manufactured products for the lack of proper pollution-free storage environment. While by no means these are laboratory courses, such on-the-table demonstrations help the students develop consciousness on sustainable, pollution-controlled development in such courses where the mechanics of materials and its proper use are of utmost importance. In an online lecture such a direct presentation of the artefacts, as in archaeology, in front of the students is missing!

Undoubtedly, there are many promises of online lectures in the future of distance learning. A few years ago in a TIME magazine article, Dr. Rafael Reif, President of MIT, noted that online teaching would be easier for the students and less expensive for the university. In asynchronized classes, for example, the students could work fulltime during the day and read the recorded lectures at night, or vice versa. Furthermore, students, especially those with young families, don’t have to move from place to place, from semester to semester, between the workplace (probably in a different city!) and the college campus. There are other advantages, both for the students and for the university. The expenses are cut down in “virtual labs”! But can they replace a “real lab” experience where accidents happen that don’t occur on a laptop screen? Our Work-in-Progress (WIP) study will try to answer some such questions based on our lecture and lab experiences in the coming semesters. The current paper is an introduction to the problems and promises.

Citation
Format

Banerjee, J. (2022, August), WIP: Problems and Promises of Online Lectures for the Mechanics of Materials related Courses during and after COVID-19 Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40377

TY - CPAPER
AB - ABSTRACT

Since March 2020, when the COVID-19 problems started in teaching at the university level, I have been offering three courses, all related to the Mechanics of Materials, starting with elasticity, yield strength, plastic instability and fracture mechanics of some manufacturable solid materials, and the lubricants and coolants applied to their processes. Before the pandemics, I used to bring into my in- presence classes a lot of materials for demonstration and used to hand them over to the students for observation, and for touching and handling them to get some “feelings”. For example, in the Manufacturing Processes course, I would bring some products made of bamboo, such as a set of cutleries made in Thailand, and pass them over to the students as an example of “Green Manufacturing” for sustainable, pollution-free manufacturing processes. Similarly, during the course on Tribology, I presented cans of contamination-controlled industrial coolants and lubricants, as well as examples of chemically corroded manufactured products for the lack of proper pollution-free storage environment. While by no means these are laboratory courses, such on-the-table demonstrations help the students develop consciousness on sustainable, pollution-controlled development in such courses where the mechanics of materials and its proper use are of utmost importance. In an online lecture such a direct presentation of the artefacts, as in archaeology, in front of the students is missing!

Undoubtedly, there are many promises of online lectures in the future of distance learning. A few years ago in a TIME magazine article, Dr. Rafael Reif, President of MIT, noted that online teaching would be easier for the students and less expensive for the university. In asynchronized classes, for example, the students could work fulltime during the day and read the recorded lectures at night, or vice versa. Furthermore, students, especially those with young families, don’t have to move from place to place, from semester to semester, between the workplace (probably in a different city!) and the college campus. There are other advantages, both for the students and for the university. The expenses are cut down in “virtual labs”! But can they replace a “real lab” experience where accidents happen that don’t occur on a laptop screen? Our Work-in-Progress (WIP) study will try to answer some such questions based on our lecture and lab experiences in the coming semesters. The current paper is an introduction to the problems and promises.

AU - Jayanta Banerjee
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - WIP: Problems and Promises of Online Lectures for the Mechanics of Materials related Courses during and after COVID-19
UR - https://peer.asee.org/40377
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40377
ER -