Session: CIE-05-01CIE Graduate Student Poster Symposium

Paper Number: 74830

Start Time: August 18, 10:00 AM

74830 - Going Digital: Evaluating the Effect of the Rapid Transition to Virtual Learning Due to Covid-19 on Student Experiences in an Engineering Design Course 

First-year design courses are a vital part of engineering education, as they increase self-efficacy, boost motivation, and strengthen engineering identities through hands-on, project-based learning. However, these courses were significantly disrupted during the rapid shift to virtual learning due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The course structure changed significantly to adapt to a virtual format, and stay-at-home orders meant students were unable to access resources on campus. This work aims at investigating the effect of the rapid transition to virtual learning on the experiences and learning outcomes of students enrolled in a first-year engineering design course using survey data, scraped data from the university learning management system (Canvas), and subsequent in-depth semi-structured interviews. This poster presents the quantitative analysis of the survey data and scraped data from Canvas, and preliminary qualitative results of students' responses to open-ended questions querying their experiences during and after the rapid transition to virtual learning. The final results of this work would allow educators to design future curricula based on the identified effects of the transition, provide insight into the positive elements of virtual learning that may be transferred to in-person learning environments, as well as build on prior work on the effectiveness and design of virtual learning environments.

Presenting Author: Sandeep Krishnakumar The Pennsylvania State University

Authors:

Sandeep Krishnakumar The Pennsylvania State University
Torsten Maier The Pennsylvania State University
Sarah Ritter The Pennsylvania State University
Christopher Mccomb The Pennsylvania State University
Jessica Menold The Pennsylvania State University