scholarly journals EXPERIENCES WITH REMOTE TEACHING OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING LABORATORY AND PROJECT COURSES

Author(s):  
Casey Keulen ◽  
Christoph Sielmann

COVID-19 has profoundly affected many, if not all, Canadian engineering courses during the2020/2021 academic year, many of which transitioned to online teaching. Delivering hands-on, highly interactive laboratory and design project courses is particularly challenging to do remotely. We present and reflect on experiences with remote teaching of three hands-on laboratory courses in a new Manufacturing Engineering program at the University ofBritish Columbia (UBC). These courses include MANU 230: Manufacturing Laboratory, MANU 330: Manufacturing Engineering Project I, and MANU 386: Industrial Automation. All three courses are taught in the same laboratory/classroom by one of the authors. In general, it appears that the students appreciated the remote lab experiences provided. However, it wasapparent from both survey data and informal feedback that students preferred in-person laboratory sessions. While, perhaps not an ideal method of delivering these types of courses there appears to be some place for remote laboratory classes in the future.

Author(s):  
Sama’a Al Hashimi

As universities move to virtual learning, the need to explore the most effective practices for remotely teaching art and design students became very critical. It is very important to examine the strategies universities are using to efficiently transfer skills and knowledge and meet the needs of students through an online learning environment. Art and design classes involve hands-on activities and requirements that cannot easily be met in digital environments. Therefore, the study aims to investigate the creative approaches that art and design educators adopted to transition to remote teaching. The study involved conducting an online focus group with eleven art and design educators at The University of Bahrain to investigate the experiences, perceptions, and the challenges they faced while teaching art and design remotely during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The focus group engaged the educators in a semi-structured discussion in order to gather qualitative data that would allow for a descriptive analysis of their online teaching experiences and the most effective approaches they implemented. Thus, the study is undertaken to determine the most effective practices that can be employed by educators to engage students and enhance the distance learning process in an art and design online environment. The findings suggested that the main challenges that are peculiar to art and design distance learning include difficulty in clearly seeing the value of the colors in a student’s artwork on screen and the unavailability of features that support art and design remote teaching in the currently available learning management systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-182
Author(s):  
María Perramon ◽  
Xus Ugarte

Abstract At a time when the advances in information and communication technologies meant that new approaches to virtual teaching and learning could be proposed, the teaching staff on the degree in Translation and Interpreting at UVic decided to offer part of the degree in distance learning mode. This learning mode was launched in the 2001–2002 academic year, with optional face-to-face teaching sessions some Saturdays and coexisted with the traditional face-to-face courses. During the first years, the fourth-year interpreting specialisation subjects were not taught online for technical and pedagogical reasons. Since the 2014-2015 academic year, we also teach these subjects online. The challenge that we face starting the 2017-2018 academic year is twofold: 1. To adapt the online teaching of interpreting subjects to groups with a high number of students in the new Inter-university Degree in Translation, Interpreting and Applied Languages jointly offered by the University of Vic and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). 2. To adapt the contents and methodology of interpreting subjects to changes in professional practice: telephone and videoconference interpreting, especially in liaison interpreting. In our paper, we will show some online teaching resources, as well as several online tools which we use in our courses.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurora Antonio Pérez ◽  
Ana Laura Torres Huerta ◽  
Rígel Valentín Acata Gómez ◽  
Roberto Delgado Duran ◽  
Manuel Jaime Rodríguez ◽  
...  

With the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, professors had to accelerate their adaptation to the use of digital and remote media to continue with the education of students. Online teaching lab courses present great challenges, as many lab courses are designed to learn from hands-on and real-world exploration. Laboratory courses generally focus on deepening understanding of content and developing skills in experimental techniques. Added to this, the possibility of providing the experience of executing protocols and manipulating equipment, can hardly be achieved with a completely digital model. To promote better learning of laboratory subjects, kits were developed by professors to conduct laboratory practices at home. The students had the opportunity to execute biotechnology protocols following instructions and remote guidance from their professors. Conducting experiments at home,had a high acceptance rate as an efficient tool to learn various skills compared to digital tools.


Author(s):  
David Torvi ◽  
Scott Noble ◽  
Doug Bitner ◽  
Melanie Fauchoux ◽  
Rob Peace ◽  
...  

Since the mid-1980’s, the mechanical engineering program at the University of Saskatchewan has included three core third and fourth-year lab courses, each of which consists of 9-10 individual labs. In 2015 a task group was set up to review these courses, including deliverables, scheduling and links to material in corecourses. Since this time, the task group has taken on the major responsibility for continuous improvement of the lab program, including reviewing student evaluations, making changes to labs, and recommending equipment purchases.  The task group has also been responsible for a major redesign of the lab program, which will improve delivery and scheduling of labs, alignment with core courses, workload of students, and experience gained by graduate teaching assistants. Smaller apparatus have been designed and built in-house to allow students to gain additional hands-on experience. Labs have been designed to build on one another in order to systematically improve students’ general laboratory skills, including the use of data acquisition systems and experimental design. This new approach was used for the first time in ME 328 in 2019-20.  This paper will focus primarily on the role of the task group in continuous improvement, and the lab program redesign.  The new ME 328 course is described, along with lessons learned from the first offering. The task group’s role in moving to remote labs during COVID-19 is also discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 226-235
Author(s):  
Nandyal Panduranga Sobhana

The outbreak of COVID -19 was unforeseen and it forced all the Saudi universities to close the campuses and launch online teaching. This paper focused on challenges envisioned in online teaching using Blackboard system. Analytical and descriptive methods of quantitative research was used to analyse and describe the challenges and perceptions of the faculty with regard to online teaching on blackboard, anticipating that the results would form a basis to improvise online teaching in post corona era. The sample of the study constituted 25 faculty members of the Department of English, Samtah University College, Jazan University. A closed and open-ended questionnaire was used to assess the challenges of the university faculty with regard to online teaching and online training program on blackboard. In online teaching, the faculty require digital skills, tools, and instructional strategies than in a conventional face-to-face classroom teaching. They should collaborate with each other working hands-on to integrate online teaching with instructional strategies and find effective ways to support the success of online students. It is important to note that students should be relieved from anxiety and ensured that they would actively engage themselves in online learning. Summing up this research study, the researcher has observed from the analysis of the faculty questionnaire, that the faculty were ready to accept the change from the conventional mode of teaching to modern day online teaching in the post corona era, assuming that technological issues involved are properly taken care of.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-29
Author(s):  
TSVETELINA GEORGIEVA ◽  
TZVETELIN GUEORGUIEV ◽  
SEHER KADIROVA ◽  
BORIS EVSTATIEV ◽  
NIKOLAY MIHAILOV

The paper presents an analysis of the use of digital learning materials in engineering laboratory courses. Interviews have been conducted with lecturers from several engineering faculties of the University of Ruse ‘Angel Kanchev’, such as: the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Automation, the Faculty of Transport, and the Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. The aim of the interviews is to investigate the capacity and understanding of the lecturers in respect to using digital learning materials in laboratory courses. The obtained results demonstrate that digital learning materials are perceived as a useful tool to achieve better engagement of students in the educational processes. This would require continuous additional efforts by the teaching staff and permanent updating of their specific and digital competences.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lulzime Kamberi ◽  
◽  
Alina Andreea Urlica Dragoescu ◽  

Recent developments in response to the Covid-19 pandemic have had a substantial impact on students, teachers and content delivery modes around the globe. This paper reports the efforts of the University of Tetovo (UT) in North Macedonia (NM) and Banat’s USAMVB University “King Michael I of Romania” to find rapid and efficient means of switching from direct to remote course delivery while maintaining effective communication. Acknowledging that little space was available for training teachers and learners to prepare for such rapid changes, this study examines how students responded. Applying exploratory research methods, the paper offers a preliminary analysis of the difficulties that learners faced in shifting to online presentation. Qualitative data was collected using student interviews and content analysis (Silverman, 2005) was applied to identify themes, biases and meaning. Convenience sampling among enrolled students in the academic year 2020/2021 at both universities identified a non-random sample of 16 students. The findings of the study revealed that participants faced many difficulties in their venture; however, using various strategies, effective planning and organization, they managed to a certain extent to overcome this situation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-142
Author(s):  
Vehbi Miftari ◽  
◽  
Suada A. Dzogovic ◽  
Anela Dzogovic ◽  
Blagojka Zdravkovska-Adamova ◽  
...  

The focus of this research is education during the coronavirus pandemic in Southeastern European countries (Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia). It encompasses elementary education, high schools and higher education. The aim of the research is multiple. With it, we want to present methods of distance learning during the pandemics in the above mentioned countries, challenges and advantages that have emerged, as well as potential solutions for removing faults. This is primarily qualitative research relying on several methods. We conducted interviews to understand the experiences of different stakeholders participating in the education process. This research also relies on quantitative data, i.e. researches doing by The University of Prishtina, Pedagogical Institute of Kosovo, as well as results of opinion polls and research conducted by Student Parliament and Senate of the University of Sarajevo. Their research was conducted throughout the academic year 2020/2021. Also, we compiled different texts from media, as well as statements from different stakeholders. Our method is primarily inductive – because in some cases general ideas and conclusions about distance learning in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina are based on different individual examples. Information in this research in relation to the section on North Macedonia is mainly based on three sources: Data from the website of Ministry for Education and Science of the Republic of North Macedonia; Morphosis Foundation Survey from September 2020 entitled Status and Challenges for Managing Online Teaching in Primary School; and Findings from the research with directors, teachers, and parents: Experience and Attitudes about Distance Learning, a document prepared by Reactor. Our key conclusion is that Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia were not an exception regarding to the problems that arose during the pandemic in terms of education, such as online teaching, adapting students to new learning conditions, training of teachers for teaching in extraordinary and new circumstances, assessment criteria, etc. However, the situation has also brought opportunities to re-think existing education models and to find new solutions at schools and universities.


Author(s):  
Katerina Talianni ◽  
Eleni Ira Panourgia ◽  
Jack Walker ◽  
Roxana Karam

The plethora and availability of digital tools and practices have transformed the ways art is created, perceived and disseminated. This had a distinct impact on how research is conducted across the arts and humanities as a whole from practice-led to process-focused and people-centred research. Airea’s first issue “Computational tools and digital methods in creative practices” germinated from a series of research focuses that began in 2016 when the research network (sIREN) was established by PhD students in Edinburgh College of Art, the University of Edinburgh. sIREN's aim is to create a dialogue between several fields and promote new perceptions of research based on diverse methodological approaches. It seeks to form a platform of communication among arts and other disciplines, technologies and digital media, theory, practice and collaboration. For this, we organised a series seminars-workshops during the academic year 2016-2017 that brought together invited speakers from the University of Edinburgh (across Edinburgh College of Art, School of Education, School of Informatics, Edinburgh Centre for Robotics and School of Geosciences), the University of Warwick (Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies), the University of Newcastle (School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape) and the National Library of Scotland, followed by an international conference in May 2017, which included an interactive format of hands-on workshops, papers and a performance session.


Author(s):  
Ana Medina López ◽  
María Luisa Delgado Jalón ◽  
Ángeles Cámara Sánchez

The coronavirus crisis has led to a succession of urgent changes in the field of university education. At Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), during the first half of 2020, teaching was adapted to the online modality, learning methodologies were transformed and online evaluation was implemented. The university already had a digital platform, although the change had to deal with certain obstacles as some professors and/or students lacked the adequate technological means or did not have the necessary digital skills to abruptly adapt to the new context. When facing next academic year planning, the 2020-21, in the specific case of the Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences (FCJS), which hosts 57% of the total number of students at the URJC, it was necessary to draw the new scenario in which it was decided to return to the classrooms according to a hybrid system. Teachers and students have noted the importance of classroom teaching due to advantages such as the richness of the study environment and university life with all its implications. Given the diversity of the degrees taught at the FCJS, we conclude that online teaching enables interaction between teacher and student but limits the development of certain skills of students in key aspects of this formative stage. Resumen La crisis del coronavirus en el ámbito de la educación universitaria ha dado lugar a una sucesión de cambios urgentes en la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC). Durante la primera mitad del 2020 se adaptó la docencia a la modalidad online, se transformaron las metodologías docentes y se llevó a cabo la evaluación online. La universidad contaba ya con una plataforma digital, aunque el cambio no estuvo exento de obstáculos ya que algunos profesores y/o alumnos carecían de medios tecnológicos adecuados o bien no contaban con las habilidades digitales necesarias para adaptarse de forma abrupta al nuevo contexto. Para afrontar el siguiente curso 2020-21, en el caso concreto de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales (FCJS), que acoge al 57% del total de estudiantes de la URJC, hubo que planificar el nuevo escenario en el que se optó por el regreso a las aulas según un sistema híbrido. Docentes y estudiantes han constatado la importancia de la docencia presencial por ventajas tales como la riqueza del entorno de estudio y la vida universitaria, con todas sus implicaciones. Dada la diversidad de los grados que se imparten en la FCJS, concluimos que la docencia online posibilita la interacción entre docente y estudiante, pero limita el desarrollo de ciertas habilidades de los estudiantes en aspectos clave propios de esta etapa formativa.


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