Distance learning in engineering education: Challenges and opportunities during COVID-19 pandemic crisis in Pakistan

This paper analyzes the impact of remote classrooms and labs as an outcome of “social distancing” during COVID-19 outbreak. It is important to analyze the emergence of web technologies and tools available for online learning and its impact on engineering education. The intended focus is to find a way out to address the issues regarding continued teaching and learning during long academic breaks due to this unpredicted pandemic. Some challenges in developing economies include the unavailability of internet services all over the country and limited resources accessible to large community to earn and learn during such epidemics. This study outlines various policy guidelines for online delivery of engineering courses and assessment techniques as experienced during this global pandemic. These guidelines will provide a roadmap for quality teaching and evaluation of online engineering courses.

Innovation in Web-Enhanced Learning

While virtual universities and remote classrooms have captured the headlines, there has been a quiet revolution in university education. Around the globe, the information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure needed to support Web-enhanced learning (WEL) is well established, and the Internet and the World Wide Web (the Web) are being used by teachers and students in traditional universities in ways that complement and enhance traditional classroom-based learning (Observatory of Borderless Education, 2002). The Web is most frequently used by traditional universities to provide access to resources—as a substitute for, or complement to, notice boards, distribution of handouts, and use of the library (Collis & Van der Wende, 2002). Therefore, most of the change has been incremental rather than transformational. Adoption of WEL has yet to meet its potential—some would say the imperative (Bates, 2000; Rudestam & Schoenholtz- Read, 2002)—to change the nature of learning at university and to transform the university itself.

Innovation in Web-Enhanced Learning

While virtual universities and remote classrooms have captured the headlines, there has been a quiet revolution in university education. Around the globe, the information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure needed to support Web-enhanced learning (WEL) is well established, and the Internet and the World Wide Web (the Web) are being used by teachers and students in traditional universities in ways that complement and enhance traditional classroom-based learning (Observatory of Borderless Education, 2002).