ABSTRACT
Each year, second-year University of Waterloo Civil Engineering students participate in a bridge design project referred to as CivE Design Days. This two-day event was created to enhance student learning by promoting a friendly, mildly competitive, and student-led environment where second-year course concepts are applied to a comprehensive design activity. The project is split into four stages: preliminary design, bridge construction, bridge testing, and project reflection. The preliminary stage required students to apply their knowledge in highway design to propose a preliminary road between two locations which must cross a wide river. Students must draw from their mechanics courses to propose a bridge design that will support the traffic crossing the river. In the bridge construction and testing stages, students must demonstrate communication skills as they work together to build a scaled bridge model. After testing, students are asked to reflect on their designs and identify areas of improvement. Historically, all stages of the project were completed by in-person student teams, working in a design shop. In 2020, obstacles arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which made gathering students for in-person events impossible. As a result, an online version of the CivE Design Days was developed with the primary goal being to achieve the same learning objectives in the online environment. In 2021, subsequent changes were made and a hybrid version of the design project was introduced, with in-person and remote participants working together and in parallel to accomplish project objectives. This paper discusses challenges encountered and methods used to manage them through the transition of the project activities from in-person to remote, and then subsequently to a hybrid format. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022