Teaching, Learning and Assessments (TLA) in Civil Engineering Laboratory Courses in Open Distance Learning (ODL) during Covid-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a true challenge to students and educators in the teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) of the psychomotor domain integral in laboratory experiment and design work. The pandemic has opened venues for open distance learning (ODL) with a completely new outlook for educators. The objective of this paper is to examine the suitability of the alternative TLA methods adopted in laboratory courses in ODL during the pandemic. Document review was carried out on various laboratory courses for a civil engineering programme in Universiti Teknologi MARA. The findings show that the assessment methods commonly used during ODL are individual and group reports, lab demonstration, video presentation, laboratory projects, online tests, individual online interviews, home-based mini projects, peer evaluation, and simulation using various software. Each alternative assessment was evaluated based on three (3) criteria which are the relevancy of knowledge, TLA activities, and suitability of the TLA activities to address the respective learning domain of the courses. Overall, the alternative assessment methods used during ODL were found to be relevant in imparting knowledge in laboratory courses, except for the development of specialist knowledge (WK4) as students are not able to utilize the equipment in the laboratory. Meanwhile, alternative activities are found less suitable to address the psychomotor domain imparted in the learning outcomes that involve specified equipment or machinery. Finally, the alternative assessments are found to effectively capture the cognitive skills and the programme outcomes related to knowledge application (PO1) and analysis (PO2) but are less effective in capturing investigation skills (PO4) addressing the psychomotor domain. © 2022, Asian Journal of University Education. All Rights Reserved.

Effective Implementation of Complex Engineering Problems and Complex Engineering Activities in Malaysian Engineering Curricular

The Engineering Accreditation Council Standard 2020 requires the stipulated 12 programme outcomes that address complex engineering problems (CEP) and complex engineering activities (CEA) to be incorporated in the engineering programmes. However, the implementation of outcome-based education with regards to CEP and CEA is still in the infancy stage. This study was carried out to give an overview of the implementation of complex engineering problems and activities in Malaysian engineering programmes in relation to the types of assessment used to address CEP and CEA, and the typical weightage and taxonomy level of CEP and CEA employed in these assessments. A survey questionnaire was administered to 256 engineering educators from 25 universities to enquire about the implementation of CEP and CEA in their engineering programmes, particularly in the online teaching and learning during the Covid19 pandemic. The findings showed that most of the programmes addressed complex engineering problems in assignments or projects as compared to final examinations or mid-term tests. Complex engineering activities were found to be addressed in Final Year Project, Industrial Training and Integrated Design Project and laboratory courses. The findings in this study could act as a guideline for educators to enhance the teaching and learning activities incorporating CEP and CEA elements, and hence facilitating the continual quality improvement for an engineering programme. © 2021

Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Road and Transport Sectors using Relative Importance Index

The road and transport industry are few of the sectors most impacted by COVID-19. Thus, the movement restrictions were put in place by most of the countries in the world including Asia and Australasia to manage the pandemic. This has disrupted the supply chains and mobility networks and the overall economic slowdown. Some of the impacts has seriously affected transport operator finances, including revenue and cash flow, moving many companies closer to bankruptcy. With road and transport sectors as the key driver of economic and social activities, the recovery from COVID-19 in countries all over the world is at risk. Thus, this paper presents the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on road and transport sectors in Asia and Australasia based on a quantitative method through an online questionnaire survey. One hundred and seventeen (117) participants from various countries and background have responded and gave their feedbacks on the impact factors. The findings shows that the top five (5) factors impacting the road and transport sectors are suspension of current activities and operations, followed by the reduction in company's revenue, profits, cashflow, turnover, interruption in construction planning and scheduling, transport disruptions to supply chains, mobility network and public transport usage and the transport travel pattern and ridership. This study is limited to number of survey samples as indicated in the paper. Only on the surface impact was measured in this study. Thus, it is recommended to carry out details analysis on the impacted area to investigate the magnitude and scale of the impacted area to road and transport sectors due to COVID-19 pandemics. © 2021 IEEE.