Student Engagement in an Online Engineering Afterschool Program During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic forced much of schooling online and limited students' access to informal learning opportunities such as afterschool programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate how fourth-and fifth-grade students engaged in an online engineering program and what factors influenced their engagement. We drew on a four-dimensional model of student engagement to describe how students engaged in the afterschool engineering program and to identify the factors that enhanced or inhibited engagement. Using a case study design, we drew on interviews with six program mentors and ten students and observation data from weekly Zoom sessions throughout the 2020–2021 school year. We found examples of all four dimensions of engagement, but also of disengagement. The program influenced student engagement in multiple ways, including through the program mentors' social, pedagogical, and managerial roles, students' interest in and enjoyment of engineering, the drawbacks and benefits of the online learning environment and Zoom's affordances, and the nature of the program's activities. We connect these factors to the different dimensions of engagement. We conclude with a discussion of how our findings add to research on engineering education in informal online settings and offer implications for practitioners. © 2022, Purdue University Press. All rights reserved.

An Exploratory Analysis of the Impact of COVID-19 on Engineering Programs and Undergraduate Students

The rapid spread of COVID-19 across many parts of the United States (U.S.) in the early spring of 2020 required universities across the country to make dramatic changes, the most visible of which was closing their campuses to faculty and students and moving instruction online. Information about how universities, engineering programs, and engineering faculty in the U.S. responded to the changes remains limited. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify the changes engineering faculty made to policies, practices, and courses and to begin to understand how the changes affected undergraduate engineering students. We utilized a cross-section research design in which we collected data from over 200 engineering faculty via an online survey. We analyzed the data descriptively and using basic inferential statistics. We found that all universities moved instruction online and most closed campuses. Multiple offered additional financial aid to students. Few engineering units took steps beyond what university leaders already had. Engineering faculty implemented a range of changes to their courses, including the elimination of assignments. We observed that most changes made assignments less collaborative and interactive. Finally, faculty reported hearing about students' multiple concerns, ranging from academic and technical challenges to challenges at home. We encourage universities to offer more support to faculty and students as online learning continues across the U.S. In particular, we recommend more outreach to students to build and maintain strong ties to the university and engineering units.