ABSTRACT
Western Carolina University (WCU) is a regional comprehensive university in a rural part of western North Carolina. The School of Engineering and Technology at WCU houses four undergraduate, residential programs - Electrical Engineering (EE), Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology (ECET), Engineering with Mechanical and Electrical Power Concentrations (BSE), and Engineering Technology (ET). Two of the programs are primarily electrical in nature - EE and ECET, while the other two are primarily mechanical - BSE and ET. The EE and BSE programs are accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET;the ECET and ET programs are accredited by the Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC). The school has built curricula that integrate all four programs into five common courses, designated the project-based learning (PBL) sequence. Thus it is common for a faculty member to teach a PBL course with students from all four programs, integrated into interdisciplinary teams. The balance of theory and application varies amongst the programs: the two engineering programs (EE and BSE) have a stronger emphasis on theory and design, while the two engineering technology programs (ECET and ET) place more weight on application. Given this difference in emphasis, the impact of disruptions such as COVID-19 to engineering and engineering technology programs might be different. In the Spring semester of 2020, academic institutions across the United States significantly adjusted content delivery as a result of COVID-19. Adjustments to course delivery have continued into the Fall semester of 2020 and Spring semester of 2021. These adjustments have affected many people on every campus. This paper presents the impact of changes due to COVID-19 on teaching and learning for students and faculty in the School of Engineering and Technology. Data were collected from students in the form of a survey that explored the impact of COVID-19 in the classroom. Perceptions of learning in three course formats (face-to-face, hybrid, online) and two online delivery methods (asynchronous, synchronous) offered in 2020 were surveyed. Student perception of instructor behavior and student expectations of their instructor during the pandemic were also assessed. This paper evaluates the differences in those impacts for engineering (EAC) and engineering technology (ETAC) programs. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
During a pandemic such as COVID-19, many institutions need to increase the portion of online instruction and enforce social distancing in the classroom. It is challenging to maintain the same level of hands-on lab experience, and yet lab experience is essential for many courses and perhaps the most effective pedagogy to help students learn. There are three alternatives to traditional labs: (1) purely virtual simulations, via an app or software, an online platform, or a virtual environment;(2) remote labs to run experiments on actual hardware hosted off-site via internet and parallel access;and (3) individual lab kits so that each student can have a complete set of toolkits to conduct experiments. The choice depends on budget, software and hardware compatibility, and, practically, product availability. The authors explored all three options in summer 2020 and chose the third option across multiple courses in our engineering and technology programs in fall 2020 and spring 2021. This paper presents the exploration results of all three options and provides detailed recommendations concerning how the lab kits may be best utilized. For analog and digital circuit labs, there are several crucial functionalities that the lab kits need to provide, such as AC and DC power supplies, oscilloscopes, digital I/O's, or FPGA, and an adequate number of channels for each. Most lab kits integrate Analog-to-Digital and Digital-to-Analog converters to achieve such functionalities. The lab kits also need to be affordable and portable. We have tested multiple devices in order to assign appropriate lab kits to several different courses based on course needs. Besides the health benefit to use individual lab kits, every student must be engaged in the individual labs, whereas in group labs using bench-top devices in a lab setting, some students may hide out when their team members are doing the majority of the work. Understandably, the portable lab kits will be limited in their voltage, current, and frequency ranges, and there will be some courses that require certain lab equipment that are beyond such lab kits' capabilities. The constraints of the lab kits that we have tested and evaluated are reported in this paper, as well. The solution presented in this paper provides ideas and inspirations to other institutions, as we share the common goal to maintain and hopefully enhance the students' hands-on learning experience. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
Given the ongoing and unprecedented situation that COVID-19 has brought to higher education, and like many other Engineering Schools and Colleges across the U.S., during the Fall term of 2020, the College of Engineering and Technology (CET) at Western Carolina University (WCU) modified their traditional method of instruction, from a face-to-face method to a broadly defined hybrid and online instruction (both synchronous and asynchronous) methods. The engineering students at WCU, a regional comprehensive institution with a high first generation population, have chosen this institution because of the high level of interaction and individualized attention offered in the small-size classes during traditional face-to-face instruction. This change in instructional methodology brought challenges that affected both students and faculty. The modality change, along with combined social and environmental factors caused by the pandemic restrictions, has limited the activities among students such as social interaction, facilities availabilities, etc. An observational questionnaire was conducted to better the understanding of the aforementioned influence. This effect is studied by observing the students' attitude towards learning in the different modalities of instruction during the Fall 2020 term. The survey of 26 questions with some open-ended opportunities was distributed to 775 students in the CET. In this paper, the survey analysis was conducted based on how the students responded to those questions. The results present the difference in the attitude of students among different class standings. Additionally, this paper provides some suggestions to help to motivate the students in the circumstance of the pandemic restrictions. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021