Online Learning in the post-pandemic era: Some Lessons Learnt from the Covid19 Pandemic Terms

In this paper we present some ideas of what we consider a model for online Engineering courses in the post pandemic era should include. As universities worldwide returned to the campuses after two long years of online teaching in some countries, some lessons or good practices could be taken for designing new models for online teaching in the coming years. Online education has shown its value during the pandemic terms and students and universities are now moving on new teaching models that could benefit from online education. In this work we present some perceptions of what a group of students in a Mexican private university think of their overall online experience during the pandemic terms and some ideas or suggestions that are given based on their own experience for universities to consider when designing new teaching models that include online education. © 2022 Owner/Author.

Students Perceptions of a Hybrid and Flexible Teaching Model for Post-Covid-19 Normality

In this work we present a hybrid model that can be applied in theoretical Engineering courses, combining flipped learning, collaborative activities and online tutorials. A total of 200 students that participated in online courses with the authors responded a survey. The results include what in the students' perception was the best implementations of online courses, what makes a course attractive and motivating for students and also, what should be avoided in future implementations of courses that need to be taught in an online format. Some of the results show that students did not enjoy courses where lecturing was the main element during most of the session. The recommendations included in this work deal not only with the type of contents an online course should have but also with certain details about some recommended courses professors could take in advance, that is, before they start teaching online and some other recommendations that can make a model like this one a successful model for online teaching in a post-covid world.

Didactic model for the optimization of ventilation in rooms with the presence of CO2

This project arises from the need to contribute to the improvement of ventilation in buildings with multiple rooms. The COVID-19 pandemic forces us to look for alternatives to natural ventilation for energy savings as well as creating more comfortable work spaces without sacrificing the health of users. The mock-up presents a model of extraction ventilation. Optimizes the flow depending on the quality of the air. This work carried out at the IES Escolas Proval is part of an Innovation Project awarded in the current 2020-21 academic year with the participation of the IES Val Minor and the company Hermes Smart Control.

An infrastructure 3D-lab based on virtual visits at Call of Duty Warzone to Develop Student's Competencies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The didactic methods in the teaching of Engineering, Architecture, and Construction (EAC) are changing. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), Virtual Reality (VR), and if we add to this a video game such as Call of Duty: Warzone (CoD: WZ) for educational purposes, the benefits of this could be explored. Until now, the advantages of BIM, VR, and video games have been studied separately, however, there is no evidence of an approach that implements all three technologies. The research in this study consists of the development of a methodology for the implementation of a user-friendly application of the Infra-3D-Lab software with specific pedagogical objectives for EAC education. This study based on the development of high-tech educational tools aims to: 1) make more effective use of learning hours through playful interaction with BIM, VR, and CoD: WZ models;2) improve skills and concepts that are difficult to explain theoretically and 3) evaluate the functionality of the learning environment. The implementation of this technological tool is developed in the context of EAC's national higher education programs at a university in Mexico. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of using a remote collaborative tool Infra-3D-Lab as a teaching method for EAC. Additionally, this study shows that the learning experience can be enhanced using other technology tools such as Unreal Engine and Revit. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

Network for the continuous monitorization of environmental quality in educational buildings

In this article we present a measurement network designed to improve air quality and energy efficiency in educational centers. We have made prototypes with carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity and light sensors with network connection for remote storage and processing of data, as well as autonomous prototypes. The design and construction of the equipment has been accelerated by taking advantage of previous experiences and has been carried out by the electronics teachers and students of the IES Escolas Proval de Nigran (Spain) within the framework of an Innovation Project granted by the Xunta de Galicia. The IES Val Miñor of Nigran also participates in the project in the development and interpretation of data, and the company Hermes Smart Control acts as a technology transfer center and has made a commercial product. The project has already been extended to other educational centers, taking measurements that demonstrate its usefulness for the application of ventilation regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic and are planned future uses such as automatic ventilation control or the improvement of energy efficiency in the educational buildings. © 2022 IEEE.

Didactic Model for the optimization of ventilation in rooms with the presence of CO2

This project arises from the need to contribute to the improvement of ventilation in buildings with multiple rooms. The COVID-19 pandemic forces us to look for alternatives to natural ventilation for energy savings as well as creating more comfortable work spaces without sacrificing the health of users. The mock-up presents a model of extraction ventilation. Optimizes the flow depending on the quality of the air. This work carried out at the IES Escolas Proval is part of an Innovation Project awarded in the current 2020-21 academic year with the participation of the IES Val Miñor and the company Hermes Smart Control. © 2022 IEEE.

An Effective Methodology for the Attraction of Students into Engineering Programs for Post-Covid Normality

In this paper we present a methodology based in simple constructions for the solution of scaled real problem situations. This methodology was used during the pandemic terms in our university in the years 2020 and 2021. The first objective of this work is vocational orientation of future Mechanical, Industrial and Innovation Engineers. The second objective was to develop competences in students of the fifth and sixth semesters of a high school level. In order to achieve these objectives a process that includes challenges and problem situations was established. These challenges and problem situations cover vocational orientation and some pre-defined competences. A total of 300 students participated in these activities during one year and half, during lock down conditions and over 100 students in the new normality conditions on campus. Results show that the objectives were fulfilled and the activities contributed in the attraction of more students into Engineering programs. © 2022 IEEE.

Cooperative and interdisciplinary project of carbon dioxide measurements for high school students

This article presents an interdisciplinary and integrating project between two spanish high schools (IES Escolas Proval and IES Val Miñor) and the company Hermes Smart Control located in Nigrán, Galicia. It is a proposal for the study and measurement of environmental parameters (in particular, carbon dioxide) between different educational levels such as Vocational Training and Secondary with massive use of ICTs to carry out the different tasks. The results confirm that Project Based Learning greatly contributes to the integration of interdisciplinary activities in the teaching-learning processes. Moreover, it is a demonstration that it is possible to involve our students and teachers in the search for solutions to reduce the risk of COVID infections in closed spaces like the classrooms. The project has generated innovative materials, methodologies and systems that, in times of a pandemic, have provided good responses to current needs and that may have future applications. The project has received an award for technological and scientific innovation in vocational training granted by the local Government (Xunta de Galicia). © 2021 IEEE.

The Academic and Emotional Impact of Virtual Construction Site Visits on Students during a Pandemic Period

During the years 2020 - 2021, students and lecturers have faced motivational and academical challenges like no other generation before them. Lecturers have found themselves looking for innovative activities that make the interaction student-teacher more dynamic and less screen-based, while maintaining all the fundamental elements of the academic program. Like many curricula, Civil Engineering programs have had to endure important changes to adapt to the necessities of the contingency due to COVID-19. One of the most important changes has been the inability of attending construction sites due to the pandemic conditions. Using technological tools such as Zoom Meetings and Facebook Live, we are proposing virtual visits as an alternative that makes construction sites visits plausible during a pandemic. The main objective of this work is to present the positive impact of virtual construction site visits in students during a contingency period, both in academical and emotional aspects. This study will also reinforce the benefits of construction site visits and the importance of maintaining them via a virtual visit for the completion of a Civil Engineering program particularly in the area of Structural Design. Construction site visits has always been a highly valuable element of Civil Engineering programs. It allows students to visualize construction processes and translate the numerical activities studied in the classroom to tangible projects. With the pandemic and the stay-at-home guidelines, construction site visits have a positive distraction factor from reality, becoming an element that motivates the students to participate and divert themselves from the current situation, additionally to the academical benefits that the visits provides. We did a qualitative investigation by interviewing 121 undergraduate students from different courses of the Civil Engineering program just after our virtual visit activity, to find out their perspective of the benefits they obtained academically and emotionally. We arrived at the conclusion that the alternative of a virtual site visit has indeed motivated the students and that they value being able to maintain the academical elements of the construction site visit. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

A Hybrid and Flexible Model for Structural Engineering Courses: Lessons Learnt During the Covid-19 Global Pandemic

This work presents the latest results on how to successfully apply a hybrid and flexible model for teaching Engineering Courses, particularly Structural Mechanics courses to students from Architecture and Civil Engineering programs during emergency conditions such as those due to the Covid19 Pandemic. This model has been used for the last few years with tremendous success in the performance of the students and their overall satisfaction as it has been shown in [1]. For the pandemic conditions, the synchronous sessions were changed from the classroom on campus to the online classroom with videoconferencing. Some new types of activities were included for online teaching such as video documentaries and also some modifications were made to the standard synchronous sessions, which are discussed in this work. A total of 200 students have taken the courses that use this model during the spring term, summer term and fall term of 2020. The students come from different cities across Mexico and are located in three different time zones. These students answered a survey that include several aspects of the online experience: problems faced by students when connecting online, type of connections available at their homes, preferred type of sessions, courses that are better suited for online teaching and their personal experience with the course, among others. This paper shows the results of the analysis of the questions answered by the students and some important graphs are included. Some recommendations are also given that future implementations of hybrid and flexible (HyFlex) models can take into account for a better overall experience of both, students and professors in Structural Engineering courses. This model can also be applied for the new normality where some toggle terms are expected, that is, some weeks on campus and some weeks with online teaching as new covid19 cases are detected in each region. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Guided Learning Sequences as an e-Learning Enhancer During COVID-19 Emergency Conditions

During 2020, COVID-19 dramatically changed the way in which students receive and analyze information from their teachers, classes have moved from face-to-face sessions into synchronous virtual meetings and asynchronous homework, increasing stress levels in students. This Evidence-based Practice paper explores Guided Learning Sequences as a content delivery strategy which allows the student to receive information, think about its meaning, put it into practice, and receive instantaneous feedback in order to reinforce their learning process. Empirical evidence from 108 students in a Business Mathematics course shows a statistically significant decrease of students' stress level when exposed to the proposed methodology. As well, a pre-test post-test analysis of a sample of 45 of those students shows evidence of positive impact in student's performance. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

A Remote Robot Based Lab to Develop Competencies in Engineering Students during Covid19 Pandemic

The use of laboratories on Campus during the current year 2020 has been difficult due to the global covid19 pandemic. Using the experience of some challenges developed in past years during a week called the "i-week" in our institution we developed a methodology to apply the same challenges but with remote access to a manufacturing cell made of educational robot kits. The operation of these robots through the internet has allowed students to continue their programs without having to be at the university campus. The results show that remote labs with educational robots can be a good alternative when the pandemic conditions do not allow for on-campus activities.