ABSTRACT
The Mechanical Engineering program at Western Kentucky University (WKU) provides an undergraduate-only, project-focused curriculum. Students are given instruction and must demonstrate their abilities to execute team-based design and to build projects in all of their four years of study. The pedagogical basis for their required design classes is governed by a Professional Plan, assuring that by graduation all ME students experience key areas of the engineering profession and show the ability to perform at an acceptable professional level. The authors of this paper have delivered the freshman and sophomore design classes at WKU for more than a decade. The courses are stable;student performance in all aspects of design have been consistently assessed and deemed successful. The stability of this aspect of the curriculum was thrown into considerable turmoil with the Covid pandemic in spring 2020 - no different than for other schools throughout the world. The spring design courses were completed in a very reactionary manner, making the best of challenging circumstances. The fall 2020 and spring 2021 classes are being delivered with more time to plan for possible disruptions and also to deal with greatly augmented university requirements related to health and safety. The Professional Plan for the WKU design sequence includes: Engineering Design (executing a structured, team approach to solving problems through meaningful projects);Professional Communication (in written, spoken and graphical forms);Professional Tools (CAD/CAM/FEA as well as a variety of calculation and communication tools);and Professionalism (ethics). At the freshmen and sophomore levels, students experience their initial team design project and then a second project with more technical expectations. They are learning and practicing all of the Professional Plan components, with the goal that juniors/seniors will be independently capable of implementing more rigorous team projects, and will be prepared to implement design and build projects subject to ever more realistic constraints and external customer needs. This paper will provide specific details of our adjustments to the freshman and sophomore design sequence in the 2020-21 academic year, based on the original implementation of these classes, the rapid changes required in spring 2020, and the ongoing current delivery. The courses are now being delivered via a combination of face-to-face and synchronous online sessions, and asynchronous online modules. The sequences of activities for the classes have been adjusted considerably. The ability of students to autonomously work on their projects has been greatly curtailed. This approach is obviously a work in progress, but assessment of student performance before and after Covid will be compared. This is not just a short-term disruption to endure for the near term. There can be worthwhile permanent changes to the WKU design sequence that will result from the current efforts. These residual benefits will be discussed. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021