ABSTRACT
In the era of COVID, project-based classes that incorporate community engagement (i.e., interacting with both a physical site and members of the community) as part of their learning approach, have taken a significant blow. When connecting with people becomes an unhealthy practice, how can site-based learning remain embedded in engineering teaching and practice while accommodating virtual education instruction? Within civil and environmental engineering (CEE), GIS mapping has allowed students to step outside the classroom and engage with site-based work while focusing on spatial learning technologies. The open-ended processes of spatial data gathering can be used to draw students into community observation, inviting a focus on ecological and social interactions of infrastructure, site, community, and equity. However, in the era of COVID, the full range of site-based learning processes, including community engagement, are impossible to implement. This paper describes two amended processes for site-based learning through GIS data practices during the post-COVID shutdown period. Pre-COVID versions of the exercises asked student teams to explore a single site by observing and mapping infrastructure. This involved documenting community use of space and interacting with the local community to obtain multi-layered data on social equity, economic, and physical aspects of the site. However, two primary changes were made: in one class students were asked to explore their own local environment rather than travel to a shared site of focus. In the other, student teams collected only visual site-data foregoing the community engagement component. These students then connected electronically with community partners to gather social data. The study draws on data from student participation in two different classes: a large introductory class and a smaller advanced class. Data includes a qualitative analysis of exit interviews with a sub-set of both undergraduate and graduate student participants. This paper examines to what extent the site-based practices retain value given the limits imposed by social distancing, and whether these workarounds reveal unexpected strategies which might be applicable to future remote learning, and to community-based learning even when physical reconnection is allowed. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has affected all aspects of life, including how we travel. As faculty members responsible for teaching infrastructure courses across four universities, the authors collaborated on creating a teaching module addressing this critical issue. The module focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on different transportation systems from various stakeholder perspectives. The module was implemented in two universities (n = 25): Southern Methodist University (SMU) and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech, NMT) in fall 2020 and will be implemented again at other schools in fall 2021. This paper presents the results obtained during the first implementation of the COVID-19 teaching module during the fall semester of 2020 and addresses how instructors can enhance the module for future offerings. Findings from the module's implementation demonstrate increased knowledge and understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 on different transportation systems from various stakeholder perspectives. SMU students' mean scores showed high post-evaluation scores, and NMT students' scores increased from pre to post evaluation. Additionally, the reflective writing assignment revealed students' awareness of various issues, including operational and economic impacts on operators and users. This paper offers contributions to our engineering community by focusing on lessons learned from the COVID-19 experience while providing recommendations for improving this co-create module. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021