The Impact of COVID19 on Students' Learning Outcomes in a Thermodynamics Course

ABSTRACT

The COVID19 pandemic has resulted in many institutions having limited options of instructional modes and tools that can be used when the schools are closed. Many institutions in the United States and around the world moved some or all of their courses to fully online back in April of 2020. Faculties and students faced new challenges with new tools that each had to learn and use effectively to deliver and receive the lecture material as efficiently as possible. The impact of COVID19 on engineering courses is going to go beyond the Spring semester of 2020. The aim of the study is to highlight the real impact of COVID19 on engineering students for a Thermodynamics I course during the pandemic where half of the semester was delivered online and a Thermodynamics II course during the Summer semester of 2020 which was fully online. The study illustrates how the lockdown impacted the students' learning outcome for both courses. Moreover, the study illustrates the most impacted learning outcome of the course compared to the previous two semesters. The results of this analysis describe the real impact of COVID19 on Thermodynamics I and II course outcomes and how it can be corrected in case the same situation happens in the future. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.