Engaging remote students in traditionally physical experiential learning environments (mechanical workshops)

ABSTRACT

CONTEXT 2020 saw many Universities transition learning activities from in person to online or remote delivery methods due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in semester 2 some classes returned to on-campus delivery. MECH1400 Mechanical Construction is a first-year unit of study that introduces students to the engineering design cycle, drawing and machining techniques through an experiential design and build project, utilising traditional mechanical engineering machining equipment such as lathes, mills, and hand tools. In semester 2 of 2020 students were offered the choice of attending on-campus classes or remote offerings, with 41 of 73 students choosing to study on campus (note some were overseas with effectively no choice). PURPOSE OR GOAL The purpose of this study was to investigate whether online/remote delivery of learning activities can enable remote students to achieve equivalent learning outcomes as their on-campus peers, particularly as the unit is traditionally taught with experiential learning activities based around a mechanical workshop environment. APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS This study analysed and compared student results for assessment tasks for on-campus and remote students, plus other factors such as Canvas access rates and class attendance. Informal tutor feedback and end of semester institutional student satisfaction survey comments were examined to gain further insights. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES On-campus students had higher average marks for all assessment tasks (7.3% - 13.5%);despite remote students having an average of 29.8% more page views on Canvas. End of semester student satisfaction surveys indicate that students prefer the physical workshop sessions to online tutorials and workshops, though limited comments were available. Informal tutor feedback indicated that students were less engaged in the online learning activities, with some online students not attending their "virtual” workshop sessions, and online only tutorials having low attendance for both the online and physical cohorts. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY Remote students achieved a final mark for the unit that was on average 9.9% lower than their on-campus peers, despite having a 29.8% higher Canvas access rate. Two conclusions are arrived at The online learning activities need further development to help reduce or eliminate this difference for the 2021 student cohort and/or further investigation needs to be undertaken to establish why the online cohort are not better engaged with the online curriculum. Copyright © R Fiford and P Briozzo, 2021.