Investigating Impact of Disruption to Biological and Agricultural Engineering Senior Design Capstone Courses Due to Covid-19

Capstone Design is a culminating course of the undergraduate engineering curriculum of most engineering majors. The course gives students the opportunity to work in teams designing a solution to real-world problems that are submitted by and subsequently mentored by industrial and research project sponsors. In Biological and Agricultural Engineering disciplines, these projects can involve tasks such as field data collection, laboratory experiments, or fabrication of prototypes that require access to specific laboratories and equipment. During the Spring 2020 semester, Universities across the US closed campuses to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and transitioned to remote or virtual courses. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the transition to remote and virtual courses on senior design or capstone courses in Biological and Agricultural Engineering from the perspectives of faculty. The research team was particularly interested in how projects shifted in scale and form, assessment changed, and team-mentor interactions responded to the abrupt change in course delivery. Senior Design Capstone Course instructors from several Biological and Agricultural Engineering departments were interviewed to gather their perspectives and experiences regarding projects' management and outcomes as well as students' learning and performance in the course to find lessons learned and help plan for future courses.