Investigating Students’ Expectations of Instruction in Engineering Laboratory Courses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This full paper studies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' expectations of instruction in laboratory based engineering courses. This pandemic has strongly disrupted the delivery of engineering curriculum. In particular, engineering lab courses were highly impacted by the forced transition to remote instruction modes. Some engineering lab courses rely heavily on engineering software and were comparatively easier to switch to a remote instruction mode. Whereas many other traditional, hands-on engineering labs needed to apply innovative solutions to effectively meet student learning outcomes in the remote instruction mode. Student expectations from such lab courses also changed with the changing college environment and as everyone got more accustomed to the long-standing impact of the pandemic. Understanding how students perceive lab courses in this new era will help in optimally designing learning modules to meet and exceed course expectations. Specifically, using self-reported surveys, students' expectations of instruction in two laboratory courses are being examined. The two courses being studied are - 1. Introduction to Computer-Aided Design (CAD), which relies heavily on the use of CAD software, and 2. Hydraulics Laboratory, which is a more traditional, hands-on, experiential lab course. Introduction to Computer-Aided Design is a senior level CAD course for mechanical engineering major students.This course serves as an introduction to CAD which is basically the use of the computer for creating and modeling a design. These concepts are taught using two software: Creo and SolidWorks. Hydraulic Laboratory course aims to test and validate the theoretical principles of fluid mechanics, water resources, and hydraulic engineering using physical lab experience. This course is a junior level course for civil engineering major students. The results of this study will identify effective strategies for designing instruction in software-based and hands-on laboratory courses when offered in a remote/hybrid mode. It will also help in understanding the key differences in effectiveness of instructional practices between Fall 2019 semester where the courses were offered in a face-to-face mode, Spring 2020 where the courses were offered partially face-to-face and partially in an asynchronous mode, and the current semester, where it is being offered in synchronous online mode. This study will help in planning the course better for future offerings, by using the best features from each mode.