Emergency Transition of Intro Communication and Design Course to Remote Teaching

Clay Swackhamer; Jennifer Mullin

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: Best in DEED
Tagged Division: Design in Engineering Education
Page Count: 25
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37025
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/37025
Download Count: 346

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Paper Authors

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Clay Swackhamer University of California, Davis orcid.org/0000-0001-8155-0642

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Clay is a PhD candidate at UC Davis working under the supervision of Dr. Gail M. Bornhorst in the department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. His research focuses on the breakdown of solid foods during gastric digestion and the development of improved in vitro models for studying digestion.

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biography

Jennifer Mullin University of California, Davis

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Jennifer S. Mullin is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. She has a doctorate in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech where she was the first to graduate from the program. Her creative passion for teaching introductory engineering and design coursework through a “learn-by-doing,” hands-on approach is focused on inspiring student success and innovation. From her many varied instructional and professional development experiences, she believes in the power of communication, collaboration and community for a brighter healthier future.

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Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 induced campus closure in spring of 2020, a large enrollment introduction to engineering design course was offered remotely, for the first time, at the University of California, Davis. Emergency circumstances necessitated a rapid re-design of the quarter-long course, with little more than a week to prepare. Despite the instructor and team of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) having no prior experience with emergency remote teaching (ERT), key decisions were made to ensure integrity of learning outcomes during transition of the project-based, highly interactive, hands-on course experience from in-person to fully online during the early months of the pandemic. The main challenges involved the use of virtual tools to lead students through the engineering design process, to support team collaboration, to aid in the construction and testing of functional prototypes and, ultimately, to host an online final design showcase for the 45 teams. Other top challenges involved pivoting the teaching and learning of physical computing technologies (i.e., Arduino, circuits and coding) through interactive synchronous studio sessions in lieu of hands-on, in-person studio sessions. Elements of course re-design efforts presented in this paper illustrate the course transition from in-person to emergency remote format. Mixed-method data collection included pre/post Engineering Design Self-Efficacy (EDSE) student survey (Carberry et al., 2010), mid-quarter anonymous student feedback and an end of quarter student reflection. Mid-quarter feedback survey responses highlighted students’ [n = 98] preference for the asynchronous modified lecture format and inperson studio (47%) followed by in-person lecture and studio (34%). Results of EDSE pre/post analysis indicated significant gains (p < 0.05) in students’ [n=134] sense of confidence and ability to be successful in conducting and communicating fundamental aspects of the design process yet raise questions about their motivation and anxiety. End of quarter student reflections [n=136] provided further insight into students’ attitudes towards their design, communication, and technology learning in the online course. Analytical comparison of EDSE survey results from an in-person (spring 2019) and remote (spring 2020) course offerings provide a reference point for exploring opportunities for virtual design courses.

Citation
Format

Swackhamer, C., & Mullin, J. (2021, July), Emergency Transition of Intro Communication and Design Course to Remote Teaching Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37025

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Due to the COVID-19 induced campus closure in spring of 2020, a large enrollment introduction to engineering design course was offered remotely, for the first time, at the University of California, Davis. Emergency circumstances necessitated a rapid re-design of the quarter-long course, with little more than a week to prepare. Despite the instructor and team of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) having no prior experience with emergency remote teaching (ERT), 
key decisions were made to ensure integrity of learning outcomes during transition of the 
project-based, highly interactive, hands-on course experience from in-person to fully online during the early months of the pandemic. The main challenges involved the use of virtual tools to lead students through the engineering design process, to support team collaboration, to aid in the construction and testing of functional prototypes and, ultimately, to host an online final design 
showcase for the 45 teams. Other top challenges involved pivoting the teaching and learning of physical computing technologies (i.e., Arduino, circuits and coding) through interactive synchronous studio sessions in lieu of hands-on, in-person studio sessions. Elements of course 
re-design efforts presented in this paper illustrate the course transition from in-person to emergency remote format. Mixed-method data collection included pre/post Engineering Design Self-Efficacy (EDSE) student survey (Carberry et al., 2010), mid-quarter anonymous student feedback and an end of quarter student reflection. Mid-quarter feedback survey responses highlighted students’ [n = 98] preference for the asynchronous modified lecture format and inperson studio (47%) followed by in-person lecture and studio (34%). Results of EDSE pre/post analysis indicated significant gains (p &amp;lt; 0.05) in students’ [n=134] sense of confidence and ability to be successful in conducting and communicating fundamental aspects of the design process yet raise questions about their motivation and anxiety. End of quarter student reflections [n=136] provided further insight into students’ attitudes towards their design, communication, and technology learning in the online course. Analytical comparison of EDSE survey results from an in-person (spring 2019) and remote (spring 2020) course offerings provide a reference point for exploring opportunities for virtual design courses.
AU  - Clay Swackhamer
AU  - Jennifer Mullin
CY  - Virtual Conference
DA  - 2021/07/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Emergency Transition of Intro Communication and Design Course to Remote Teaching
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/37025
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--37025
ER  -