Linvill, C. Q., & Wallen, B. M., & Pfluger, A. R., & Butkus, M. A. (2021, April), Incorporation of Best Practices in Environmental Engineering Education to Maximize Student Engagement and Instructor Efficiency  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE St. Lawrence Section Conference, Virtual. 10.18260/1-2--38299

\bibitem{asee_peer_38299}
  Linvill, C. Q., \& Wallen, B. M., \& Pfluger, A. R., \& Butkus, M. A. (2021, April), \emph{Incorporation of Best Practices in Environmental Engineering Education to Maximize Student Engagement and Instructor Efficiency}
  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE St. Lawrence Section Conference, Virtual.
  10.18260/1-2--38299

Chelsea Q Linvill, Benjamin Michael Wallen P.E., Andrew Ross Pfluger, and Michael A. Butkus P.E..  "Incorporation of Best Practices in Environmental Engineering Education to Maximize Student Engagement and Instructor Efficiency".  2021 ASEE St. Lawrence Section Conference, Virtual, 2021, April.  ASEE Conferences, 2021.  https://strategy.asee.org/38299 Internet.  20 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_38299}
  Chelsea Q Linvill, Benjamin Michael Wallen P.E., Andrew Ross Pfluger, and Michael A. Butkus P.E..
  "Incorporation of Best Practices in Environmental Engineering Education to Maximize Student Engagement and Instructor Efficiency".
  \emph{2021 ASEE St. Lawrence Section Conference, Virtual, 2021, April}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2021.
  https://strategy.asee.org/38299 Internet.  20 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_38299
author = "Chelsea Q Linvill, Benjamin Michael Wallen P.E., Andrew Ross Pfluger, and Michael A. Butkus P.E."
title = "Incorporation of Best Practices in Environmental Engineering Education to Maximize Student Engagement and Instructor Efficiency"
booktitle = "2021 ASEE St. Lawrence Section Conference"
year = "2021"
month = "April"
address = "Virtual"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://strategy.asee.org/38299}
number = {10.18260/1-2--38299}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In March of 2020, the United States Military Academy (West Point) transitioned to a 100% remote learning environment due to COVID-19. West Point created numerous workshops and classes for faculty centered on remote teaching approaches. Our faculty learned many lessons during the pivot from in-person to remote teaching, many of which were implemented in our Environmental Engineering Three-Course Sequence (EES) and will persist beyond COVID19.  In this study, we use the middle course of the EES, EV350 (Environmental Engineering Technologies), as the example course to discuss remote teaching and learning innovations, use of hybrid classrooms, and identified best practices.  EV350 is taught to ~200 junior and senior-level students each year. Each class (or “section”) includes no more than 16 students enabling high levels of student engagement. For example, in the Spring 2020 semester, students enrolled in EV350 were distributed among 13 sections taught by six instructors. During that semester, one lab, one field trip, and 20 lessons were transitioned from in-person learning to an online platform, Blackboard. During the pivot, all lessons, labs, and field trips, were prerecorded using existing materials (e.g., slideshows and handouts).  Lessons learned during Spring 2020 were immediately refined and the entire course (40-lessons) was transitioned to 100% remote for a summer course offering. To do so, an additional lab, field trip, and the first 20 lessons of the course were transitioned to the virtual environment. After the summer term offering, EV350 instructors continued to refine the course content by participating in numerous institutional-level events, such as workshops, learning sessions, and “All Academy Collaboration Sessions” with other U.S. service academies. Additional refinements will be implemented into the EV350 Spring 2021 offering.  

This manuscript focuses on the pedagogical improvements made to the delivery of course material, methods to enhance student engagement, and improvement of the overall learning experience for the students. Best practices include a blend of asynchronous and synchronous learning activities that maximized material taught asynchronously. Asynchronous activities centered on prerecorded slideshows using a flipped classroom model, which allowed students to engage material at their own pace prior to synchronous classes.  During the synchronous class time, students were given time to ask questions and work on in-class and homework problems via Blackboard Collaborate. The deliberate incorporation of synchronous and asynchronous activities enhanced student engagement, which was tracked using instructor points. This approach allowed instructors to monitor asynchronous activities at their own pace while encouraging the students to engage with the material. Asynchronous instructor points involved watching the prerecorded slideshows prior to the synchronous instruction for that lesson. The synchronous instructor points encouraged students to attend class and actively engage with the material. Survey results from 136 students based on a 5-point Likert scale demonstrated 89.6% concurrence that the instruction provided made effective use of online platforms and collaboration. 
AU  - Chelsea Q Linvill
AU  - Benjamin Michael Wallen P.E.
AU  - Andrew Ross Pfluger
AU  - Michael A. Butkus P.E.
CY  - Virtual
DA  - 2021/04/17
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Incorporation of Best Practices in Environmental Engineering Education to Maximize Student Engagement and Instructor Efficiency
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/38299
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--38299
ER  -