Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities across the world have curtailed face to face teaching. Associated with this is the halt to the delivery of the practical experience required of engineering students. The Multidisciplinary Engineering Education (MEE) team at The University of Sheffield have responded to this problem in an efficient and effective way by recording laboratory experiences and putting videos, quizzes and data online for students to engage with. The focus of this work was on ensuring all Learning Outcomes (LOs) for modules and courses were preserved. Naturally, practical skills cannot be easily provided using this approach, but it is an effective way of getting students to interact with real data, uncertainty and equipment which they cannot access directly. A number of short case studies from across the range of engineering disciplines are provided to inspire and guide other educators in how they can move experiments on line in an efficient and effective manner. No student feedback is available at the time of writing, but anecdotal evidence is that this approach is at least acceptable for students and a way of collecting future feedback is suggested. The effort expended on this approach and the artefacts produced will support student learning after the initial disruption of the lockdown has passed.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities across the world have curtailed face to face teaching. Associated with this is the halt to the delivery of the practical experience required of engineering students. The Multidisciplinary Engineering Education (MEE) team at The University of Sheffield have responded to this in an efficient and effective way by recording the laboratory experiences and putting videos, quizzes and data online for students to engage with. The focus being on ensuring Learning Outcomes for modules and courses have been preserved. Naturally, practical skills cannot be easily provided using this approach, but it is an effective way of getting students to interact with real data, uncertainty and equipment which they cannot access directly .A number of short case studies from across the range of engineering are provided to inspire and guide other educators in how they can move experiments on line in an efficient and effective manner.No student feedback is available at the time of writing, but anecdotal evidence is that this approach is at least acceptable for students and a way of collecting this is suggested. The effort that has gone into this approach and the artefacts produced will support student learning after the initial disruption of the lockdown has passed.

The nature of fluid mechanics makes experimentation an important part of a course taught on the subject. Presented here is the application of a novel, large-scale multidisciplinary model of practical education in a fluids engineering laboratory. The advantages of this approach include efficiencies through the economy of scale leading to better pedagogy for students. The scale justifies dedicated academic resources to focus on developing laboratory classes and giving specific attention to designing activities that meet learning outcomes. Four examples of applying this approach to fluid mechanics experiments are discussed, illustrating tactics that have been developed and honed through many repeated instances of delivery. “The measurement lab” uses a flow measurement context to teach identifying and managing general experimental uncertainty. In this lab, new students, unfamiliar with fluid mechanics, are guided through a process to gain understanding that can be applied to all future experimental activities. The “pressure loss in pipes” lab discusses the advantage of and process for sharing equipment and teaching resources between multiple cohorts. Here, the provision for students is adapted for context, such as the degree program or year of study. The “weirs big and small” lab provides a methodology for teaching the power of dimensional analysis to mechanical engineers using a field of fluid mechanics that is outside their usual theoretical studies. Finally, the “spillway design” lab discusses mechanisms for delivering independent, open-ended student experiments at scale, without excessive staff resource requirements.

Abstract. An investigation into three dimensional fluid flow has been conducted which combines the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations with the experimental phenomenon of Streaming Birefringence. A versatile flow channel was designed and built for use in conjunction with a circular polariscope. The experimental liquid used was an aqueous solution of a dye, commercially known as Milling Yellow NGS with the addition of Sodium Chloride. To extract the flow fields, six image phase stepping photoelasticity was used over backward and forward steps, and flows around a cylinder, and full-field fringe data were obtained. This method needs laminar flow regimes and the Reynolds number of the flow was around 10. To allow direct comparisons of the CFD solutions with the optical results, a macro (UDF) was written to interpret the flow field results from a (FLUENT6) CFD simulation. This integrated the shear stresses across the flow field and banded the results into fringes. A good correlation between the simulated fringes and the shearstrain rate was obtained from these observations.

Multidisciplinary Engineering Education (MEE) at the University of Sheffield is dedicated to delivering, at scale, practical teaching to students in the Faculty of Engineering. The COVID-19 pandemic initiated the sudden suspension of face to face teaching required MEE to translate over 600 in-lab practicals to a remote delivery format. With little opportunity to coordinate, academic staff independently adopted a variety of tactics to ensure practical learning outcomes were maintained. Following the reactive response, a proactive reflection was conducted and six categories of tactics for remote practicals have been established. These categories are Provide digital artefacts; Simulated practicals; Synchronous remote participation; Asynchronous participation by proxy; Perform procedure in alternative environment; Remote staff support. The advantages and drawbacks of each of these categories is discussed and it is suggested which tactics are appropriate for particular learning outcomes or operational and environmental outcomes of equivalent in-lab practicals. Further work to comprehensively align outcomes to tactics is proposed and lasting benefit from the analysis can be realized by adopting a principle of Remote Enhanced Practicals.