The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions in every sector of human activity around the world. The education sector is no exception. Due to physical restrictions in accessing campus infrastructures, students and instructors at academic institutions have forcibly adapted to the new norm of virtual learning with mixed expectations and outcomes. There have been several studies conducted by educational practitioners since the pandemic began, which mostly focused on how academic constituents quickly adapt to virtual learning in a general sense. The main objective of this study is to examine the effects of virtual learning infrastructure and environment on student learning, specific to the civil engineering program at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (PMU). A survey was distributed to civil engineering students at PMU at the end of the fall 2020 term to gather perceptions about virtual learning and check the adequacy of online learning tools and associated environments. Student performance during virtual learning in terms of grade achievement was also investigated and compared with a normal situation. In general, it was found that students are satisfied with the current technology used to facilitate virtual learning. The anticipated outcomes of this study, including online technology readiness, curriculum adjustment, and teaching styles or methods, are to be used for virtual learning improvement should the current pandemic restriction extend to the end of the 2020–21 academic year and possibly far beyond.

This paper discusses recent updates and developments of computing-based courses in the civil engineering discipline. Competency in computing is one of the most important capabilities for university graduates to obtain given the rapid development of computer technology in professional work. Civil engineering is no exception. In fact, many contemporary civil engineering projects require a high degree of computing skills, ranging from performing basic office work to programming for decision support system application in controlling flood water gates to executing construction automation via digital printing technology. However, the curriculum content for computing in civil engineering has been developmentally stagnant in the past several decades. This could be partly due to learning outcomes for civil engineering graduates, which do not explicitly mention a certain degree of achievement with respect to computing skills. Several computing-based courses offered in various civil engineering programs across Saudi Arabia and the US were examined, and their contents were compared to recent survey results administered by the American Society of Civil Engineering Technical Committee on Computing and Information Technology. The discussion is extended by examining technical courses offered in the Civil Engineering Program in Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University with respect to computing skills. The outcomes of this study are expected to give input and suggestions for future upgrades of computing-based courses offered within the civil engineering curriculum.