Assessing Various Pedagogical Features of Remote Versus In-Person Iterations of a First-Year Engineering, Makerspace Course

Abstract

This evidence-based practice paper is a follow-up to an ASEE 2022 conference proceeding that was focused on the challenges in development, in addition to resulting student perceptions upon delivery, of a remote iteration (Spring 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic) of a conventionally hands-on, active learning-based makerspace course; of which employs integration and application of fundamental engineering skills and all institutional first-year engineering students are required to take. Specifically, this paper is focused on the ensuing iteration of the course (Spring 2022) in which students resumed in-person course execution, and aims to disseminate comparative resulting student perceptions on course features between the remote iteration versus the in-person iteration and, in some cases, the course iteration prior to the pandemic.At the conclusion of the 2022 (post-COVID) semester, more than 300 student participants were surveyed on respective perceptions in Perceived Belonging Uncertainty and Interest in Engineering. Resultant responses were then compared to responses to the same surveys conducted by pre-pandemic students in addition to students that experienced the course during the pandemic (in which students experienced the course under a remote environment). Student participants during the 2022 course iteration were further surveyed with a quantitative forced-choice ranking. Specifically, students were asked to rank pedagogical effectiveness of six select course features -3D modeling, circuitry, engineering design, programming, teamwork, and technical writingand these six features were predominantly determined by qualitative identification of effective and/or ineffective features by the (2021) remote cohort. Respective responses from the during-COVID cohort versus the post-COVID cohort were compared and assessed. Resultant implications, limitations, and revelations of these findings conclude this paper.