How Students, in an Air Conditioning and Heating Course, Assess the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the ABET Student Learning Outcomes

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced almost all universities in the world to switch from face-to-face to an online teaching format. In response to this sudden transition, the Mechanical Engineering department at the Al-Zaytoonah University in Jordan had to adapt to this change within two weeks in mid-March 2020. In addition, the department had to comply with the strict ABET accreditation regulations, among which is the indirect assessment of each course by the students each semester. They judge to what degree ABET-mandated student learning outcomes (SO) are actually met in any course designated to deliver the outcomes. Another ABET accreditation regulation is direct assessment, which is conducted by the instructor and relies on an instructor’s own evaluation of tasks designated for certain student learning outcomes. The aim of this study is to determine if, during the COVID-19 pandemic, students’ assessments changed significantly, in accordance with the ABET mandate, by using statistical analyses of students’ responses on an online completed survey. An independent samples t-test was used to evaluate the statistical importance of the observed differences. The SO coverage rates were quite high during the pandemic, although, generally, somewhat lower than their pre-pandemic equivalents. In this study, the Air Conditioning and Heating (ACH) course was selected to compare direct and indirect student learning outcomes before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, our findings revealed a positive effect on SO performance during the COVID-19 pandemic and due to e-learning teaching.