Research on the Mixed Education Mode for the Safety Engineering Major during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Epidemic

Abstract

During the COVID-19 epidemic, many countries faced a critical situation in terms of the global economy and human social activities, including education. In China, the coronavirus is better controlled. Chinese university students have returned to school to study. Despite previous research on online education and learning, the readiness of students for the online and offline learning models implemented at this particular time is not well understood. This paper discusses a hybrid education model for undergraduate students in the safety engineering major. Questionnaires are administered to faculty and students from different colleges and universities in the same major to statistically summarize the influencing factors of mixed or hybrid education. The system dynamics (SD) model is constructed and simulated to determine that using online in the tenth to fifteenth, twenty-fifth to thirtieth, and fortieth to forty-fifth min of classroom teaching (50 min in total) can effectively increase students’ interest and engagement in learning. More hands-on activities should also be considered to enhance students’ motivation to acquire knowledge, and consideration could be given to encourage interaction among students. This study will be continuously improved by a follow-up study of undergraduate student performance. This study has important implications for educators implementing online and offline blended instruction.

Examination of Students’ Academic Performance in Selected Mechanical Engineering Courses Prior-to-and-During COVID-19 Era

“…Although the non-availability of year 2018 data on students' performance in Advanced Thermofluids as shown in Figure 8 may affect the confidence level in making overall judgment on the potential influence of online learning mode as compared to offline, the descriptive analysis of results illustrated in Figure 8 notwithstanding shows the betterment of virtual learning mode as against in-person approach. The foregoing results are comparable with the results obtained from many authors such as [9,20,23] on the beneficial influence of virtual mode of instructions. Again, it can be seen in Figure 9 that there was no available data for students' performance in Advanced Thermofluids in the year 2018.…”

“…Generally, descriptive analysis has shown that the online learning mode yielded better academic performance for students when compared to the in-person mode in respect of all the four mechanical engineering courses considered in this study. The beneficial influence of the online learning mode, deduced based on the results obtained from the preliminary descriptive analysis carried out, was similarly reflected in the findings of many authors [8,9,[20][21][22][23]. Relying on the preliminary outcomes acquired from the descriptive analysis used in this study, the perceived positive impacts of the online learning mode can be attributed to some of its associated advantages.…”

“…It can also be implied from Figure 5 that the least performances of students in Thermodynamic course was in 2018. The results obtained based on the foregoing descriptive analysis agrees with some authors' findings reported in the literature [20,22,23]. Therefore, better academic performance of students in Thermodynamics in the years 2020 and 2021 may also indicate the potential of online mode for enriching students' academic performance when compared to in-person mode in the year 2018, a pre-COVID-19 era.…”

“…However, results obtained from descriptive analysis showed better performance in Advanced Thermofluids in the years 2020 and 2021 during COVID-19 era when online learning mode was used in comparison to year 2019 when the mode of instruction was wholly in-person. The deduction that can be made from the foregoing results are well reflected in the works of some authors [8,20,22,23]. Consequently, the potential better impact of web-based learning mode on academic performance of mechanical engineering students as compared to offline learning mode is again sustained in Advanced Thermofluids course.…”

“…The outcome showed the convenience pace of learning and accessibility to lecture materials, which are associated with online teaching and which positively influence students' performance. In Yu et al (2022) [23], the use of online and offline modes of learning for undergraduate students in the safety engineering major was studied. Although it was found that online teaching activities can promote students' interest, attention, and class participation at a given stage of classroom teaching, the adoption of an online-offline blended approach yielded a more student-centered teaching effect.…”