Transformation of Delivery and Assessment for Laboratory Course During Covid-19 Pandemic: The Case Study of Soil Engineering Laboratory

Abstract

Due to the spread of the COVID-19, many universities throughout the world are experiencing partial or complete disruptions to their academic programmes. As a result, more and more institutions are making the essential changes to their instruction in teaching and learning processes, including laboratory classes from face to face into a hybrid or online delivery format. Regardless of the actions done, lecturers must keep up their rigorous academic standards and offer a top-notch student as necessary for delivering the learning outcomes linked to courses especially laboratory courses that normally being conducted face to face in the laboratory or workshop to online or open distance learning (ODL). This transformation will present a challenge to academicians across the higher education sector, forcing them to switch from normal class delivery to online instruction and various laboratory delivery strategies. Students as a result will not receiving direct instruction from lecturers, and they have limited or no access at all to laboratory resources that necessary for delivering the learning outcomes linked to each programme courses. This paper reviews approaches taken by Faculty of Civil Engineering, UiTM and lecturers to deliver teaching and laboratory practices remotely, in consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic. This review is primarily focused on implementation on teaching delivery and laboratory assessments given to Civil Engineering Diploma Students in Soil Engineering Laboratory Course during COVID outbreaks. The findings of this study may be used to improve online engineering education during and after pandemics in other institutions or courses with a similar demographic.