Session: 09-08-01: Distance/Online Engineering Education, Models and Enabling Technologies

Paper Number: 71742

Start Time: Tuesday, 10:45 AM

71742 - Student Perceptions of a Hybrid and Flexible Teaching Model for Post-COVID19 Normality 

In the last one year and half, the world has experienced the disastrous consequences of a global pandemic that changed the way we were living. Higher education did not escape the changes, and, in fact, was strongly affected with the closure of on-campus activities in most countries. As the vaccines become available in more countries during 2021, universities are already planning schemes for a gradual comeback to the campuses. It has become clear that activities will not be the same as they were prior to the pandemic. In this work we present what we consider could be a hybrid model that can be applied in theoretical Engineering courses, combining flipped learning, collaborative activities and online tutorials.

Before the measures dictated by our federal education authorities that sent all educational levels to an online format, universities have been working in new models to attract more students into STEM programs. In the case of our university, we have been working in a new educational model based on competencies using learning techniques such as challenge based learning and problem based learning.

 

It is important that as Higher Education institutions we learn from all the innovations and challenges that the pandemic brought to our daily operation. In this work we also present feedback provided by our students on how they perceived online teaching during the three terms that they have experienced in an online format. These results include what in the students’ perception was the best implementations of online courses, what makes a course attractive and motivating for students and also, what should be avoided in future implementations of courses that need to be taught in an online format. The recommendations included in this work deal not only with the type of contents an online course should have but also with certain details about some recommended courses professors could take in advance, that is, before they start teaching online.

As we have seen in some of the results of this work, online teaching will remain an important component in the catalog of courses of most universities. We present these results as a foundation for a proposed model that can be applied from minimal or zero percent of online component to a fully online course. This kind of approach can be very useful in countries where the vaccination campaigns have shown a slow start and where it will take longer than the current year, 2021 to get most people vaccinated. It is important to mention that some students and/or faculty members have to stay at home and working online until they get vaccinated due to their personal health conditions and it is in these cases where online education and models like the one presented in this work can be very helpful.

Presenting Author: Miguel X. Rodriguez-Paz Tecnologico de Monterrey

Authors:

Miguel X. Rodriguez-Paz Tecnologico de Monterrey
Jorge A. Gonzalez-Mendivil Tecnologico de Monterrey
Israel Zamora-Hernandez Tecnologico de Monterrey
J. Asuncion Zarate-Garcia Tecnologico de Monterrey