Design And Implementation Of A Fully Online And Remote Lab Course Under The Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This case study focuses on developing a fully online material testing course while keeping the experiential learning component for the students. The course of interest is a junior level plastics engineering course, PLE-360 (Testing and Analysis of Plastics), during which students are required to utilize various equipment to characterize polymers. Along with online lectures, remote labs are designed and implemented. During these labs, students remotely log into the computers, design the experimental program, conduct the tests, collect and analyze the data. The effectiveness of this practice is assessed through examining students’ lab grades and overall course grades. It is found that such remote lab course not only delivers the same learning content as the in-person class but also provides the “hands-on” experience to the students with much reduced risk of infection.

Keywords

• hands-on
• remote labs
• covid-19
• pandemic