Transforming Experimental Teaching of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer Courses Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The academic situation due to the COVID-19 lockdown forced teachers to transform conventional lessons to a fully online mode. The experimental component of chemical engineering degrees is an essential part of the courses, wherein the students usually attend a pilot plant and develop practical skills in a hands-on way. The present study shows the different methodologies developed and implemented during three academic years in the experimental component of two courses: fluid mechanics and heat transfer. Therefore, the year 2018–2019 represents a conventional scenario, in which the lessons and evaluation were conducted in a traditional mode (face-to-face). Later, the cessation of on-site teaching in the middle of the year 2019–2020 compelled the teaching staff to adapt methodologies to a distance mode. This transformation was based on the creation of new learning material: explanatory videos, online seminars, solved exercises and online tests. Finally, the end of the lockdown in the year 2020–2021 allowed the return to a mixed mode (face-to-face lessons in addition to online lessons), which enabled the redesign of the experimental part of the courses. After the end of the courses, the usefulness of the implemented methodologies was evaluated by means of collecting academic marks and student surveys. The results show that, in general, the yields were similar during the three years studied, except in the lockdown period of the fluid mechanics course in which it was slightly higher than the others. With regard to the opinion of the students, their feedback about the transformations made was generally positive.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• chemical engineering education
• fluid mechanics
• heat transfer
• experimental activity
• educational pilot plant