Abstract
Specific disciplines in engineering, such as manufacturing processes, require students in their academic stage to pay special attention, given the possible changes that may affect the acquisition of competencies. In an environment of uncertainty, such as a global pandemic, teaching must adapt without losing the effective delivery of content to students. The health and safety measures applied during the first months of the pandemic led to a different type of teaching to that which had customarily been applied, such as synchronous and asynchronous methodologies defined by the university’s governing bodies, where face-to-face and online methodologies coexisted in the same academic year. All of this avoided interrupting the academic year. This paper studies the results achieved in this uncertain environment, extends them and compares them with the following year, where only the face-to-face methodology was applied to the students enrolled in Manufacturing Processes 2 at the Centro Universitario de Mérida within the Bachelor’s Degree in Design Engineering and New Product Development (Grado en Ingeniería en Diseño y Desarrollo de Nuevos Productos -GIDIDP-). An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to the data obtained to locate the significant differences between the samples taken in the first year with online and face-to-face teaching methodologies and those taken in the second year with an exclusively face-to-face methodology. When comparing the results, maintaining face-to-face teaching proved essential, as it contributes towards achieving better marks or maintaining the level. However, online methodologies also help as an additional tool to acquire other knowledge and specific skills in these technical engineering subjects, specifically those dealing with the manufacturing processes addressed in this study.
Highlights
The advancement of information and communication technology (ICT) has opened up a viable solution for university teaching in the uncertain environment of the COVID-19 pandemic
This paper shows the methodology and the marks students achieved in the final assessment after applying the three methodologies in the first academic year of this comparison (2019–2020), and the methodology applied in the following year (2020–2021) in Manufacturing Processes 2 (MP2), to establish a comparison on whether there are significant differences between the first year and the second
Given the need to assess the specific and transversal skills related to engineering and manufacturing processes, the teachers–participants determined that immediate data on understanding and following a topic through technological resources would be part of the immediate feedback
Summary
The advancement of information and communication technology (ICT) has opened up a viable solution for university teaching in the uncertain environment of the COVID-19 pandemic. The market offers several devices, such as smartphones and tablets, among others, which provide permanent connectivity for their users, and are becoming increasingly popular in the educational field [1]. Online activities have been incorporated periodically through virtual university campuses, and lately, increasingly more educational projects [25] have been trending toward other types of online teaching or monitoring, part of them still require high classroom attendance. This change has led to a renewal of traditional teaching methodologies and “reflections” by teachers (on a personal level) and the teaching-learning process [26].
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