Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic challenged many higher education institutions to accelerate the implementation of teaching and learning through an online mode of delivery. The unpredicted shift to online learning created unprecedented challenges for Consumer Sciences students which usually perform laboratory-oriented research projects; however, any employable skills acquired during undergraduate studies should be transferable to new circumstances within different working contexts. The aim of this article is to provide educators with a basic 10-step approach to complete an online food research project and to consider students’ engagement, reflections and experiences. The article consists of three parts. The first part provides ten research steps to complete an online food research project, followed by students’ reflections of the research project. The second part presents the results on students’ online engagement with an e-learning platform. The third part presents the results of students’ experiences from the university’s student survey of the lectured module. Recommendations made from students’ reflections stimulated their higher-order thinking as they comprehended the value and importance of research, project based-learning and critical evaluation for future improvement. Educators are responsible for helping students discover their own support networks, to provide opportunities and events to share their values and work, and to motivate and encourage student engagement and reflective discussions in the online environment to stimulate higher-order thinking and enhance students’ professional and sustainable development.
Highlights
Educators in higher education were compelled to rethink the value of online learning with regards to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
Regardless of the educators’ pedagogy approach, the focus remained on students that must complete an online research project in group format where ICT were used to achieve the set goals and timelines, and consumer related problems were solved [60]
Together with students’ experiences, this paper suggested a basic 10step approach for students and educators to complete an online food research project during a global pandemic
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The COVID-19 pandemic [1] has dramatically stirred the university education system, which transitioned teaching and learning to an online approach and resulted in the cancellation of contact sessions and visits to the industry [2,3]. The pandemic forced universities across the world to close campuses. Educators in higher education were compelled to rethink the value of online learning with regards to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The surfacing of software technologies endows the usage of multimedia programs and packages [4] for educators and provides access to the learning content conveniently at any time and place [5]
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