Effective Teaching and Examination Strategies for Undergraduate Learning During COVID-19 School Restrictions

Marcus L George

doi:10.1177/0047239520934017

Abstract

On Friday, March 13, 2020, all school teaching in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies was suspended until further notice because of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. This immediately jeopardized the completion of course content at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus. This article presents effective teaching and examination strategies that can be utilized in teaching undergraduates during COVID-19 school restrictions. The introductory digital electronics course of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of the West Indies will be utilized to demonstrate the merits of these strategies. The research will focus on demonstrating that the teaching methodologies utilized avoided the student performance from degrading below what has been experienced in the past 5 academic years. Student feedback on the methodology utilized is also incorporated in this article to highlight key benefits gained by students.

Highlights

On Friday, March 13, 2020, all school teaching in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies was suspended until further notice because of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic
Every academic year introductory courses are presented to Level 1 undergraduates at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St
In 2020, during the COVID-19, this was the methodology of teaching up until the Thursday, March 12, 2020 after which significant restrictions were placed on school teaching, and in-class delivery content was suspended indefinitely

Summary

Introduction

On Friday, March 13, 2020, all school teaching in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies was suspended until further notice because of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the variety of support resources offered by the lecturer of this introductory digital electronics course, a decision was made to locate the best available YouTube videos to support students learning of the last two topics that were not completed prior to the COVID-19 restrictions: Topic #5— Introduction to VHDL and Topic #6—Integrated Circuit Technology.

Results

Conclusion