(277h) Strategies for Hands-on Activities in Undergraduate Engineering Curriculum in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic

With the COVID-19 induced abrupt transition to online learning in undergraduate curriculum at West Virginia University in Spring 2020, new adaptations and delivery of core classes and hands-on laboratory courses in biomedical engineering had to be envisioned. This presentation will highlight both the challenges and the success of a pandemic-induced remote delivery of what are typically hands-on laboratory concepts and principles, Moreover, the presentation will emphasize the assessment of this transition on both educational outcomes and student successes. Specific cases will be related to three core courses, namely “Introduction to Biomedical Engineering”, “Biomedical Engineering Laboratories” and “Human Physiology Laboratory”. Discussions on the impact of synchronous lectures and recorded video demonstrations, inclusion of office hours and discussions boards in real-time or chat feature implementation will provide concrete examples of both students’ integration as well as student feedback. Analysis of student performance with concepts evaluation as well as challenges associated with both the delivery and time management will also be included to help highlight how effective in terms of student learning outcomes, engagement and immersion the online delivery was. Based on our outcomes and on the summarized analysis of student surveys, we demonstrated that effective techniques could be developed and adapted to enhance student experience and create a more engaging and effective learning environment even in a virtual format. Further, we demonstrate how hands on activities integrated in the curriculum not only leads to better learning but further, how the challenges and future prospects for hands-on activities implementation could be used as a pipeline for dissemination of engineering related concepts and techniques to high school students to thus provide concrete examples of real-world integration and applications while allowing exposure to STEM disciplines.