TRANSITIONING TO ONLINE TEACHING IN AN UNDERGRADUATE APPLIED ENGINEERING COURSE

The online teaching framework presented in this paper was developed for a third-year engineering design course at the University of Toronto, with more than 100 students located in 8 different time zones. The study was inspired by the pressing challenge faced by educators around the world in 2020 to fully transition to online teaching in a limited time, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Different facets of the course were restructured to enhance the learning experience of students, overcome the challenges associated with online instruction, and implement active learning techniques in the course whenever possible. This initiative included the development of interactive course notes and a course map, with links to videos, 3D models, asynchronous lectures, and short video explanations. Several online paltforms were used in the framework, which are discussed in detail. The proposed framework provided an alternative to achieve the desired teaching outcomes in an online teaching environment for an engineering design course which had always been taught in-person prior to the year 2020. Despite the inherent challenges of this transition to online teaching, this format allowed for active learning activities in the course, promoting learner-centered teaching, and strengthening the students’ collaborative skills. Elements of the framework and the methodology outlined in this paper could be useful for other engineering courses attempting an effective transition to online instruction.