The return to campus hallways and classrooms is an opportunity to reflect on and understand how students, particularly first-year students, experienced online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an open access paper, Jennifer Howcroft, Lecturer and Kate Mercer, Librarian and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering analyzed student course surveys to better understand how first-year engineering students felt about the transition to and experience of online learning.
![online learning](/systems-design-engineering/sites/default/files/uploads/images/covid-19-inside-buildings-20200821_0054.jpg)
The analysis suggests that the online learning experience could be improved by fostering communication and collaboration among students, integrating a growth mindset into course activities, and creating a strong learning partnership between the teaching team and students.
Jennifer Howcroft and Kate Mercer hope to continue this work of understanding student perceptions of online learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on upper-year engineering students.
“What if my Wi-Fi crashes during an exam?”: First-year engineering student perceptions of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic was recently published in the European Journal and Engineering Education.