Chapter 1 – My experience of practical engineering labs as a first-year undergra
Chapter 1 – My experience of practical engineering labs as a first-year undergraduate during the pandemic
Thanassis Frank
Context
This case study is a reflective narrative of my experience as a first-year undergraduate engineering student at a UK higher education institution and my learning experience of practicals during the pandemic. I make reference to three specific teaching and learning approaches used for practicals on my course. I illustrate how these worked and how the future of online practicals could look from a student’s perspective, based on my experience.
Teaching approaches that enabled hands-on engagement in practicals
I started studying in the academic year 2020-2021 during the pandemic and am now, at the time of writing, in year 2. I was looking forward to going to university after completing my A levels and am grateful that universities kept their doors open for students despite the world being in lockdown during the pandemic. My first-year experience was atypical, mostly spent studying remotely from college accommodation and from home for the majority of the academic year. However, I was not on my own. I felt supported by my supervisors and pastoral tutor. I also met some of my peers who were studying engineering in the same college and some peers on other courses with whom I was in the same household (five in total). From the very beginning, I also had a lab partner with whom I collaborated regularly. Palmer (2007, p. 11) states: ‘Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness. They are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves.’ Palmer’s (ibid.) ideas resonate with my own experiences, as I felt supported but was also given the freedom to explore and experiment.
Labs are an integral part of the engineering course as they give vital hands-on experience and provide opportunities to experiment for real with the concepts and ideas taught in lectures. The UK’s Engineering Council (2014, p. 17) notes that engineering programmes should enable students to develop practical engineering skills and create opportunities ‘to apply relevant practical and laboratory skills.’ I will detail three different examples of how I experienced the labs organised by the Engineering Department during my first year and my related experience.
Electronics Lab
In a more typical first year of the course, I understand that the electronics lab would be carried out through several different visits to the facilities within the Engineering Department. Since this was problematic due to social distancing rules, each student on the course was provided with a kit of the electrical components and oscilloscope needed to complete the set of tasks remotely. This arrangement gave us lots of flexibility in when and where we could tackle the tasks set and helped us to develop our time-management skills.
Groups of tasks were assigned every couple of weeks or s