Civil Engineering Student Performance Observation During COVID-19 Pandemic Period

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic shifted the learning method from conventional face-to-face to online. Such abrupt changes provide insufficient time for students to adapt and hence affect their academic performance. Situation seems to be critical towards engineering education, as it at most applicable to blended learning mode, with limited application of fully online mode. The objectives of this study are to compare students’ academic performance with different delivery methods and identify potential learning-related issues in civil engineering material subject during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Three batches of students in the academic year of 2019, 2020 and 2021, are the targeted population, with the delivery modes of conventional face-to-face mode, mixed mode and fully online mode respectively. All three batches of students were undergoing similar assessments of a fundamental subject, Civil Engineering Materials, in Curtin University Malaysia. The findings revealed that students with fully online mode were not performing well in their assessments, notably final examination. There seems to have a lack of peer assistance and non-adaptability in the online mode. Recommendations such as effective online model and collaborative activities have been included to cope for studies during the pandemic. As it is unpredictable for the evolvement of COVID-19 pandemic, this study suggests future research to look into ways of strengthening online teaching tools in engineering degree programmes.