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Title: Development and Implementation of Experiment Centric Active Learning Experiments/Activities in Transportation During the Pandemic and Beyond
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many colleges and universities to remain on a completely online or remote educational learning for more than a year; however, due to distraction, lack of motivation or engagement, and other internal/external pandemic contributing factors, learners could not pay attention 100% to the learning process. Additionally, given that transportation classes are very hands-on, students could not do the experiment from home due to limited resources available, thereby hampering all three phases of learner interactions. The limitation of the implementation of physical, hands-on laboratory exercises during the pandemic further exacerbated students’ actualization of the critical Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) outcomes in transportation: An ability to develop and conduct experiments or test hypotheses, analyze and interpret data and use scientific judgment to draw conclusions. Subsequently, this paper highlights the development and implementation of experiment centric pedagogy (ECP) home-based active learning experiments in three transportation courses: Introduction to Transportation Systems, Traffic Engineering, and Highway Engineering during the pandemic. Quantitative and qualitative student success key constructs data was collected in conjunction with the execution of classroom observation protocols that measure active learning in these transportation courses. The results reveal a significant difference between the pre, and post- tests of key constructs associated with student success, such as motivation, critical thinking, curiosity, collaboration, and metacognition. The results of the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) show more active student engagement when ECP is implemented.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1915614
NSF-PAR ID:
10377736
Author(s) / Creator(s):
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Date Published:
Journal Name:
Transportation Research Board 2022 Annual Meeting
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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