Student perceptions of emergency remote civil engineering pedagogy

Transitioning to online learning (OL) is more challenging for engineering education because hands-on course delivery requirements are compromised. Like most universities around the globe, the institution to which the authors are affiliated shifted to emergency remote teaching in spring 2020 because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The researchers queried undergraduate students enrolled in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department about their perceptions of OL during the pandemic and asked whether the students would attend online classes in the future. The students did not evince a clear inclination for either face-to-face (F2F) classes or OL (52%-48%) regardless of the proximity between their residence and the campus. The participating students were also almost equally divided irrespective of their gender when asked if OL was better than F2F learning. Moreover, the students registered a 50% positive response when asked whether they would enroll in optional online classes in the future. Most students who did not desire OL nevertheless enrolled in online classes in the summer session of 2020. However, student preference for OL tended to decline with the increase in the number of registered courses. Furthermore, overachieving and underachieving students favored F2F classes, and male students were more inclined to OL than female students. Other factors that may have influenced student predilections for OL during the COVID-19 lockdown include access to emotional support, information technology support, and reliable internet connection; the availability of an undisturbed space at home; and the nature and methodology of online examinations.