ERIC Number: EJ1319536
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Dec
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Chemical Engineering Teaching in COVID-19 Times: Successfully Adapting a Capstone Design Course to a Remote Format
Khouri, Nadia G.; Fontana, Michelli; Dias, Igor L. R.; Maciel, Maria R. W.; Maciel Filho, Rubens; Mariano, Adriano P.
Journal of Chemical Education, v98 n12 p3794-3803 Dec 2021
The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic required educational institutions to adapt face-to-face to remote teaching. This study reports the experience in the first semester of 2020 for a Chemical Engineering Capstone Design Course at the University of Campinas in Brazil. In this course, senior year students develop a group project, in which they simulate a chemical plant and evaluate its technoeconomic feasibility. In 2020, the groups were proposed to design a process to replace diesel fuel from the bus fleet in Campinas city with renewable fuel DME. Because of the pandemic, several adaptations were needed: the theoretical classes became asynchronous, group meetings were online, a commercial simulator was replaced by an open access one, and the schedule was extended by 2 weeks. Despite that, the students had a great performance, comparable to face-to-face. To assess student satisfaction, a questionnaire was used. The course met the expectations of most of the students who also recommended keeping it in the remote format or merging it with face-to-face teaching. Therefore, these changes made it possible to apply new teaching dynamics and tools that could be used in the future to improve the course quality.
Descriptors: Chemical Engineering, Fuels, Student Attitudes, Pandemics, COVID-19, Foreign Countries, Capstone Experiences, Undergraduate Students, Student Projects, Groups, Design, Asynchronous Communication, Distance Education, Educational Change, Teaching Methods, Educational Improvement, Educational Quality
Division of Chemical Education, Inc. and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Brazil
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A