Covid-19 and Online Learning Challenges in Engineering Education: A Case Study of the American University of Sharjah

Abstract

The teaching and learning context in today’s modern world have been highly affected by technology. The influence of technology has been steadily increasing with continuing fluctuations on the academic scene due to technological developments. In today’s COVID-19 related pandemic, the use of technology has tremendously increased and has become a crucial part of academia. While online learning and teaching have been part of academia for decades and many higher academic institutions offer online education, they are often seen as supplementing teaching rather than core. At the same time, research conducted on online learning and teaching during previous decades show that challenges have long existed, and that those challenges faced by online learning are not a product of this sudden migration to online amid Covid-19, but rather an amplified version of pre-existing challenges. As such, the sudden migration to an all-online mode of delivery has had major ramifications on both faculty and students. Such effects and influences need to be examined. This study therefore uses a mixed method approach to examine the challenges faced by engineering students and faculty at a renowned higher education institution in the UAE. The findings show that while faculty are more concerned about the pedagogical challenges facing them during the online delivery, students perceive the psychological challenges to be the biggest barrier to their online learning.