Student Experience of Flexible Engineering Education: A Case Study at Two Foreign Universities in the Far East

Abstract

This paper presents a flexible online learning approach for engineering education. The approach was developed during the pandemic in 2020, and it was extended when the education disruption happened. To determine the efficacy of this online approach in British education in the far east, a case study was conducted on engineering students at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, and the University of Glasgow, Singapore. The primary research question is how students perceive the effectiveness of online learning tools in enhancing their synchronous learning during a sudden transition from physical to online classes. Using Microsoft and Google forms, survey results were collected from junior and senior engineering students enrolled in different programs of study at the two universities. The response rate is approximately 70%. The survey revealed that students utilized technology effectively and quickly adapted to online learning. During their online learning journey for British engineering education, students found using the most up-to-date online teaching tools to be very comfortable. The findings of this study could inform future pedagogical practices for educational disruption.