Online and Remote Pedagogy: Technological Innovations in an Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Module

The COVID-19 lockdown adversely impacted the continuation of syllabi. Most pedagogical activities were halted as instructors lacked the knowledge, revised pedagogy, or resources to transition and continue these activities online and remotely. The study aims to outline procedures that can simulate contact lessons and assessments whilst minimizing student dishonesty and maximizing instructor mediation per Feuerstein's theory of mediated learning. Furthermore, the study aims to demonstrate the functionality of Blackboard in teaching and assessment activities. The study seeks to answer the question of what comprehensive strategies can be used to offer students an effective alternative to classroom lectures and assessments, in which student integrity is maintained, and instructor mediation is optimized? Blackboard was used as the learning management system in a second-year undergraduate chemical engineering module in 2020. Simulated lectures were created using the text-to-speech application. Discussion forums were created to allow students to address their queries and ask questions. Informal tutorial sessions were held over WhatsApp. Advanced adaptive releases ensured that students completed lectures per the outlined chronology. Tests were implemented in Blackboard using various measures to minimize student dishonesty. These measures included randomized question sets, and numerical variations in calculation questions. The “Invigilator” application was also piloted to maintain assessment integrity by recording audio and preventing communication during the tests. The results showed that students were highly satisfied with the adopted pedagogy and assessment practices in this study. The online pedagogy ensured that students effectively processed the module content with adequate mediation from the instructor and tutors. Based on these results, an empirical framework was formulated to adapt traditional contact teaching and assessment approaches to online and remote practices. Despite the end of the lockdown, online and remote pedagogical practices are still used as they save time and travel costs for students and instructors. This framework can be universally applied to optimize and streamline current strategies to ensure practical, effective, and honest assessments online and remotely.