Abstract:

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the entire world, and its impact has been felt in many areas, including the teaching profession. Many teachers were forced to change the traditional teaching-learning methodology during 2020, implementing a rapid shift in teaching to adopt other methodologies, which are necessary for a distance learning scenario. Once the academic year is over, it is advisable to analyse the impact of the methodologies adopted to check their effectiveness and to take measures to prepare teaching for the coming academic years, given that it may be necessary to return to the scenario of remote teaching.

This paper describes the teaching strategies adopted during lockdown (video tutorials and reinforcement of online communication and feedback) in 3 theoretical-practical subjects of the Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design and Product Development Engineering at Universitat Jaume I, and compares them with the methodologies followed in previous years. In order to quantify the impact of the measures adopted in a remote learning scenario, the paper compares the performance of the students in these subjects during this last year with the performance obtained in the 4 previous years, comparing the percentage of students who failed and the average mark obtained.

In order to establish a valid comparison between the results obtained in 2020 and those obtained in previous years, several variables were taken into account: the number of works completed in each year, the number of students enrolled each year, the average age of the students and the metrics used to assess the works. Thus, the number of works completed in all the courses compared was the same, therefore the outcomes were comparable; the number of students enrolled each year was very similar, as was their average age; and exactly the same metrics and criteria were used to assess the works in all the courses compared.

The results show that the number of students who failed in the first call in these subjects has been a little higher and that the average mark in the first call has been slightly lower than in previous years. However, the students' performance in the second call has been slightly better, both in the number of students who failed and in the average mark, reaching similar values to those of previous years. Therefore, it can be considered that the methodologies adopted during 2020 in the long term have been effective in conducting learning, and can be applied in a context defined by the impossibility of face-to-face teaching.

Keywords:

Covid-19, industrial design, remote learning.