Abstract:

Methods of numerical mathematics and statistics are often taken advantage of when solving problems in technical field. Therefore, course Numerical methods and Statistics (NMS) is important for students of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Žilina. This course is taught in the fourth semester of the Bc study. The course consists of two hours of lectures and two hours of exercises per week with exercises being taught in computer class using computational software Matlab. It is possible because University of Žilina has TAH licence for Matlab and Simulink available. Such type of licence allows students to use the software on various devices (computer, mobile phone, online) at school as well as at home via their student accounts.

Since 2020, the ever-changing COVID 19 pandemic situation has brought many challenges to teachers and students, and in this paper, we would like to share our experiences with teaching the NMS course. Because of the break out of COVID 19 pandemic two years ago, the form of education needed to undergo immediate transformation from face-to-face to remote learning. It was necessary to adapt the study materials that would have been more suitable for individual study at home. This adaptation was accompanied with creation of new teaching texts. There were also recorded videos for better explanation and for showing systematically the procedures of solving problems. All of these materials have been accessible via university e-learning system.

In the last academic year 2020/2021, the NMS course took place online for the entire semester. At that time, 180 students were enrolled in the course, and only two students did not complete the course. 178 students successfully completed the course, 25 with an A grade, 24 students with a B grade, 32 students with a C grade, 52 students with a D grade, and 45 students with an E grade. In the paper, we also compare the statistics of the students’ assessments achieved over the past five years, i.e. from before the pandemic and during the pandemic.

Keywords:

Numerical methods, statistics, COVID 19 pandemic, new teaching methods, virtual teaching, online learning.