Abstract:

Laboratory subjects are an essential part of engineering education and are central to integrating theory and practice. The education in engineering is vocationally oriented. It shall educate reflective professionals who are qualified to take care of technically related tasks throughout society. The main goal is to educate engineers who combine theoretical and technical knowledge with practical skills and take conscious responsibility for the interaction between technology, environment, individual, and society. The education must maintain a high professional level and meet society's current and future requirements for engineers.

Before the pandemic, the situation with laboratory education was known and established. When the pandemic started, almost all students and staff met severe limitations related to the closure of universities. Nearly all teaching had to take place digitally. It caused different problems, especially for laboratory education, which requires access to equipment, facilities, and qualified staff. There were some solutions to solve this problem. One of these was to lend equipment to students to perform laboratory work at home. Information related to the implementation of the laboratory was provided by instructional videos. The follow-up from the teacher was digital. The success of this solution was associated with the number of students on campus. Large campuses need to have much more equipment than smaller campuses.

In this paper, we discuss challenges related to execution of laboratory work during the covid pandemic’s strict infection-control restrictions and investigate to what extent the students feel they acquired the practical skills that laboratory work is intended to provide. The discussions are based on a survey conducted among the students. The students were asked questions related to whether they felt include in the educational institution and how they were followed-up during the laboratory-work. The paper will present the survey results and draw some conclusions on how teachers and students can prepare to perform laboratories digitally and physically to deliver reasonable, pedagogical ways of learning.

Keywords:

Teaching engineering, laboratory work, digitization.