Lessons Learned From Pandemic-Driven Remote Learning and Sustaining Best Practices in Turbomachinery Laboratory Experiences

Abstract As online educational experiences have become more common for students to engage with while earning an engineering degree, instructors must become more attuned to best practices in digital pedagogies for all courses, including those with heavy laboratory components. Despite potential resistance among faculty to the idea that a laboratory course does not require an in-person experience, pandemic-driven remote learning serves as an intrinsic data point in how, under dire circumstances, laboratory courses could be offered through a digital medium. This paper describes a collaborative autoethnography of four mechanical and aerospace engineering instructors regarding lessons learned while teaching laboratory courses online during the COVID-19 pandemic. To bolster the quality of the research design, an engineering education researcher facilitated the collaborative autoethnography and co-constructed the individual instructor narratives to elicit best practices in online pedagogy for turbomachinery educators.