Engineering Education in a New Era: A Case Study in Saudi Arabia

COVID-19 Pandemic had impacted educational systems worldwide demanding major reforms to teaching strategies. Educators were forced to quickly adapt to remote learning and online teaching methods. This shift has highlighted the need for flexible and adaptable teaching strategies that can be implemented in traditional and virtual classrooms. Moreover, grasping attention of new generations requires more efforts in delivering knowledge and skills. With the rise of technology and social media, younger generations have become accustomed to receiving information in a fast-paced and visually engaging manner. This necessitates that educators implement ways to make learning more interactive, engaging, and relevant to students' lives. Experiential learning is a type of learning that involves hands-on experiences and active participation in the learning process taking many forms, such as internships, field trips, simulations, augmented reality and role-playing activities. AR/VR technology is recently playing a role in different educational activities. This study examines achievement levels and feedback reports of architectural and civil engineering students upon applying different experiential learning techniques. Students from these two main engineering disciplines worked together in a multidisciplinary project framework. Augmented reality activities were implemented using EON AR/VR Reality platform to create an engaging learning environment. The study is conducted by employing surveys to gauge students’ perception. Positive feedback was reported in addition to enhancement of understanding of topics.