Heat and Flow in times of Corona

Abstract

This paper describes the set-up of the course Heat and Flow in the second year of the bachelor program in Mechanical Engineering of Eindhoven University of Technology. Before the corona pandemic and its associated lockdown, several measures have been taken to increase the success rate of this course, which used to be very low. In particular next to the normal course elements of lectures, instruction and exercise sessions, a complete online version of the course has been developed. In this way students with different learning styles are served. In order to stimulate students to spend sufficient time on the course well before the exam, a system of compulsory progress tests has been developed. A good result for each test is a requirement to pass the exam of the course. The number of attempts for each test is unlimited within a certain time frame. The combination of both developments significantly improved the success rate of the course. During the corona pandemic, the same system was maintained by offering all elements of the course in a synchronous way, but online. The written exam was replaced by an online proctored exam. Students were satisfied by this way of teaching, but the participation in the exercise sessions was very low. This can be improved by organizing them in small groups, each with a personal tutor.