Supporting students in a changing educational climate: A systems engineering case study

Whilst the coronavirus pandemic has posed andragogical and pedagogical challenges to educational establishments in how they restructure courses to permit continued delivery in an online world, it has also caused significant disruption to students, not least in terms of how they have maintained their ability to continue to study and learn. A significant element in this is how student learning preferences such as experiential/practical or traditional lecture-based study have been served or disrupted by the revised delivery mechanism(s). This is particularly the case where the subject matter is management or engineering-related, and requires a great deal of interaction and collaborative multi-stakeholder work. Where the course is being taught at level seven, and therefore requires self-directed learning, this is even more the case. This paper considers those student learning preferences in this light, and studies the extent to which teaching andragogy has been modified to utilise activities which safeguard learning styles and facilitate continued effective learning. To do this, different learning styles and preferences are analysed, and a study is made of how these were satisfied in pre-pandemic education, using a Systems Engineering MSc course as a case study. Practice during the coronavirus pandemic is then considered to gauge how effective changes to course delivery made necessary by the situation were in supporting learners during this period and facilitating their further study and progression toward their desired qualification. Successes and failures are described, and conclusions are reached on how learning preferences can be better supported andragogically on an ongoing basis.