Experience Sharing on Virtual COOP Training to Mechanical Engineering Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in December 2019, brought about a paradigm shift in the lifestyles of people worldwide due to the imposed constraints and lockdowns aimed at containing the spread of the infection. Each and every aspect of our lifestyle such as eating, travelling, socializing and learning was affected by this pandemic. Even the education sector was not untouched due to this pandemic, which caught the various stakeholders of this industry, such as the students, faculty and the administration, unaware. The education of a complete generation of kids and adults all over the world required some drastic adjustments so that their learning process would continue unaffected. Even though distance learning and online teaching have been around for a long time in the education sector, its importance was felt during this last year because of the role it played in the transfer of knowledge to students during the lockdowns wherein the students did not have access to physical classrooms and schools. Faculty, students and the administration developed new innovative ideas to adjust to this new change in teaching/learning styles and made the transition for all stakeholders a smooth and an enlightening experience. One such change had to be made in the delivery style of the cooperative program (COOP) for Mechanical engineering students at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). COOP is a 9-credit hour course that a student with a junior standing in the Applied Mechanical Engineering program (AME) has to take and pass. It requires the student to spend about seven months in the industry to learn applications in a practical environment and solve practical problems with the aid of the theoretical knowledge gained by him in the courses. However, due to the sudden lockdown in March 2020, most of the industries downed their shutters, which left these poor students halfway stranded through their COOP course. Hence, in order to cater to these students, the administration came up with the idea of substituting physical training with virtual training without compromising on the quality of the education. Comprehensive procedures on the various modules designed and delivered under this new virtual training program, the mode of instruction used, the assessment methods implemented and the experiences of the students are presented in this paper, which can be of tremendous help to various stakeholders.