To what extent are active learning strategies in lab-based engineering units implementable in online delivery?

CONTEXT The mode of class delivery in a university has a huge impact on how an educator delivers the class, and how students learn in the class. On-campus delivery supported by educational technologies has greatly helped academics to introduce active learning strategies to allow students to construct their knowledge using the campus infrastructure, with their peers and from their lecturers. With the change of scenario in 2020 due to the pandemic, everything else exists for a student except the on-campus facility! Will this unavailability of campus access affect the implementation of active learning strategies in lab-based engineering units delivered online? PURPOSE OR GOAL Strategies of the 'Focus Education Agenda' at Monash University are focused on integrating rich experiences for students “using the best in educational technologies and spaces”, through flexible and innovative teaching and learning. The promotion of academics to prioritize actions in the agenda puts forth a systematic challenge to the improvement of all aspects of curriculum delivery in an engineering unit supported by educational design processes. Due to the pandemic, the learning activities in the educational design were customized to support online delivery. This paper raises questions with suggestions to re-think the learning outcomes and active learning strategies for lab-based engineering units to be achievable online. APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS This paper describes the educational design process of a lab-based engineering unit and discusses the differences of what might have been achieved by students at different levels and domains of Bloom's taxonomy by implementing the learning activities in virtual space as opposed to physical space. Active learning approaches and strategies are incorporated in the educational design process in which all students in the class are encouraged to actively engage in the learning process. OUTCOMES While it is possible to implement some activities online (off-campus) without any changes on the educational design that are intended for physical classroom delivery, others needed adjustment to virtual learning space. This paper explains the virtual implementation of learning activities and assessments, and the lessons learnt through the implementation. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY While a campus infrastructure cannot be established online, learning activities meant for physical classrooms and engineering labs can be improvised to meet unit learning outcomes, industrial skill demands, and learner expectations. This paper provides recommendations for educational design approaches for the online delivery of lab-based engineering units.