Keeping a Learning Community and Academic Integrity Intact after a Mid-Term Shift to Online Learning in Chemical Engineering Design During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic public health measures caused a shift to fully online teaching and learning with minimal lead time two-thirds of the way through a 13 week term. Students and instructors pivoted from blended with face-to-face instruction to fully online learning over a weekend. Our team- and project-based chemical engineering design courses include final reports, final exams, and oral assessments that all required reformatting to support student achievement and assessment of learning outcomes in a fully online environment. The instructors had significant experience with blended learning and developing communities of practice in these courses, but the rapid pivot to fully online learning and other measures taken by the university in response to the pandemic presented unique challenges for students, instructors, and the external members of the community of practice. In this contribution, I reflect on how well we met the challenges of rebuilding our community of practice online and how we preserved both the quality of our students’ learning experience and academic achievement following a transition to remote meetings, remote exams, remote teaching, and remote teamwork.