Effective Teaching and Examination Strategies For Undergraduate
Effective Teaching and Examination Strategies For Undergraduate
Effective Teaching and Examination Strategies For Undergraduate
COVID-19 School
Restrictions
Marcus L. George
Abstract
On Friday, March 13, 2020, all school teaching in the Republic of Trinidad and
Tobago, West Indies was suspended until further notice because of the novel coro-
navirus COVID-19 pandemic. This immediately jeopardized the completion of
course content at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus. This
article presents effective teaching and examination strategies that can be utilized in
teaching undergraduates during COVID-19 school restrictions. The introductory
digital electronics course of the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering at the University of the West Indies will be utilized to demonstrate
the merits of these strategies. The research will focus on demonstrating that the
teaching methodologies utilized avoided the student performance from degrading
below what has been experienced in the past 5 academic years. Student feedback on
the methodology utilized is also incorporated in this article to highlight key benefits
gained by students.
Keywords
novel coronavirus, COVID-19, teaching during COVID-19, teaching during pandem-
ics, teaching undergraduates, undergraduate education, online education
compared with previous years when programmable logic boards were not used.
This methodology provides a practical approach to teaching, and it presents
opportunities for other disciplines. Programmable logic tool kits were utilized
for digital electronics. For other disciplines such as mathematics, physics, biol-
ogy, or even finance, tool kits appropriate for practical teaching of those subject
areas can be incorporated into the curriculum to enhance student learning. For
online learning, students must have access to these resources at home.
Zhao and Okamoto (2009) presented an adaptive framework aimed at engag-
ing students in collaborative discussion of course material in ubiquitous envi-
ronments. The methodology promoted student use of mobile technology to
conduct email-based discussion of course material at any time during the teach-
ing period. Zhao and Okamoto (2009) claimed that the proposed adaptive
framework improved the learning experience of the students and increased stu-
dent performance in the area of study. This methodology presents opportunities
for lecturing of most disciplines, even during pandemics. Use of mobile tech-
nology by college students is more popular today than in the past; hence, there is
merit in the use of ubiquitous environments to support teaching.
Joseph et al. (2013) presented the utilization of case method and role-play in
teaching the topic of finite state machines (FSMs) to undergraduates. Joseph
et al. (2013) indicated that the case method is normally used as a very important
pedagogical tool in academia, and its use is intended for the enhancement and
development of the general conclusions of the research being done. Joseph et al.
(2013) indicated that role-play is less technologically elaborate and is utilized for
the learning interpersonal skills. Joseph et al. (2013) claimed students displayed
greater interest in the use of the case method and role-play techniques for learn-
ing of course topics and that there was an increase in the level of collaboration
and active participation by students in the learning process. Finally, Joseph et al.
(2013) claimed that student performance was better when case method and role-
play techniques were utilized compared with when they were not utilized. This
methodology can benefit the teaching of most disciplines simply because it
increases interaction between students in the learning process without a
demand on the use of discipline-specific resources. This is especially beneficial
to courses containing group projects.
Prasad et al. (2014) conducted a study of the impact of software simulators in
the teaching of digital logic design. The tools Logic Gate Simulator, Digisim,
TinyCAD, and Logisim were utilized in this study. Prasad et al. (2014) claimed
that the use of logic simulators such as Logic Gate Simulator, Digisim,
TinyCAD, and Logisim resulted in the number of students scoring above
45% in the course increasing from 82% in the previous year to 96% in the
present year. This methodology provides opportunities for expanding on the
teaching of topics in any discipline such as engineering, mathematics, finance, or
even geography, as long as the appropriate simulators are made available. The
4 Journal of Educational Technology Systems 0(0)
use of simulators can also support self-study by students at home as long as the
software is stand-alone.
Mont~ananaa et al. (2015) discussed the use of participative learning in teach-
ing of very high speed integrated circuit hardware description language
(VHDL). This methodology gave the students the freedom to think and explore
and hence allowing them the opportunity to discover better methods of learning
the topic. At the end of the study, students indicated that the appropriate plan-
ning, distribution, and clear definition of the specifications of project tasks can
eliminate the possibility of conflicts in the design and implementation stages of
projects. Mont~ ananaa et al. (2015) also indicated that students appreciated the
need for teamwork in managing large projects when this methodology was uti-
lized. The strength of the methodology presented by Mont~ananaa et al. (2015) is
the freedom to participate in learning without restrictions. Students are intro-
duced to the topics, given objectives, and allowed the freedom to explore the
most appropriate methods of learning the topics. This can benefit the teaching
of most disciplines especially because the method utilizes no discipline-specific
resources.
Roy et al. (2015) presented the use of web-based virtual laboratory called
COLDVL in the teaching of the topic of computer organization and logic
design. COLDVL contains a hierarchical module-level logic tool that contains
a logic simulator component and also a large number of technical features. The
system also consists a graphical user interface that can be used in the construc-
tion and simulation of logic circuits. Roy et al. (2015) was unable to indicate
whether the use of COLDVL enhanced student learning of the topic. Like
Prasad et al. (2014), this methodology provides opportunities for expanding
on the teaching of topics in any discipline as long as the appropriate software
is made available to students. This methodology will promote self-study by
students, and consultation opportunities must be available to guarantee student
progress.
George (2018) presented the exploration of a classroom-based methodology
for teaching of digital logic to engineering undergraduates at the UWI,
St. Augustine campus. In the classroom-based methodology, all lab work was
conducted inside the classroom rather than the laboratory. To assess the merits
of students under the new approach, the performance of students when this
classroom-based teaching methodology was utilized was compared with that
of the previous lab-based teaching methodology. George (2018) indicated that
students’ performance was better in all quizzes and design project when this
classroom-based teaching methodology was utilized when compared with the
previous teaching methodology. Students also endorsed the use of this
classroom-based methodology in teaching digital logic design. The merit of
this teaching methodology is that all laboratory work was conducted in a class-
room setting and not a laboratory, hence allowing the lecturer the opportunity
to incorporate practical work while presenting course content. If a course is to
George 5
this is an introductory course in digital logic analysis and design, the course also
served to expose students to practical tools and devices used in the development
of digital circuits such as the use of VHDL and Xilinx ISE. On completion of the
course, students must be capable of constructing, analyzing, verifying, and trou-
bleshooting digital circuits using appropriate techniques and test equipment.
The previous teaching methodology for the undergraduate introductory dig-
ital electronics (ECNG1014) was utilized over a 12-year period from academic
year 2007/2008 to year 2019/2020. Because this was an introductory course in
digital electronics, students always entered the course with little or no experience
in digital logic design. The learning outcomes of the course are given in Table 1.
The course was intended for delivery by 3 contact hours of lectures per week
for 12 weeks (total of 36 contact hours). The course was assessed via two quiz-
zes, one midterm exam and one final exam as shown in Table 2. The 36 hours of
contact with students included 27 hours of class lectures, 5.5 hours allocated to
delivering Lab #3 using of classroom-based lab delivery using the approach
entailed in (George, 2018), one 90-minute slot allocated to midterm exam,
and two 60-minute slots allocated to Quiz #1 and Quiz #2. Students were
required to attempt Labs #1 and #2 by themselves using a detailed laboratory
manual, a Nexys3 tool kit available from the laboratory facility and Digilent
(2016). Students were expected to progress in these two labs without issue, but if
any issues were faced, the course lecturer was available to assist using the
approach of George (2020).
The Labs 1 to 3 did not contribute to the course mark but instead served the
purpose of informing and preparing students for the quizzes that carried marks,
and most important, these labs contributed to the students’ practical awareness
of topics in the course.
students who utilized it. This was especially useful in students learning the last
two topics of the course that were not delivered before the COVID-19 restric-
tions: Topic #5—Introduction to VHDL and Topic #6—Integrated Circuit
Technology.
Figure 2. User Interface of the Port-Mapping Tool for Digital Logic Design.
and attempted to use the obvious online methods to deliver course material to
students. Some invested time in creating online videos for upload, while some
invested their time in the use of software such as Zoom and Blackboard
Collaborate. Although these approaches provided a convenient alternative to
the in-class lectures, they introduced several drawbacks not experienced in
the in-class lecture approach as indicated in Kebritchi et al. (2017) and NBC
News(2020).
Because of the variety of support resources offered by the lecturer of this
introductory digital electronics course, a decision was made to locate the best
available YouTube videos to support students learning of the last two topics
that were not completed prior to the COVID-19 restrictions: Topic #5—
Introduction to VHDL and Topic #6—Integrated Circuit Technology. The
URL of these videos were posted on the MyElearning course page for students
to click and view. This activity avoided the course lecturer wasting crucial time
in creating videos of holding online class sessions which may be plagued with
issues of online teaching indicated in Kebritchi et al. (2017) and NBC News
(2020). The lecturer was hence able to maximize time invested in email-based
consultations with students.
f. Email-based Consultation
As indicated in George (2020), this consultation type involved the course lec-
turer presenting students with a tutorial or supplementary with topics associated
with the course topics. Students were required to attempt questions on their own
George 11
time in the comfort of their home, scan their attempts, and email them to the
course lecturer for review and correction. The course lecturer then presented the
students with a summary of corrections to their attempts via an email reply.
Students who had started working on questions but unable to finish were also
required to scan their attempts and email the lecturer for his review. The lecturer
would then email the students on mistakes they made and the required correc-
tions, after which they were given another opportunity to attempt the questions
again and return for a second email consultation with the lecturer.
g. Supplementary Sheets
Students were presented with supplementary worksheets at the beginning of the
semester; however, the need for this was not apparent until there were no longer
any in-class lectures because of COVID-19 teaching restrictions. When there
were no restrictions, students could have completed the supplementary sheet
for each topic, meet with course lecturer, and have office consultation as indi-
cated in George (2020). However, because face-to-face meetings were no longer
possible, students were able to use email-based consultation (George, 2020) as
indicated in (f) described earlier. Students were required in this case to attempt
supplementary sheets, scan their solutions, and submit via email for the lec-
turer’s review. The lecturer then reviewed the solutions and then set up an
email-based consultation with the students to discuss any mistake made and
entertain any questions.
made (see Figure 3). The provision of lecturer comments (feedback) was
expected to add value to the student learning experience during the mock exam.
These documents were uploaded to the MyElearning course page and made
available to all students. These documents had the following for each question:
• Quiz Questions
• Student Response/Answers
• Student Grade
• Lecturer Comments/Feedback
• VHDL Entities
• VHDL Architectures
• VHDL Testbenches
• VHDL Port Mapping (Component Instantiation)
To ensure that this quiz could have been accommodated after COVID-19
teaching restrictions, the course lecturer moved the quiz from the classroom to
the MyElearning course page. This quiz was conducted similar to the Online
Mock Quizzes discussed in the previous section of this article.
Twenty different structured essay-type questions (5 for each area of study)
were created and placed in a question bank. On the day of the quiz, four of these
questions were randomly selected (one for each area of study) and assigned to
each student. Students were given 60 minutes to attempt all four questions. The
fact that students were assigned four randomly selected questions served to
minimizing the possibility of collusion between students.
To further minimize the possibility of collusion, the questions in the quiz were
also shuffled. To ensure that issues related to availability of internet and reli-
ability of internet source did not affect students’ progress in the quiz, the quiz
was run for 24 hours, and students were allowed 60 minutes to attempt the quiz.
Because the questions for this quiz were structured essay-type questions,
the quiz attempts unfortunately could only be manually graded on the
MyElearning platform. Figures 5 and 6 show some of the structured essay-
type questions administered to students in this quiz.
The final exam was the last assessment affected by the COVID-19 teaching
restriction and was normally administered as a 3-hour written examination with
full supervision by paid invigilators and containing structured essay-type ques-
tions. The following are the topics that are normally examined:
At the time of production of this article, the university had not as yet made a
decision on how the final exam would be administered for all courses. The
progress of this article could not be delayed indefinitely for the outcome of
such decision so the lecturer decided to host a mock final exam of similar dif-
ficulty of the traditional final exams for the course, and it was mandatory all
students attempt the quiz as a means of preparing for the final exam. The mock
final exam was hosted on the MyElearning course page. This quiz was
16 Journal of Educational Technology Systems 0(0)
conducted similar to the Online Mock Quizzes discussed in the previous section of
this article.
The final exam normally contained four structured questions essay-type ques-
tions containing several subquestions. Because the mock final exam was to be
conducted online and to maximize student readability of exam questions while
at the same time minimizing the complication of marking such exam responses,
the online questions had to be arranged as stand-alone essay-type questions with
no subquestions. To minimize the possibility of students colluding and also most
important to allow the online exam to be conducted as similar as possible to the
traditional final exam, the students had to be administered the online exam at
the same time. Additional guidelines applied to the administration of this exam-
ination were as follows:
George 17
• All students attempt exam same time, and this time line must be announced at
least 2 weeks in advance.
• Shuffle questions to minimize possibility of collusion by students.
• Students must have NO opportunity to return to previously attempted ques-
tions, hence minimizing possibility of collusion by students.
18 Journal of Educational Technology Systems 0(0)
Students were required to attempt a mock final exam quiz containing seven
stand-alone questions with no subquestions, and they were required to attempt
this entire quiz in 2 hours, which was 1 hour less than previous years. Only one
attempt was allowed. Because the questions for this quiz were essay-type ques-
tions, the quiz attempts unfortunately could only be manually graded on the
MyElearning platform. Figures 7 and 8 show some of the structured essay-type
questions administered to students in this mock final exam quiz.
Tables 4 to 6 present the student performance for Quiz #1, Quiz #2, and the
final exam over a 5-year period. It is important to note that the results of the
mock final exam of academic year 2019/2020 were used in place of that of
the eventual final exam because the university had not made a decision on
how the final exams would have been conducted, and it was the author’s
belief that this mock final exam gave an excellent indication of how a final
exam for the course would be had it been conducted online using the strategies
outlined in this article.
According to the data given in Tables 4 to 6, it was realized that student
performance in Quiz #1 and Quiz #2 were consistent with (and in some instances
better than) that of their traditional counterparts of the previous academic
years, despite the presence of COVID-19 teaching restriction in academic year
2019/2020 resulting in alternative teaching strategies having to be applied to
prepare students for these examinations.
Student performance
7.0–8.0 26 37 32 38 42
6.0–6.9 22 22 18 20 22
5.0–6.9 21 17 13 11 9
4.0–5.9 7 1 3 4 3
0.0–3.9 2 0 1 0 0
Total 78 77 67 73 76
Student performance
11.0–12.0 21 28 23 26 32
10.0–10.9 17 20 18 21 22
9.0–9.9 19 18 13 14 15
8.0–8.9 9 7 8 6 4
7.0–7.9 5 3 3 4 2
6.0–6.9 3 1 1 0 0
0.0–5.9 4 0 1 2 1
Total 78 77 67 73 76
George 21
Student performance
50–60 24 28 11 9 31
40–49 35 29 22 13 23
30–39 12 15 19 34 16
20–29 3 3 6 11 4
0–19 4 2 9 6 2
Total 78 77 67 73 76
In the case if the final exam, Table 6 indicated that student performance in
the mock final exam of year 2019/2020 was better than that of written final
exams of the previous four academic years. This may have been because the
mock final exam was an online exam that students were attempting without
supervision, and hence students had access to reading materials to assist attempt
of the exam questions. On the other end, there is no evidence to suggest that
students would have performed worst if there was no possibility of accessing
reading material during the online quiz.
After 1 week of submission of the original version of this article, the UWI had
made a decision on how the final exam would have been administered to students;
however, the exam was not to be administered until late June 2020. Traditionally,
the final exam was administered as a 3-hour written examination with full super-
vision by paid invigilators and containing structured essay-type questions. As a
result of the COVID-19 school restrictions, the university made a decision to
administer the final exams as take-home final exams without supervision, where
students would be allowed 48 hours to prepare handwritten or typed solutions to
the questions of the exam paper, scan the solutions, and upload them on in appro-
priate sections of the MyElearning online platform. The student responses would
then be marked by the course examiner. The author of this article however
believed that the use of the mock final exam discussed earlier provided a more
appropriate avenue for verifying the effectiveness of the modified teaching meth-
odology presented in this article because it better emulated the traditional method
of administering the final exam, and students were least likely to benefit from
collaboration with other classmates, social media, or even internet search engines
for the duration of the mock final exam.
2020, students were fortunate to experience both traditional and modified teach-
ing approaches so an additional questionnaire was provided to them so they can
contrast both approaches.
According to the feedback questionnaires, students in all five academic years
indicated that the traditional teaching strategies benefitted them enormously in
understanding of course material, and they always welcomed the opportunity to
have face-to-face correspondence with the lecturer without use of devices. To
have an idea of students’ opinions of the modified teaching methodology that
was issued with consideration of COVID-19 school restrictions in Trinidad and
Tobago, the students of academic year 2019/2020 were asked to contrast their
experience under this new (modified) methodology in comparison with the tra-
ditional teaching methodology. Students indicated that the new strategies
allowed students to do self-study under the guidance of the course lecturer
and that this enabled them a level of convenience not allowed under the tradi-
tional teaching methodology.
Students also praised the abundance of learning resources under the new
teaching methodology including visual tutors and the new course textbook pre-
pared by the lecturer specifically for the course. Students also praised the use of
mock quizzes in the new methodology that allowed them the opportunity to trial
run the examination of material taught under online-exam conditions. The
immediate feedback given for mistakes made were very valuable for their learn-
ing experience. Students finally indicated that the support received via the new
teaching methodology eliminated their fears of failing the course because of the
interruption of teaching by the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the end of the review, students rated the Digital Logic Theory for
Engineers Classic Workbook, Digital Electronics Visual Tutor, Port-Mapping
Tool for Digital Logic Design, and Mock Quiz Feedback Documents as the
most helpful elements of the new/modified teaching methodology.
Conclusions
This article presented effective teaching and examination strategies that can be
utilized for undergraduate learning of courses during COVID-19 school restric-
tions. To demonstrate the use of these strategies the teaching and examination
of the introductory digital electronics course of the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, UWI, St. Augustine campus was utilized. The article
also served to demonstrate that the application of such teaching methodologies
to the introductory digital electronics course avoided the student performance
from degrading below what has been experienced in the past five academic years,
despite the presence of COVID-19 school restrictions.
Student performance in Quiz #1, Quiz #2, and the final examination quiz
were consistent with that of their traditional counterparts of the previous aca-
demic years, despite the presence of COVID-19 teaching restrictions, resulting in
George 23
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank the students of the introductory digital electronics course
of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of the West
Indies, St. Augustine for their excellent cooperation in this research work.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publica-
tion of this article.
ORCID iD
Marcus L. George https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7038-2089
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Author Biography
Marcus L. George received the BSc, MPhil, and PhD degrees in Electrical and
Computer Engineering from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine in
years 2008, 2012, and 2019, respectively. He is the author of several academic
books. His research interest includes the business administration, strategic plan-
ning and management, engineering education, formal specification, modeling
and verification, field programmable architectures, intelligent electronic instru-
mentation, and biomedical engineering.