IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2021 - 95

SD = 1.68] (Figure 8). This is not very surprising as governmental
and institutional restrictions had a strong
impact on the formats of the courses, especially with
respect to the presence of students on campus and hence
also on physical access to lab equipment (see also the section
" The Use of Equipment " ).
Much more interesting is the finding that the changes are
likely to be permanent [m(85) = 4.89, SD = 1.74] (Figure 9).
These two measures, i.e., the reporting of actual change and
the reporting that it will affect teaching in the future, are
highly correlated to each other [r(85) = 0.55, p < 0.001]. So,
instructors who noticed a change in their teaching approach
are likewise more likely to make that change permanent. In
addition, the more our participants reported that the change
to their teaching practices might be permanent, the more
likely they were to state that the overall effects of COVID-19
on teaching were positive [r(85) = 0.26, p = 0.02] and easier
to handle [r(85) = 0.31, p = 0.004].
Last but not least, a clear general impact of COVID-19 is a
substantial switch to online teaching for practical robotics
courses. Concretely, 80.2% of the participants reported a
switch to online teaching with hands-on elements.
Changes in the Course Formats
The Use of Equipment
A core goal of this study is to compare instructors' teaching
practices before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. An
important aspect in this context is the differences in how
various forms of equipment were used and which types of
student activities were central to the class (Figure 10 and
Table 1). In addition to the so-called classical forms of
hands-on education with robotics hardware and with simulation,
the survey covered the employment of video tutorials
illustrating the use of robotics hardware and the use of data
that were prerecorded with robotics lab equipment. For the
two classical forms of tools for hands-on teaching, i.e.,
robotics hardware and simulation, an explicit distinction
was made between their use in lab rooms on campus and
their use in the students' homes.
Note that this distinction matters in the context of
online education. For example, the use of simulation tools
by the students at home is well suited for asynchronous
online teaching, while its use in the lab on campus is limited
to in-presence teaching in class. Both cases also tend
to differ substantially in terms of technological and pedagogical
aspects, such as the way the tools are provided
(e.g., suited for installation on students' computers or preinstalled
on PCs in the classroom), the instructions and
guidelines, the tutoring, the flexibility of when to use the
simulations, and so on.
According to the survey results, the most important type
of equipment before COVID-19 was robotics hardware in
labs on campus (Figure 10 and Table 1). This was followed by
simulation in the lab and at home. The other components
(take-home hardware, video tutorials illustrating the use of
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
Maximum
Disagree
123456 7
Neutral
Maximum
Agree
Figure 7. The distribution of the ratings on whether an instructor
found teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic easy. On average,
the participants evaluated teaching as being more difficult.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
Maximum
Disagree
123456 7
Neutral
Maximum
Agree
Figure 8. The distribution of ratings on whether the pandemic
has changed the instructor's approach to teaching practical
robotics classes. Overall, the participants reported a clear
tendency toward changes.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
Maximum
Disagree
12345 67
Neutral
Maximum
Agree
Figure 9. The distribution of ratings on whether changes made
to the practical robotics classes for the COVID-19 pandemic
will affect the way the class is taught after the pandemic.
Predominantly, changes are expected to have lasting effects
beyond the pandemic.
DECEMBER 2021 * IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE *
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IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2021
