2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted rapid changes to higher education. Most institutions rapidly shifted to remote learning, which caused significant disruptions to teaching and learning. Though a significant amount of scholarship has been dedicated to understanding the impact of the pandemic on classroom experiences, there is a need to investigate the impact of the pandemic on students’ readiness for the workplace. In order to ensure graduates are prepared for the challenges and responsibilities of the workplace, this paper focuses on the anticipated impact of COVID-19 on this critical transition. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to understand how students whose education was disrupted by the pandemic perceived and described their preparedness for the workplace. We address the following research question: How did mechanical engineering students perceive their preparedness for work during the first year of the pandemic? This study takes a constructivist approach to research, aiming to find consensus among students’ constructions of preparedness.

This paper draws from data collected for a larger, comparative case study and conducts an exploratory qualitative analysis in order to answer the research question. Data were collected from mechanical engineering students who were taking second and third year courses during March 2020. Participants were recruited from two large, comprehensive universities – one in the United States and one in South Africa – and were interviewed between September and November 2020 about their experiences taking courses during the pandemic. This paper looks specifically at participants’ responses to the questions: How prepared do you feel for what you want to do next? Did these online courses impact how prepared you feel? We draw on thematic analysis in order to analyze student responses and answer the research question. This paper will present results of this analysis in order to describe students’ perceptions of the impact of the pandemic on their preparedness and to inform and motivate more in-depth future work.