Online education of engineering students: Educational platforms and their influence on the level of academic performance

The World Health Organization announced the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to considerable disruption of the global education system and required an early adaptation of the educational process. In addition to the resumption of the educational process, it was necessary to preserve the academic performance of students of higher educational institutions, including engineering ones. This study aims to develop a curriculum for engineering students to increase their level of success. Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (Ukraine) hosted the study. The sample consisted of 354 fourth-year students of the Engineering and Chemistry Faculty: 131 “Applied Mechanics”, 133 “Industrial Engineering”, and 151 “Automation and Computer-Integrated Technologies”. The sample included students of the Faculty of Computer Science and Computer Engineering: 121 “Software Engineering”, and 126 “Information Systems and Technologies” – 154 students from the 1st year and 60 students from the 2nd year. The study was conducted during 2019–2020. The data includes grades for in-line classes and final test scores. The result of the research has shown that modern digital tools such as Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Quizlet, YouTube, Skype, and Zoom, among others, have provided a highly effective educational process. The results of the educational process are as follows: 63 + 23 + 10 students received “Excellent/Perfect” (A) in 2019, 65 + 44 + 8 in 2020; 146 + 64 + 20 and 159 + 81 + 18 received “Good (B, C)”, respectively; 135 + 64 + 30 and 120 + 27 + 31 “Satisfactory” (D, E), respectively; – 10 + 3 + 0 and 10 + 2 + 3 “Unsatisfactory” (F), respectively. There was a tendency to increase the average score. The researchers found that the learning models were different before (offline) and during (online) the COVID-19 epidemic. However, the academic results of students were not different. The authors can conclude that e-learning (distance, online) is possible when training engineering students. The introduction of a new, jointly developed author’s course “Technology of mechanical engineering in Medicine and Pharmacy” will also allow future engineers to be more competitive in the labor market.