[ENCI-l] Civil Fall 2021 Changes - message from the Department

[Students in Civil Engineering Undergraduate Program]

Dear Civil Engineering Undergraduate Students,

By now you should have received an email from the Engineering Student Centre asking you to re-register in your ENCI courses.  We wanted to provide a bit more background from the Department as to why we are instigating these changes and what it will mean for you.

Rationale:
As we try to navigate our most difficult term ever in Fall 2021, we are faced with providing an in-person experience for our students and faculty, as well as having remote options available for those that are not able to come to campus.  Our department looked at possibilities and options, and in the end determined we would go with a mixed delivery mode.  Our guiding principle behind the decisions we made were to maximize student learning and reduce the burden on our faculty members.

Where it will all happen: We are in the process of creating a new Civil Engineering design studio on the 3rd Floor of F block.  This room will have movable tables to enable lecture style learning and also hands-on tutorial style learning with group work.  All our ENCI 3rd and 4th year courses will take place in this new room.  The room will be equipped with technology to enable remote learning options (e.g. AV, live stream, etc) and we will have a dedicated room coordinator to manage the technology.  We will also have a person that coordinates assessments etc. across the 3rd and 4th years.  The exciting part of this new space is less moving around campus and a dedicate spot for you to interact with your fellow students – we really hope to bring back “working together” in a positive and constructive way – something so important to your engineering experience.

The Civil design room will be available to students after classes, such that you may continue to work with your peers on course materials.  We will also have ENF 325 available to all Civil Undergraduate students as an alternative space to go.  Finally, we have 3 small rooms in our new ENE 323 design studio (house ~6 people) which you will be able to book for group work or perhaps meetings with your ENCI 570 advisor.

What your learning will look like:
Your learning will be a blend of in person activities and remote learning.
If you are in 3rd year, you will be in the Civil design room for in person learning on Tuesdays & Thursday and will have in person laboratories on Wednesdays.  On Mondays and Fridays, you have dedicated space in your timetable for remote learning (i.e. synchronous zoom lectures or asynchronous learning).
If you are in 4th year, you will be in the Civil design room for in person learning on Mondays and Wednesdays and will have in person laboratories on Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you will have dedicated space in your timetable for remote learning (i.e. synchronous zoom lectures or asynchronous learning).

Each course has a block of in person time, during which you may expect things like an overview lecture, then maybe solving tutorial problems or working on assignments for hands on active learning – with both the instructor and TAs in the room for guidance and assistance.  This is what the student centre is meaning by “team active learning”.

Timetable:
We have designed the timetable to account for all the minor courses, thus we do not anticipate any conflicts there.  With the remote sessions, should you be “in between” 3rd and 4th year, we anticipate this can also be accommodated as your in person learning components will be on different days.  However, I am sure there will still be some course conflicts that arise.  Should that be the case, please reach out to the student centre and we will figure out the best solution for you.

Fully remote sections:
As mentioned in the email from the Student Centre, we will be running “fully remote” sections for each course.  This option is to ensure our students that are not able to make it to Calgary, have concerns surrounding covid (for either themselves or their family), or have serious timetable conflicts have the ability to progress in their degree.  If you need this option, please reach out to the student centre as registration in this section will require consent of the department.

Looking forward to Winter:
I am sure you are all wondering what Winter 2022 term will look like.  We anticipate keeping with the active learning style for our 3rd year program.  This means, expect your courses to be fully in person and in the new Civil design studio.  Each week, you will have a grouping of your lecture and tutorial in which the active learning component will occur to complement the remaining lectures and laboratories in the course.  The timetable shifts to accommodate this are very small (moving one tutorial and 2 lab sections) and will be communicated to everyone shortly.  For our 4th year students, your current timetable will remain and expect to be fully in person as well.  We will make more use of our ENE 323 design studio as we anticipate increased activity in your ENCI 570 projects.

Last comments:
I recognize re-registering in your classes is “not convenient”, however please be assured that a spot will be available to you in every ENCI course.  Should you experience difficulties, please connect with the student centre.

I am very excited about returning to in person learning and the new timetable that really enables our faculty to integrate what you are learning in the lecture material into hands on problem solving.  I am also very excited about bring our groups of students together in a way that really facilitates interaction – both amongst the students and between the students and the instructors.
If you have any questions or concerns, your first point of contact should be the Engineering Student Centre engginfo at ucalgary.ca<mailto:engginfo at ucalgary.ca>  where they can assist with all things related to timetables, course conflicts, etc.  If you have more general concerns or feedback, please feel free to reach out to me directly or via your CEUS executive.

I am very much looking forward to the return of all the students to campus and regaining the energy and vibrancy of the department and university.

With best regards,

Jocelyn Hayley

Jocelyn L. Hayley, PhD, PEng
Professor & Head, Civil Engineering
Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary
JHayley at ucalgary.ca<mailto:JHayley at ucalgary.ca>
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